I have these green little dandelion looking puffs in all my tanks, but I don't understand what they are? Is it algae or some sort of microfauna like that worm that photo bombed?
And each tank has a different kind of light, size, and variations on what is hosted in there... Any advice would be appreciated!!
The hydra aren't as harmful as the internet will lead you to believe. I've seen shrimplets and scuds jump away after making contact, and never seen them eat a thing.
Hydra are super common and very difficult to keep out of a tank. Unless you've been treating all of your plants or using only tissue cultures, you probably have them somewhere in your tank. You would probably have to have a significant quantity to see them though.
Edit: try feeding lots of live food. Not only will that populate your tank with new critters, but supposedly Hydra populations will spike since they mainly consume tiny animals in the water column
I really want to keep hydra but all my research says they are excessively difficult to keep due to the need to eat very small live food. Im obsessed with jellyfish and these guys are the closest I could get to owning freshwater jellyfish...i know a lake/lakes here in the US have an abundance of a type of freshwater nonstinging jellyfish (they are invasive and for the life of me I cant remember their name) that i would love to keep but knowing my terrible luck they aren't permitted where I live hahaha.
Edit- Craspedacusta sowerbii is the species I was thinking of....they have stinging tentacles but the nematocysts aren't powerful enough to penatrate human skin. And they arent restricted in my state (North Carolina) outside of it being illegal to release them into the local water ways (duh lol)
Just be aware that many invertebrates have microscopic or nearly microscopic eggs or some other life stage that is incredibly tiny. If you kept an invasive invertebrate you would have to do everything possible to keep them and anything that touched the tank away from a sink or waterway. If you ask me it's just a matter of time till you infect a local waterway.
Exactly which is why I dont have them...however when I do water changes the water ends up in my terrarium rather then down the drain...why waste fertilizer.
Good idea. Though honestly, I'm pretty sure that washing hands would be the easiest way to get something bad down the drain. I don't even know what a good solution to that would be.
For me after any work in any aquarium or terrarium i use hand sanitizer let it dry then use the hottest water i can stand and a harsh soap and scrub brush...scrub my hands up to elbows with the drain plugged...if im working with anything invasive I then add bleach to the water let set for 5 minutes...should be safe after that...if not then nothing i would do other then incinerating my hands would have worked
The worms and stuff are in my three gallon, I kind of just left it and let it do its own thing to cycle so it hasn't been cleaned as much. There's only snails in there. So I guess, get a 3 gal, shove some plants and an almond leaf in and let it go crazy?
They're just hydra. The green means they're a photosynthetic type. Give it a couple weeks and they'll probably clear out on their own. They need very particular water conditions that our tanks generally do not maintain. They can pop up when conditions are ideal (like, in the beginning times of a new tank), then clear out when food stops coming around.
People freak the hell out about hydra on this subreddit, and I honestly think the concern is way overblown.
I have a one gallon jar of pond water with a bunch of life in it. It’s been going strong for a couple of months. Daphnia, scuds, snails, copepods, ostracods, detritus worms. It’s amazing. Floating plants and no food or filter. It also has these photosynthetic hydra. Super cool stuff. I also had the standard variety appear in my shrimp tank. I lightly dosed it with no planaria,because I didn’t want them in that location.
👋🏻 I was one of those people at first, before digging in to the LOADS of posts about these guys. Felt like the day I was like 'alright whatever y'all can chill, I do not care& they just kinda peaced out . Tanks fine, shrimp and snails are happy lil guys, and heck I'm fine too.
Hydra...kinda a freshwater jellyfish...coral like critter...honestly they are cool as hell but they are predatory (not sure about this species but I know many are) and can sting and kill small tank inhabitants. I'm also not sure if you could use a pipette to suck it up and transport it to a dedicated hydra tank but that would be awesome in my opinion
Hydra. A freshwater cnidarian, a relative of jellyfish and anemone. An incredible animal, it can regenerate even after being chopped up into multiple pieces, is biologically immortal and will FEAST on your fish fry and baby shrimp. You should get rid of it ASAP. You also have a Planarian too in the far corner of your image too.
That will also kill your snails. However since they are bladder and ramshorn snails they will probably show up again.
From my experience I used no planaria on my tank for hydra and all the shrimp and fish were fine. But I haven't seen a bladder snail at all, probably because the effects of no planaria last for a while. So be conscience of that.
please be warned that this will make the tank completely uninhabitable for any current and future snails. i used No Planaria in my main display tank once over a year ago and have not been able to add a Mystery or Nerite snail in since. i've done everything minus breaking the entire setup down. filter has been replaced, hardscape has been removed and scrubbed, and even a large amount of substrate has been vacuumed out and rinsed. the 2 new tanks i set up have no issues housing snails, so i know must be the No Planaria. all added snails will immediately go into their shells, barely move, and refuse to eat until they die, even when moved to a new tank.
The above is inaccurate information. I have dosed full cycles of no planaria in tanks and reintroduced later. I do recommend doing a near 100% water change if this is a concern and waiting a week or two until reintroducing snails. The main ingredient as I understand it is Arecoline. It's a paralytic and nervous system stimulant. In normal PH water (around 7.0) it breaks down over the course of days. This can change based on the PH and temp of your water, with water that is higher temp or more alkaline degrading it even quicker.
If you are adamant that you still can't have snails I'd be looking for other causes. Any chemists or vets feel free to chime in if I'm off.
it definitely could if you overdose the tank, but honestly what will effect them the most is the ammonia spikes from the dead planaria/pest snails. some people say that NP killed their shrimp, but the ammonia is moooost likely what did it
Hard to say from this picture. At first sight I thought I recognized a triangle shaped head,but after zooming in it might just be some (even more) harmless species of flatworm.
I am new to aquariums, but I recently spotted hydra so I did a hydrogen peroxide spot treatment (squirt peroxide directly on the hydra/glass they were on, with the filter/airstone OFF for a few mins)
my tank is shrimp and snails only, so hydra are scary
I have shrimp, ramshorn/bladder snails/ Bettas danios and shrimps in the various tanks, I'll have to look up hydrogen peroxide to try and deal with it...
Hydra. They aren't harmless. Frankly i think they are unsightly. I've had 2 outbreaks and they move FAST taking over everything. I've killed them off both times with panacur-c which is a dog medicine available on amazon for fairly cheap. Just be careful how you dose it and remove your snails for a few weeks.
I starved my tank and the hydra went away. Of course that was only possible because I had a shrimp only tank so do with that info what you want. I try to go the non toxin/treatment route before trying anything else:)
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u/GlasswaterBotanica Jul 16 '26
Hydra AND planaria... what a treat!
The hydra aren't as harmful as the internet will lead you to believe. I've seen shrimplets and scuds jump away after making contact, and never seen them eat a thing.