Something To Eat Tank Hydras?

[eschaton]

Last week one of my tanks got hydras. The meds my LFS gave me to cure the problem worked, but killed a good deal of my inverts, forcing me to rehome the other ones.

Rehoming the snails and clam, some hydras hitched a ride on their shells. Now, there are a ton of them in my other tank.

I'm not going to go the medicine route, for obvious reasons. This tank has snails and shrimp I'm very attached to. Hydras do have predators in the wild though (some snails, insect larvae, etc), and I'm wondering if people have discovered anything in the aquarium trade which will naturally keep them in check? Ironically they wouldn't have been a big issue in the other tank, but I don't want them killing cherries or guppy fry.

 

[BigC]

I have heard in the past of Blue Gourami's (Trichogaster trichopterus) help in Hydra eradication. (I personally use 5% Flubendazole powder) but you said you want to steer clear of chemicals. Now I don't know if it (Flubendazole) has an effect on inverts but it kills hydra stone dead (they just melt before your very eyes), I have had only one infestation to date (in a tank containing over 60 Epiplatys fry at 5mm) after correct doseing once was enough to edadicate them and there would have been no hitchikers to transfer to another tank.
Regards
BigC

 

[raptorrex]

Last week one of my tanks got hydras. The meds my LFS gave me to cure the problem worked, but killed a good deal of my inverts, forcing me to rehome the other ones.

Rehoming the snails and clam, some hydras hitched a ride on their shells. Now, there are a ton of them in my other tank.

I'm not going to go the medicine route, for obvious reasons. This tank has snails and shrimp I'm very attached to. Hydras do have predators in the wild though (some snails, insect larvae, etc), and I'm wondering if people have discovered anything in the aquarium trade which will naturally keep them in check? Ironically they wouldn't have been a big issue in the other tank, but I don't want them killing cherries or guppy fry.

what med did the LFS recommend?, if it contained Copper, that's why your Inverts died.

 

[Phoenixfish]

ive heard/read that you can use a battery to electricute the hydra, but you will have to rehome the fish thus having the same problem as last time

 

[BigIan]

adding salt to the tank will also get rid of hydra, but it may well harm your snails

 

[eschaton]

adding salt to the tank will also get rid of hydra, but it may well harm your snails

Actually, it wouldn' hurt the nerites or the malaysian trumpets one bit, as both are brackish snails. The only other snails in the tank are pest ramshorn. However, cherry shrimp, african dwarf frogs, neons, and corys aren't the most salt-tolerant species in the world. It's not like I'd add enough to go up to 1.05, but I dunno if I'd want to risk it.