Little pests- egg eating slugs

Forester

Forester

Members
Hey everyone,

I discovered that my one of my pairs first spawns was just eaten by a few hundred little slugs. I noticed them awhile ago in some of my tanks so I made sure that I had endless in every one to eat the slugs. I though that had done it but I guess they were hiding in the sponges and waiting to come out at night. My first time bristlenose dad was no match for them and they ate all of his 30+ eggs in one night.

What are they?

How can I get rid of them?

Thanks for the help,

Lucas

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Becca

Becca

Members
Those are planaria... lots of planaria.

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JLW

JLW

CCA Members
Planaria, yes.

There's two things you need to address. First off, you need to get rid of the existing worms. The easiest solution would be to use a commercial dewormer, such as Prazi, which should kill them off. You could also go the cheaper route, and use something like Safeguard for Goats, at about a drop per gallon, in a single treatment. Before doing so, you need to remove as many worms as possible, as you don't want 10,000 dead worms in the tank. :)

The bigger thing though is that you need to address the underlying cause of where they're coming from. A few planaria probably made it in with some plants, blackworms, or something, and that's not a big deal. But, what are they eating when they're not eating your Ancistrus eggs? I would strongly, strongly suspect that you're overfeeding the tank -- you're not only feeding the fish, you're feeding those guys. You want to make sure that all of your fish food is being eaten by the fish. You may also have reservoirs of detritus somewhere in the tank.

When you're doing your maintenance, make sure you're gravel vaccing to remove any debris trapped in the gravel. Move your decorations around, and clean under them -- you'll be surprised. This is one of the areas so many people forget about -- you have to vacuum under the couch once in a while, and the rocks in the tank aren't any different. Heck, I investigated a tank with a "terrible smell" once and found the cause was a large catfish that had managed to wriggle its way into a big, hollow decoration... and died. No one had though to look inside of the castle. It was gross.
 
Forester

Forester

Members
Thanks very much Josh. I cleaned out the whole tank today and switched out the big sponge dividers that they were hiding in so that I can dry those out to kill them. It's a barebottom tank so that's not an issue. And I'm going to cut back on feeding a little. I'll order some deworm on amazon tonight.

Thanks for the help

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Becca

Becca

Members
Whatever you do, don't cut them in half lengthwise...

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CichlidAddict

CichlidAddict

Members
Planaria are barely visible to naked eye and they look awfully big. Even with macro lens, they can't be magnified to size visible in photo. They look like freshwater slug or leech. How big are they?
 
Forester

Forester

Members
CichlidAddict said:
Planaria are barely visible to naked eye and they look awfully big. Even with macro lens, they can't be magnified to size visible in photo. They look like freshwater slug or leech. How big are they?
Click to expand...

They are around 1/8 inch or so. I just got my Note 4 really close and zoomed to about 4x or so.
 
Becca

Becca

Members
chriscoli said:
They can do that themselves, without help, too! Binary fission!
Click to expand...

Well, sure, but why help them?

Also, there was an episode of the X-Files, somewhere in the first 3-4 seasons, where there was a giant fluke man and giant killer planaria. So if you want this infestation to give you nightmares, go for it.

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A

AndyNarwhal

Members
Those are definitely Planaria. Notice the two eyespots on the "head". That's a feature of Planaria that is not found in flatworms or leeches.

Planaria come in a variety of sizes from 1/8" to 1" normally. Although there is a tropical species that can get as big as 2'.

A treatment with dog dewormer should get rid of them.
 
verbal

verbal

CCA Members
Do cichlids eat planaria? I notice them in my shrimp/pleco tanks, but not the ones where I have cichlids.
 
Forester

Forester

Members
verbal said:
Do cichlids eat planaria? I notice them in my shrimp/pleco tanks, but not the ones where I have cichlids.
Click to expand...

My endlers love eating them, so I would think cichlids would too.

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JLW

JLW

CCA Members
Lots of fish will eat them -- but, not if you've got a problem population and good spots for them to hide.

Heck, I find blackworm colonies in many of my tanks....
 
CichlidAddict

CichlidAddict

Members
Planaria are ubiquitous in aquarium. Fry will pick on and eat planaria. I often remove bristlenose from my fry tank to allow planaria multiply so as to furnish live food for the fry. Bristlenose eggs are huge in comparison to planaria so it's hard to believe planaria will devour the eggs. Do you blame on the wrong suspect or you have the unusual type of vicious planaria.
 
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