I found this forum by doing research to find out what a new "creature" was in my aquarium that showed up two days ago - not so coincidentally, the same day I received a shipment of snails and shrimp for my tank. The seller had added frogbit and another floating plant in the package. which I rinsed off (obviously not well enough) and put in the tank with them. I netted the shimp out but not use a quarantine tank before adding them to my tank. Two days later I discovered all but two of my shrimp had disappeared. I thought my fish ate them. Then I noticed that some of my fish weren't looking too healthy. Lastly, I noticed a strange little creature that had lots of tentacles. After researching I learned I now have some hydras in my 36g tank and I am at a complete loss as to what to do to get rid of them! I am fairly new to being a aquarium hobbyist - 6 months now. Seems like just when I got the knack of having my water quality good - in comes these hydras. As for my fish...the problem with them is growing. They have white ulcerative looking sores on them, they are not tiny like the photos I have seen of Ick, rather large and not uniform. The fish that are obviously stressed or sick/dying or died (I removed five dead fish in the past 24 hours) seem to begin with the behavior of laying at the bottom or hiding under a rock cave. When they do swim, sometimes it looks normal for a few minutes then back to the bottom or hiding. A couple of the fish that are doing this show no other signs of illness (no sores) One or two seem to have trouble swimming, sort of a erratic motion then they will float vertically or upside down for a few moments then swim again. I am really at my wits ends. I test my water regularly and ALL of my perimeters are great. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates 0 nitrites with a moderately hard water. My water temps stay within the "safe range" on my thermometers. I read that hydras sting their prey to render it motionless then cover them and begin digesting them - often prey that is three times their size. I lost all of my new shrimp in that tank within 36 hours. Gone. no sign of them at all. Most of the sick or dead fish have been adult endlers or adolescent guppies (not grown but showing colors). Please if you have any suggestions or recommendations let me know. My plan for today is to remove all plastic or rock decor, trim all unhealthy looking leaves off my live plants, remove all but 1/4" of the gravel and wash it thoroughly with what? then vacuum the remaining gravel and replenish my water - then add maybe Cure All ? I really don't know...stump, frustrated and sad. One large fish (a Dalmatian molly) that I have had since I first set up my tank 6 months ago has started developing the sores as well. And one young guppy looked as though most of his tail fin just fell off overnight! I sure would appreciate some advice.

as far as getting rid of the hydras just geab em with a net and throw em in a bucket, heck, your LFS might buy em off you, im guessing it sounds like the little devils are stinging the hell out of your fish, im sorry to hear it..

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10g- 2 hi-fin fm platys, 3 koi & red wag sword fry
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 4 female swords, 1 male swords
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve

Noooooooooo, don't net the Hydra! Hydra break easily and the pieces that break off can go floating around and make new Hydra.

Once you figure out what the disease that your fish have and can cure it, then you can worry about the Hydra.

Dwarf Gourami eat Hydra, (my Honey gouramis do), Chili Rasboras eat Hydra (I had 5 that ate hundreds of Hydra in weeks) and I've been told that Mystery Snails will eat Hydra. I found a few Hydra in my 36g and Susankat said not to worry because my 2 Mystery snails will take care of them. Hydra are really only a danger to fish fry or baby shrimp.

I'm thinking that whatever is killing your fish is what killed your shrimp. Shrimp are very sensitive and it doesn't take much to kill them. (I had Hydra in with adult shrimp and they were all fine, like I said, it's baby shrimp that Hydra will kill.)

Is it possible to get a picture of the sores on your fish so we can better see what you mean, and maybe help you figure out what the fish have?

How many fish do you have? What are they? How did you acclimate them? Did you put them all in at the same time? Did your tank go through the Nitrogen Cycle?

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Thanks for the tips. Here is an update - some tank information and some PHOTOS. Thanks in advance for your tips and suggestions.

I posted a photos of my tank and several of my black dalmation Molly that shows the white specks near his fin that I "think" is ich, but it also shows the large white sore on his side. And his protruding eye socket on the left.

I am on day four of treating the entire tank with QUICK CURE - using 1 drop per gal (36 d ) once daily. I have reduced their food ....I have changed 50% water - cleaned (vacuum) the gravel as well as I could. I removed all of my non planted decor, scrubbed them down, then rinsed them with boiling water - rinsed them again with new conditioned tank water before putting back only half of them. (I am trying to convert over to only live plants and natural decor. I removed my charcoal/carbon filters before I began medicating and they are still out - but I run the filter to keep water circulation and I am also running a separate air stone for extra oxygen.

I am happy to report that my dalmation Molly seems to be improving as does my orange sword and one of my adult female guppies that was showing sores on her back. They are no longer hovering on the bottom.

IMO - The adult fish seem to be more resistant to this disease/parasite than the younger ones. I have now flushed at least 14 of my fish.

TANK ESTABLISHMENT AND ADDING MY FISH: I set up my tank and only added two fish until the cycle passed, then I only added 1-2 fish every two weeks and whenever I added the fish I brought them home, set the bag in the water - let it stay there for 20 minutes then I slowly added my tank water to the bag before I netted the fish and put them in my tank disposing of the water that was in the bag. I had been warned never to put water from my lfs in my tanks. The only new fish I have are my frys - all other fish have been in my tanks for at least a month - prior to the die-off. I religiously test my water - twice weekly with API's test kit (the bottles and glass vials)...all water parameters are PERFECT and have been for over a month now. (I had a very slight 5 ppm (or whatever the second yellow green color is that is just below the ZERO nitrite level. In any case the problem resolved with a good cleaning and 20% water change.

It is either a huge coincidence or whatever is killing my fish came in with the plants, snails or shrimp that I added to my tank. I did the same with them to transfer that I do with all my other fish only I added half the shrimps & snails to this tank (the sick one) and the other half to my nursery tank.

I've lost NO frys, nor have I seen any Hydra in my Nursery Tank. (5 g) All my fry appear healthy as do the shrimp and snails. I also added some of the same frogbit and a sort of floating weed looking plant that the snails and shrimp were shipped with to both tanks, but I thought I rinsed it well before putting it in my tank. I guess not.

The next day was when the fish began showing signs of sickness. Flashing, hovering at the bottom, hiding, swimming erratically, gulping, swimming vertically, then the spots and sores. Then death.

Most of the dead were adolescent guppies. With color but not full grown. 50% of them had their tails completely gone when I removed them from the tank.

I still have in my tank:

1 Kissing Gourami
1 Dalmation Molly
1 Orange Sword
1 White Molly
1 Black Molly
1 Fancy twin-tail guppy/endler mix
2 fancy guppys
2 adolescent guppies
1 cory cat
1 pleco algae eater
3 shrimp
6 snails
1 (at least) new fry

I don't know which fish the fry came from or how long he has been in the tank - he looks just dropped. Much smaller than my latest anticipated batch? I am not about to transfer him to my nursery tank....so he'll likely be food for one of the others before he can grow much. He could be a sword, he could be a molly. I know both are pregnant but the sword dropped about 22 just before all of this happened. She could have reserved some and dropped a few more or maybe even dropped some before I got her in the breeder trap and I am just now seeing it.

I am so thankful to have found this forum, people are so welcoming and seem genuinely happy to help one another. I want so badly to become knowledgeable and keep healthy and happy fish...your responses are sincerely appreciated.

My Female Guppy - the spots don't show well but they are right in front of her dorsel fin and look like "faded" round spots. (She is also looking better now)



My Dalmation Molly - showing the sore on his side.



His other side showing the small white specks and also the eye that is enlarged.

What size is the tank? (You have quite a few fish, but if the tank is larger, than that's fine.) Also, is your Pleco a common pleco? If so, he will grow to over a foot in length (almost 2 feet probably) and will need to be re-homed ASAP. If not, his skeleton will become stunted, but his organs will keep growing, so he will die a painful death. They also need drift wood because they eat it... not sure if you have drift wood or not.

I'm a bit confused... the Nitrite test doesn't have a green colour. It's all blues and purples. Nitrates is oranges, reds and yellows. Ammonia is yellows and greens. So, if you have 5ppm of Ammonia (green) then that's probably the problem. Ammonia is really toxic to fish. Poor water quality will cause pop eye in fish (your molly had a swollen eye) and can cause ulcers. Since the water change took the parameter back down to 0ppm, then your fish can start to heal if that was indeed the issue.

Ulcers aren't normally a sign of Ick, but normally poor water quality or maybe a fungus or bacterial infection.

Since the water change improved the water quality, and you're Ick medication seems to be helping, I'd just keep an eye on things for now and see how it goes.

Be sure your medication is for SCALELESS fish, because plecos are scaleless fish. Regular Ick medication is too strong and will kill algae eaters (and possibly snails and shrimp). LFS sell Ick meds that are safe for scaleless fish and invertebrates.

For acclimation, try drip acclimation from now on. It's simple and when you use drip acclimation you loose less fish. (Fish can die weeks or even MONTHS later from improper acclimation.) There's a sticky somewhere in the 'general freshwater fish' forum on how to do a drip acclimation.

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Quick cure is a good med. Hope it helps. From the pics, it doesn't look like your fish had ich. Ich looks like the fish have been sprinkled with sand or sugar. There are tons of images on the web. Shrimp can die from high nitrates or phosphates. Some are especially sensitive to it. What type of water change schedule do you perform and what is it that you use to test your water (type of test kit?)? I saw that you posted 0 nitrates. Unless you have a tank full of plants, I just don't see how that is possible with the amount of fish that has been in your tank?

The Hydra won't have any effect on your fishies. They are too big to be bothered by them. There's a couple ways to rid them; cut back on the amount of feeding or treat with meds.

I just wiped out a Hydra issue using Flubendazole. Someone told me that another product called No-Planaria will also work on them.

With the shrimp disappearing I would venture to say the fish ate them. Especially the molly and swords.

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