Fighting a losing battle need help

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the big kahuna

the big kahuna

Aimara
MFK Member
Oct 13, 2007
785
677
130
new york city
So 2 months ago I got an outbreak of planaria. Of course I cut back feeding amounts even though all of the pellets I fed was consumed within minutes. I began feeding every 3 days raised the temp a little and the planaria seemed to disappear. I also do 3 water changes a week about 30%. Fast forward to this weekend I serviced my filters and when I started everything back up, I saw literally thousands of planaria in my tank. I know they are harmless but I want them gone ASAP. They're obviously living in the filters sponges but what do I do next. I'm not a fan of medications but will try anything at this point. Side note I have clown loaches in the tank so I have to be mindful of what meds I use. Tank is 180 with bass/dat/geo tank

Need advice
 
I don't know much about CL but they just look like the type of fish that might not take well to a lot of commonly used meds lol...Could you relocate them temporarily until you've treated your tank?..I bet a good copper based med would wipe out the planaria.
 
I think i have a spare tank if not i can grab a 20gal tomorrow. I need suggestions for meds I asked someone in petland and they didnt know what planaria was. So I walked out. Cant find anything useful on google

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Just keep a good cleaning regime - clean out the filter material - and it'll take care of itself over time. Don't risk your fish by medicating for no real good reason.

Do you have adequate filtration ?
 
Why not take the filters and hook to the 20 and treat the filter?

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Coppersafe or Cupramine...I've used them both in the past in tanks with the fish that you listed above,except the loaches of course.
 
I had a Planaria out break once and while the problem didn't go away quickly I was easily able to rid the tank of them without meds. Just as you figured planaria outbreaks are usually caused by overfeeding and are usually most apparent after a water change. If you clean the filter out and give the substrate a thorough sifting to rid it of built up waste and keep on the reduced feedings they should disappear, you just need to be a little patient. In my opinion it's better then using a med to fix a problem as you'll be fixing the root cause by changing your aquarium maintenance and routines and therefore preventing further outbreaks.
 
I had an out break 2 months ago and still have a couple here and there. So i took all the substrate out for cleaning and changed to a wet dry sump. No need to waste money and maybe fish on meds they will go away sometimes you have to do more to get rid of them but your also helping ur fish by doing a good cleaning on the tank.

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