How Dangerous are Planaria?

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conorod

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I have recently spotted planaria in 2 of my 3 tanks (I am 100% sure it's planaria as I got one out and looked at it under a magnifying glass to see the arrow-shaped head & eyes). I have only spotted 3 in total so far between the 2 tanks, but I assume I have more in reality.

The first tank has cherry shrimp & a nerite snail. Second tank has neon tetra, amano shrimp and a few nerite snails.

My question is: How dangerous are planaria to adult shrimp/snails/tetra? I know they can be dangerous to baby fish/shrimp but there's a lot of conflicting information online about how dangerous (if at all) they are to adults.

The issue is I am having difficulty finding any treatment for them that doesn't kill nerite snails (apart freom maybe eSHa NDX but I'm not sure of that), which is why I'm tempted to try manual removal with traps. But if they are a real danger to the tank inhabitants, I would just figure out something else for the snails and then treat the tanks to kill them quickly.
 
SUPER dangerous to Shrimp and Snails. Their slime is a toxin, and the can get into the gills of fish. Though they don't kill the fish, they create soreness. Disgusting things..... have you fed live food to your fish?
Thanks for the info, I may just need to find somewhere else to put the nerites so. I haven't fed any live foods, so I assume they came in on plants.
 
Thanks for the info, I may just need to find somewhere else to put the nerites so. I haven't fed any live foods, so I assume they came in on plants.
I did a quick search online and came across this page (not mine) https://fishlab.com/planaria/

They suggest the glass traps only if you don't want to use a chemical "dewormer" (due to tank inhabitant sensitivity)

Hopefully you'll get some futher replies/personal experiences! Hope you get them outta there w/o too many livestock losses!
 
Follow-on question: I have ordered some Panacur C (fenbendazole) and know I will need to move my nerite snails. Anyone have any idea how long I'll have to wait before re-introducing them?

If I do enough water changes to the point where it's all new water, is it safe then or will it stay in the substrate/on plants/etc?
 
Use carbon in your filter to remove the Panacur after the treatment is complete, then a couple of very large WC's
 
I don't think there's any reason to panic unless your tank is overrun with them. Seeing one or two planarians every once in a while usually isn't indicative of a problem, in fact I'd go so far as to say most established tanks have a small population of them. The key is to keep the tank clean, vacuum the gravel regularly and avoid overfeeding.

That said though, if you notice your shrimp population isn't thriving, the planaria could be the culprit and you might want to take steps to eliminate them.
 
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