Genchem No Planaria

[pablothebetta]

There's a tonne of planaria in a tank I am currently trying to help with. There's a thread somewhere on here about it - some of you may have seen it.

Well, I spotted this stuff that's supposed to get rid of planaria within 3 days, called "Genchem No Planaria". Can be found here: http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/genchem-no-planaria-50g-p-5606.html

AquaEssentials seems to be a popular site, so I wouldn't think it'd be selling false or dangerous products, but I wanted to make sure it'd be ok to use in a tank with guppies (and guppy fry).

Anyone used it? Any opinions?

Thanks

 

[snazy]

Just stop overfeeding, and increase the water changes and siphon the gravel regularly.
The fish will eat planaria worms. After doing a bit of maintainance on the tank you can skip a few days of feeding to get the fish to finish off the leftovers.

 

[pablothebetta]

Just stop overfeeding, and increase the water changes and siphon the gravel regularly.
The fish will eat planaria worms. After doing a bit of maintainance on the tank you can skip a few days of feeding to get the fish to finish off the leftovers.

I don't feed the fish and have no idea how they are fed, but to be honest, the tank is so filthy that I cannot imagine that would have much of an impact - without completely and utterly gutting the tank, I can't think of a way to get rid of all the dirt in there. If you disturb the gravel enough, huge amounts of dirt will come billowing out - it looks almost like soil there's so much of it. I tried to clean the gravel a bit once - I did about 10" squared or so, but had to stop because you could hardly see into the tank it was so full of the dirt from the gravel.
The guppies in there don't seem to bother with the worms and being the only fish in there, the worms (and assellus) seem to be living happily untouched by anything. Seen as though 'natural' methods don't seem to work, I'm having to look for alternatives.
Thankyou for the reply though

 

[snazy]

I am presuming it's not your tank then and you are just helping out?
As for tank getting cloudy while siphoning you must be doing it wrong(nothing personal). If properly done and you push the siphon all the way down to the bottom(without stirring the gravel!!!), the dirt should go straight into the tube and into the hose and not in the water volume. It's not a rocket science and is achieveable.
Using chemicals to kill the planaria will make no difference if you don't remove the cause.
And what do you mean by "natural ways don't seem to work"?
You haven't even tried.

 

[pablothebetta]

I am presuming it's not your tank then and you are just helping out?
As for tank getting cloudy while siphoning you must be doing it wrong(nothing personal). If properly done and you push the siphon all the way down to the bottom(without stirring the gravel!!!), the dirt should go straight into the tube and into the hose and not in the water volume. It's not a rocket science and is achieveable.
Using chemicals to kill the planaria will make no difference if you don't remove the cause.
And what do you mean by "natural ways don't seem to work"?
You haven't even tried.

Yeah, it's not my tank. I started to try to do something for the fish not long ago, and I don't have that much time in which to do so. They didn't have a siphon and I didn't have mine, so I was removing the gravel from the tank and then rinsing it - not ideal I know, and probably partially to blame for all the mess in the tank, but I felt it was just so filthy I couldn't leave it all like that. I didn't have time to do any more, though. I will take my own siphon over, I think, and do it - I don't actually gravel vac in my tank as I have sand, and the idea had never occured to me.
By 'natural ways' I just meant that the fish weren't eating them which a couple of people have mentioned (also on other thread, I believe).

 

[Juggler75]

I suffered from planaria due to daughters overfeeding when first fish was added but the aaddition of endlers led to them being wiped out overnight (together with some education on how much to feed)

 

[OldMan47]

Pablo, cleaning your tank is the correct way to go about controlling planaria. Any poisoning techniques are far inferior to simple control techniques, even if they do work, at least in my way of thinking. If the tank you are working with is filthy, try doing a clean and water change instead of a treatment. It will improve things in that tank and get you closer to a condition where planaria can be readily controlled. Even if you are not the primary care taker, getting a water change with a vacuum treatment will be bound to be easier than having the person add biological controls, and the result will be better too. Honesty when dealing with less knowledgeable people will always be my preference. I may not always succeed but the right information going to the responsible caretakers is my priority, not any vain desire to be proven right.

 

[snazy]

By 'natural ways' I just meant that the fish weren't eating them which a couple of people have mentioned (also on other thread, I believe)

The fish do eat planaria but they can't manage with excessive ammounts of it. Planaria is the reason the fish have probably survived in these conditions as the planaria feeds on the dirt that is not cleaned by regular water changes and siphoning.
If you remove the planaria by chemicals instead of cleaning the tank, it will disturb the current balance of the tank and the fish will instead get sick from rotting stuff, ammonia spikes and subsequent diseases caused by that.

 

[Primous]

I may be incorrect here but if you're talking about the tank posted earlier (in the not to distant past) then forget the advice given here. Empty the tank, throw away the substrate. Clean the tank with piping hot water and start over.

Much respect to snazy, juggler, and oldman47 *Takes humble bow in honor of oldman47*

But that tank is ridiculous. It's not in need of a mere adjustment but a complete overhaul.

 

[Juggler75]

Having found the thread I think Primous is talking about (brown worms?) I have to agree.
I would put aside a few hours and visit the house the tank is at armed with a couple of buckets, a syphon, a bag of substrate and a couple of nylon pan scrubbers (for non stick pans like these http/t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT9w3-lrwzSrRKdiwtRxxFHEOxJRtfefbThl-fbBIXX0-sbQ7qg -cost pennies).
Fill a bucket and house the fish in there whilst you drain the tank, empty the substrate into the bin (or garden rockery) and give the tank a good clean with the pan scubbers and hot water. Then refill the tank with the new substrate in and whilst you are doing that you could be slowly adapting the livestock to clean water.
After an hour or so then the livestock could be re introduced into a clean home.

I know it seems like a lot of work for a tank thats not yours but you did say you'd taken over maintenance of it and this approach has two main benefits
1. It'll cut down on the work that you have to do in the future (keeping it nice is quicker and easier than trying to tidy a rubbish tip)
2. If the tank owner sees the ammount of work that is involved in fixing the issues and sees the improvement they may be inclined to keep it nice in future so actually follow the advice given re: overfeeding and weekly maintenance.

Edit: forgot to say I'd also take dechlorinator and make sure the new water is dechlorinated as you'd need to keep the filter bacteria alive - might as well clean filter whilst you are at it.

 

[snazy]

Yeah, that tank is a bit dirty
How is it going so far?