What's on my fish tank glass?

[Oakey]

What are these tiny looking worm things on my aquarium glass? I can't match them to anything on Google. Should I be concerned, they look like the aquatic variant of a facehugger

[kev b]

Hydra?

[Oakey]

Thanks, looks like it.

[Wallace12R]

Deffinately Hydra, have you added any new plants recently?

[Boosted LS1]

More to the point are hydra bad for fish? I seem to recall that they are. Anybody?

[cerbfan]

Is that not those things from Avatavar? You've got aliens!

[Oakey]

Wallace12R said:

Deffinately Hydra, have you added any new plants recently?

Yeah I did, from my usual place. Should have been more cautious.



They're bad for very small fish, as in they'll poison them then eat them but these are about the size of a fleck of fibre glass so unless they grow bigger I'm not sure how much of a threat they are.

Apparently my Gourami should eat them but it remains to be seen.

[Wallace12R]

That's a bigger then, maybe worth having a little word with the shop just to make them aware. If you've got Gouramis hopefully they'll help out but I'd still look at other measures though. I'm pretty sure that some medications and water treatments can kill off Hydra, also heat, but I'm guessing you don't want to empty the tank of its inhabitants and your plants and turn your heater up for a couple of hours.

What other fish do you keep? How big is your tank? I'm just being nosey now lol

[Mattt]

I had them, they multiply quickly.

I got a snail treatment which also said sorted them, and it worked within 24hrs if I recall

[Oakey]

I was looking at a snail treatment today that also does Hydra (Getroflex?), is it safe with shrimp?

[Boosted LS1]

I love pearl gourami's.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Oakey said:

I was looking at a snail treatment today that also does Hydra (Getroflex?), is it safe with shrimp?

Be very, very careful using any treatment that kills invertebrates (like snails) if you've got shrimps. I would strongly advise that it's better to just live with the hydra than take the risk of wiping out your shrimp population. You should even beware of using fly spray in the same room - shrimps are very sensitive.

I had hydra for a while, but they just went away. I can't remember doing anything in particular.

[Oakey]

I just wiped them off the side of the glass where they were and did a big water change. They've not come back yet.

That Gastropex is supposedly safe with shrimp but I'm not that concerned by the hydra to try it. I might pick some up to treat new plants though before adding them to my tank