# Planaria won't go away!



## notaverage

DAMN it....I've done daily water changes of 20% for 3 days and stirred the hell out of the gravel to make sure I got it all out and I scrubbed the glass!
I got to the point I broke down the canister to clean out the sponges with boiling water and scrubbed the plastic pieces as well...NO Chemicals used.
I rinsed some of the trays...I know I'm asking for a mini cycle possibly but I doubt it b/c its only my splio in the tank..I didn't rinse the ceramic bio media.

I even added an extra HOB on the tank with poly floss and carbon for the hell of it (Its probably been a year since I've used it) hoping to help get the suckers out!

I waited a week and they are back.
I just did another 30% water change tonight...I guess I will continue tomorrow.
OH I took the HOB off b/c Obviously it wasn't helping.

Every water change I do I gravel vac 
I do not have ornaments for anything to be stuck under.
I haven't fed my P in about 14 days except for 5 little Bio gold pellets.

The filter is a Fluval 304 on a 29 gallon tank.
Its been set up for two years.

Water Params...
I'm gonna have to do that later...
Would that have an affect anyway?

What do I do?
Could something be stuck in the hose of the filter maybe?

I'm about to take all the gravel out so there is nowhere for the planaria or "decaying food"

Help a guy out gents...I haven't asked for fishy help in a while.

Thanks









If I could take pics I would..too small.
The vid is not sufficient.


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## notaverage

Ok...did 3 5 gallon water changes on my 29.
I took all but the little pieces of gravel and sand out that I could.
I added back an AC 150 and a Fluval #2(small internal filter). Both have just the poly filter stuff in it.

I'm dosing the tank with salt as I know it isn't damaging anything.

Im pouring boiling water into the gravel which is in another container. I'll let it sit for 30 min or more.
Then I'll place it in a clean container with cool water so that I can reintroduce it in the tank.
Maybe I should just keep it out until the planaria dissapear though.


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## Trigga

Don't feed anything for a Week or two and just keep doing water changes.. If they have nothing to eat they will die off

I think that taking out all your substrate is going a little far IMO... If a gravel vac isn't getting rid of em something else is the source


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## notaverage

I hear ya but I haven't fed the SOLO mac in about 2 weeks except 4-5 pellets that he snatched right away.

My only thought is the intake tube but I couldn't imagine what could get through the strainer and then where would it get stuck b/c it would have to be minute.

We will see the next few days....I can't imagine what the food source is?

Water params using API freshwater master kit.

Ammonia is 0
Nitrate is around 10
PH is about 7.2
Nitrites 0


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## Trigga

Check the intake valve sometimes larger pieces can squeeze through.

Maybe it's not planaria


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## notaverage

little white stringy squigly...can't explain it anymore.
I've always been told thats what it is.
I have googled and the pics don't look like what I have.
They don't stick to the glass that I can see.


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## jacks

planeria can be abit of a bugger but it is harmless from what i understand, i would continue with the large water changes, get a few aquatic snails you could also partition the tank for a little while and get a couple of fish that like to eat planeria then when the planaria is eaten take out the partition and the piranhas will probably eat the fish

good luck anyway


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## Trigga

notaverage said:


> little white stringy squigly...can't explain it anymore.
> I've always been told thats what it is.
> I have googled and the pics don't look like what I have.
> They don't stick to the glass that I can see.


I'm having a similar problem in my piraya tank.. Perfect perams but I have this debris floating all over my tank.. My rhom tank and sanchezi tank don't have anything....

It doesn't seem to have any negetive effects other than estethics so I'm ok with it since it's just a temp tank.. When I get some free time though I might do a 80%ish waterchange and see if that helps dilute it atleast.


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## notaverage

I wonder if raising the temp would kill them off?

Its odd that Planaria seems so common yet in all the threads I have read there really is no info.

Same online...I guess tehre really must be food clogging up my intake?
Thats the only thing it could be right now but the flow of the outlet and the water params are spot on.

Guess I'll water change again and see what happens. the next few days.


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## Ægir

notaverage said:


> I wonder if raising the temp would kill them off?
> 
> Its odd that Planaria seems so common yet in all the threads I have read there really is no info.
> 
> Same online...I guess tehre really must be food clogging up my intake?
> Thats the only thing it could be right now but the flow of the outlet and the water params are spot on.
> 
> Guess I'll water change again and see what happens. the next few days.


I have been doing some reading for ya man... about everything i have found says this:



> "There isn't any chemicals designed exclusively for the removal of Planaria, so I would do it the natural way. Change 20% of the water every two days (Yes, every TWO days!), and perform a gravel vacuuming with each water change, to remove trapped waste from the gravel. After about two weeks, if you don't over feed, and perform the water changes, the Planaria should be gone.
> 
> After the worms go away, then switch to a normal routine of a 20% water change every week. Performing water changes every week is important to maintain water quality. after all, do you want more worms?"


And that angelfish will eat them as well... dont know if that one will work for ya

Good luck man!


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## notaverage

Cool skunk..yeah.

Iactually filled a 5 gal bucket while changing the water daily for 3 days 2 weeks ago.
I let it be as I added the extra HOB.
They came back so I did filled Three 5 gallon buckets while changing the water last night. so about 50% or less you could say.
I was going to hit it with a 5 gallon change tonight but think I"m putting it off untill tomorrow and see if they start to die off on their own.
I'll continue this and I guess we will see what happens.


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## jp80911

get a bunch zebra danios they will eat those worms and then they can be snack of your piranha.
worked for me. right after I added 10 in my 75g you can see they actually hunt for those worms, pretty cool.
worth a shot. good luck


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## notaverage

Yeah..maybe I'll have to give that a try...I threw in one of the little convicts I have and it ate a few and then was lunch himself....wich the convicts were breeding already...only 3 or so months old now.

OH..
No substrate and did another water change.
Params haven't changed much from above but Planaria still floating around.


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## maknwar

There are a few different things you can do to kill off the planaria.

1) use Fenbendazole.

2)use peroxide and aquarium salt.

3)starve them.

Here is a great article about planaria eradication, but please note that this is for a shrimp tank. It should not hurt the spilo in your tank though. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...mp-tanks.html


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## Ægir

maknwar said:


> There are a few different things you can do to kill off the planaria.
> 
> 1) use Fenbendazole.
> 
> 2)use peroxide and aquarium salt.
> 
> 3)starve them.
> 
> Here is a great article about planaria eradication, but please note that this is for a shrimp tank. It should not hurt the spilo in your tank though. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...mp-tanks.html


Yeah, i have read a few things about that Fenbendazole, mainly you need a pet with worms, a vet to write the script, or online pharmacy to get it (petmeds.com).

The main thing here is not harming or stressing the existing resident... if he had another tank i would recomend just removing the fish, and raising the temp to 90+ and doing the consistent water changes i said above on top of that... peroxide is Co2 that will deprive the worms of O2 by lowering the available oxygen, and could also harm the fish....

If you dont want to disturb your fish, the best thing i read is 20% or larger changes with a solid gravel vac every other day... and to make sure that none of your tubing, filter media, or power heads are full of rotting (food, plants, anything decomposing) material. The culprit for my worms was 2 or 3 extra pellets that would end up in my canister and get eaten by snails, then the snails would die and feed them in my filter baskets. After i cleaned all that sh*t out, i went to weekly 50% and bi weekly canister clean outs with old tank water.

I found that adding 30 to 40 fry every few months (convict is what i used from my breeding tanks) would thin down the worm population... and provide dither fish for your resident. Eventually they will starve the worms by eating the scraps, and eating the worms that are openly visible. The awesome thing is it only takes 50$ or so to get a convict breeding station setup, and you could have a lifetime of free feeders, and worm control. Plus it livens up your tank having the smaller fish.


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## notaverage

Skunkbudfour20 said:


> There are a few different things you can do to kill off the planaria.
> 
> 1) use Fenbendazole.
> 
> 2)use peroxide and aquarium salt.
> 
> 3)starve them.
> 
> Here is a great article about planaria eradication, but please note that this is for a shrimp tank. It should not hurt the spilo in your tank though. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...mp-tanks.html


Yeah, i have read a few things about that Fenbendazole, mainly you need a pet with worms, a vet to write the script, or online pharmacy to get it (petmeds.com).

The main thing here is not harming or stressing the existing resident... if he had another tank i would recomend just removing the fish, and raising the temp to 90+ and doing the consistent water changes i said above on top of that... peroxide is Co2 that will deprive the worms of O2 by lowering the available oxygen, and could also harm the fish....

If you dont want to disturb your fish, the best thing i read is 20% or larger changes with a solid gravel vac every other day... and to make sure that none of your tubing, filter media, or power heads are full of rotting (food, plants, anything decomposing) material. The culprit for my worms was 2 or 3 extra pellets that would end up in my canister and get eaten by snails, then the snails would die and feed them in my filter baskets. After i cleaned all that sh*t out, i went to weekly 50% and bi weekly canister clean outs with old tank water.

I found that adding 30 to 40 fry every few months (convict is what i used from my breeding tanks) would thin down the worm population... and provide dither fish for your resident. Eventually they will starve the worms by eating the scraps, and eating the worms that are openly visible. The awesome thing is it only takes 50$ or so to get a convict breeding station setup, and you could have a lifetime of free feeders, and worm control. Plus it livens up your tank having the smaller fish.
[/quote]

A breeding station meaning a busted clay pot??


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## maknwar

Actually, Fenbendazole is in over the counter heart wormers. Safe-guard, which is Fenbendazole, is sold at petsmart and other pet stores. I understand that not stressing the spilo out is a concern, but that many water changes is a lot of stress too.


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## Ægir

notaverage said:


> A breeding station meaning a busted clay pot??


No, a breeding station as in a 29gal tall for the parents, and 4 10 gals for fry.... I would grow out 2 batches of fry in each tank till about 3/4 or 1"... and then put them all in my rhoms tank. 2 pairs found hiding spots in his tank and had a few batches of fry, but they dont last long.


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## notaverage

Got ya...maybe I'll do that when I transfer the Mac to the 55.

I havent't had time to change water again...busy with work...well off th philly...maybe I'll get to it tonight!


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