Water parasites in L046 tank

[linz_d87]

Hi,

I currently have one juvenile Zebra (l046) in a Fluval Roma 125L Tank. Until recently he had tankmates which were three baby angelfish and six adult guppies (two trios). I have since removed the other fish into my community tank, leaving the juvenile zebra and one guppy fry which isn't big enough for the move yet. I am planning on collecting upto 7 zebras for this tank to make a nice little colony.

Today, however, when I came to switch the light on I noticed a number of parasites in the water. They are mainly on the glass, with a few long thin worms in the water. The ones on the glass consist of some flee-like creatures, some broad, flat worms and a parasite I haven't seem before. It is of the scale of a few millimetres, white/clear and looks like a blown out umbrella with a single 'stalk' for a body and six legs. It is attached to the glass by its stalk.

I am concerned as I would usually use a salt treatment in the water to remove such parasites but I am very concerned about my zebra. Will he be ok if I treat the tank with salt? Is there something else that you would recommend? I'm guessing that these are now present due to the lack of tank mates which will happily eat them. I also recently added some malaysian trumpet snails, could this have anything to do with it? I could remove the zebra and place him in a floating hatchery in my community tank if this would be better?

My tanks details are as follows:

Fluval Roma 125 Tank
Filter: Fluval U3 Internal filter (currently with stocking on due to small nature of occupants)
Internal UV filter (added within the last week)
Temperature: 26.2 degrees Celsius
Substrate: Very thin layer of sand (much less than one inch)
Nitrites: 0ppm
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrates: <5ppm (water change was day before yesterday)
Tank Maintenance: 25% water change 1-2 per week (due to need to keep sand clean)
Plants: A mixture of live and fake plants (to allow for ease of cleaning and to provide coverage)
Bogwood and ceramic caves present for zebra

I'm sorry for the lack of photos but I have been unable to get a clear shot of them, I will keep trying.

Thank you in advance,

Linzi

[Mike_Noren]

They're highly unlikely to be parasites, as parasites rarely are found separate from their hosts.

All aquaria have small animals in them, especially if you have any plants in the tank. What you're describing is probably copepods, which move in a characteristic quick and "jerky" fashion, and hydras, which generally do not move at all. They're harmless to your zebras. These kinds of small lifeforms often get numerous (and more easily noticed) in aquaria where there's no small predators (guppies, tetras etc etc) to limit their numbers.

The copepods mainly eat algae and leftover debris, while the hydras are partly photosynthetic and partly feed on the copepods.



EDIT: Added (hopefully) working image link to a harpacticoid copepod.

[Janne]

It is of the scale of a few millimetres, white/clear and looks like a blown out umbrella with a single 'stalk' for a body and six legs.

This sounds like a fishlice, the other wormlike creatures is like Mike wrote harmless. Against fishlice you should use a medication containing Diflubenzuron which most medications against external parasites contain, harmless to fishes but kills all that have a sceleton of chitin.

Janne

[Jools]

Fish lice look like this:



Jools

[linz_d87]

Hi,

Thank you both for your replies. Those ones I was unfamiliar with are definitely hydras going off that pic. I'm considering adding a small shoal of tetra to my zeb tank just to keep them under control but I'm so relieved that they are not a threat to my zebra. As a random point for future notice, are zebras ok with aquarium salt treatments?

Thank you both once again,

Linzi

[apistomaster]

Salt will have no effect on Hydra but a pinch of flubendazole per 10 gals will wipe them out within a week. They are likely spread to your other tanks so you might as well treat all your tanks for Hydra. The dose isn't critical, Hydra are very sensitive to flubendazole but pretty much impervious to all other medications.

[susankat]

I got a lot of hydra in one of my shrimp tanks and the way that I got rid of them was simple. I put in a couple of my mystery snails and within a week, no hydra.

[Mike_Noren]

I don't see any reason to medicate against neither hydras nor copepods in a tank with zebras. It's just wasted effort and unnecessary medication, like bringing out the bugspray every time there's an insect or spider in the garden.

It is otherwise very easy to kill hydras. A slight raise in salt level will kill them in a couple of weeks, as will low doses of formalin, malachite green, copper sulphate, potassium permanganate, fenbendazole... Basically any ich-medication or antihelminthic will do them in.
Biological control with gouramies etc seems completely ineffectual, although having small predators around will lower the amount of copepods and thereby the amount of food available to the hydras.

[apistomaster]

Flubendazole is an anti-helmenthic drug which is effective against Hydras at lower than normal therapeutic doses and is safe enough to use in aquariums containing shrimp, an indication of how harmless it is.
The problem of not using something as effective is that it only takes a single surviving piece of a Hydra for them to come back.
None of the Hydra I have had to deal with were bothered by malachite green, salt or most other remedies said to work on Hydras such as Clout. I have only dealt with Hydra virescens.

[Mike_Noren]

Flubendazole is an anti-helmenthic drug which is effective against Hydras at lower than normal therapeutic doses and is safe enough to use in aquariums containing shrimp, an indication of how harmless it is.

Shrimps are actually more resistant to most chemicals (with the notable exceptions of copper and insecticides) than fish, due to their exoskeletons acting as effective barriers. This is also why fish lice, anchor worms, and other parasitic crustaceans are relatively hard to kill.

Hydras, on the other hand, are completely unprotected; any chemical in the water goes straight in. They, literally, use the aquarium water as body fluid. Yeah, they can regenerate from a small piece, but that's after mechanical damage - they're wide open to chemicals. If you say you couldn't kill hydras with any generic ich medication, I'd be inclined to think that you actually did kill them, then reinfected the aquarium with plants or nets from other tanks.

And, again, there is zero reason to kill them in a zebra tank. They're not going to hurt or compete with zebra catfish in the slightest.

[apistomaster]

Mike,
You should give me more credit.
I know what worked and what didn't.
I feed large amounts of brine nauplii and if Hydra are present, I soon know because their population explodes.
Only flubendazole has been 100% effective at destroying all the Hydra I had.
It is such a safe and quick way I don't know any reason not to use it. Hydra can have a debilitating effect on fish they are unable to kill outright.

[Janne]

It is of the scale of a few millimetres, white/clear and looks like a blown out umbrella with a single 'stalk' for a body and six legs.

Now when reading it twice I see I was completely wrong... no fishlice ;)

If you plan is to just keep Hypancistrus zebra in the tank I agree with Mike, Hydras are totally harmless for that type of fishes and their offspring's.

This is also why fish lice, anchor worms, and other parasitic crustaceans are relatively hard to kill.

They are easily killed by Diflubenzuron (within 24-48 h depending on doses) but may need a second treatment after 1-2 weeks when their eggs hatch, no good for shrimps thought.

Janne