Fish tanks are a small ecosystem with both producers like nitrifying bacteria and ornamental fish as consumers, and isooxygen bacteria play a big role as decomposers. In the simple biological chain, natural elements such as plants, insects, snails, and shrimp can also be added to enrich the ecological cycle in the fish tank. Of course, there may be some unnecessary trouble.
Image source 丨fishlab
A lot of people have bugs in their fish tanks. They may be protein worms, anchorhead bream, planarian worms, etc. Planarians are small bugs with tenacious vitality and super fast reproduction speed. Once there are planarian worms in the fish tank, and there is no timely control to allow it to spread, it will be difficult to deal with in the later stage, and some aquarists are forced to overturn the tank.
Planarians are small insects that live in warm waters and are commonly found in the wild at the bottom of rocks in streams. It is triangular at one end and slightly protruding on both sides. The planarians in the fish tank are relatively small, and it is difficult to find these details, so some aquarists tend to see it as a similar-looking protein worm.
Image source 丨practicalfishkeeping
Compared with proteomiles, planarians are more harmful. Planarians in their natural environment feed on worms, small crustaceans, and insects. In the fish tank, it can parasitize the fish, and it is even possible to eat small fry and shrimp.
If it is a general protein worm, usually pay attention to water change, maintenance and filtration, there will be better improvement. With a little more manlong in the fish tank, the number of protein worms can be completely controlled.
But planarians are not too easy to remove. At least some of the aquarists I know hate it to the bone and can't help it.
Image source 丨ratemyfishtank
The main ways for planarians to enter the fish tank are aquatic plants and tap water. Others say there's something in the mud. There are indeed planarians in the mud in the natural environment, but the mud used in the aquarium that has been sterilized by high temperature does not carry planarians, so there is no need to worry about this.
The tap water mentioned above can be replaced with pure water, and the water quality can be adjusted a little bit to avoid planarians entering the fish tank. The planarians in the aquatic weeds cannot be prevented, and unless the water weeds are not planted in the tank, the appearance of planarians cannot be avoided. Therefore, the probability of planarians appearing in the waterweed tank is more likely than that of the naked tank.
Photography 丨 Wet Brother
There are many ways to control planarians, and some aquarists believe that it is more effective to deal with planarian reproduction in a biological way, so they added swallow fish to the fish tank under the guidance of acquaintances.
Swallowfish can indeed control planarians, but the effect is not guaranteed. Because the swallow fish does not live by eating planarians, it is not wise to rely on it to solve the reproduction of planarians. Moreover, swallow fish nibbling on moss, eating small shrimp, and biting other small fish will destroy the balance of the fish tank. Some people also use African princes or other small fish to treat planarians, and the results are similar to those of swallowfish. None of them are tool fish, and even if they eat planarians, they are an amateur habit. In addition, cool loach, peacocks, panda loach also have examples of eating planarians, interested aquarists can try it.
Image source 丨jeraphotodesign
Planarians are hyperoxic organisms. If a large amount of carbon dioxide is injected and cut off its living conditions, most planarians will be eliminated quickly and effectively. This method is a bit of a laborer, you have to fish out the other creatures in the tank first and put them in the spare tank that has been prepared earlier. It is best not to use this method until it is necessary.
There is a relatively simple way to delay the blast of planarians in the short term, which is manual trapping. Planarians are more sensitive to fishy smells, we just need to put some dead shrimp in a small container, planarians will slowly enter the trap, and when the time comes to take out the bottle, the planarians inside will be caught. This method does not cure the symptoms, and occasionally the effect is OK, but the remaining planarians in the fish tank still multiply.
Image source 丨micaquaticshop
Sometimes we don't worry about the protein worm bursting the tank, because it is originally a highly nutritious fish food, which is not harmful to ornamental fish. Although planarians are also highly nutritious insects, they can climb onto fish or shrimp, which is what more people are really afraid of.
To control the breeding of planarians, in addition to the above several means, it is also necessary to control the source, including whether the water should use pure water, and whether the aquatic weeds have a good soak before putting it into the fish tank.
The article is original by the "YEE Pet Experience Officer" under Yipai. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited