Planaria, Noplanaria and newts

[anxiouslotl]

Hello,

does anyone in the year 2024 have any reliable information on whether noplanaria is harmful for newts?

I keep a lot of chinese firebellies in tanks that are, at the ground, littered with leaves. Inside those leaves live plenty of water isopods, which serve as a constant source of live food. I also have some tubifex-like worms living in the ground, shrimps and mussel shrimps. Sometimes I even see a leech - not the blood-sucking kind. I think they're scavengers only. If I ever see a leech attacking my newts, I'll declare war on them of course.
My larvae tanks work well without electric filters, which allows me to have daphnia swimming in them for a long time.

Unfortuntely ... I also brought planaria into my tanks. And due to me feeding a lot of bloodworms (with added vitamins and/or calcium), they've multiplied massively. At this point, the planaria reach the food faster than my newts, so it's like I'm directly feeding planaria now. Hence I'm fed up.

I already did a test where I put planaria and garlic into a box because I read that would kill them. But they seemed pretty unbothered even after a week. Only the snail seemed to be fighting for its life pretty quickly.

I tried to trap them, but they barely went in there. I trapped like 1 or 2 only. Waste of money on traps.

While I've never seen them attack my newts, snails or shrimps directly, I'm pretty sure they eat my newts eggs and probably the larvae too. Don't even want to imagine how many losses I may have had due to them.

I've already read up on the subject and found at least 1 negative report of someone's axolotls dying after the use of noplanaria, other sources say we got no data. Does anyone have experience by now?

I had a crippled newt a while ago with a deformed back, which I had to euthanize. The deformation wouldn't grow out as the newt got bigger. I wish I had kept that one to test noplanaria on it, but alas, it's gone.


One strange thing is that in the tank of the parent newts, there are no big planaria, but many small ones, perhaps suggesting that the newts may use them for snacks. But I'm not sure about that and it wouldn't help much anyway because there are still dozens, if not hundreds of small planaria even in that one.

I'm currently trying to find the contact information of the producer, but I kind of doubt they experimented on newts anyway.

 

[anxiouslotl]

Little update: I sent the producer an email to ask, though I really doubt they'll know.

 

[minorhero]

I was very tempted to try but ultimately did not. Instead I introduced a fish known to eat them and that sorted it out. It sounds like you have a lot of invertebrates that such an animal would also eat, but noplanaria would definitely kill the other invertebrates as well. I know they say it's shrimp safe.... But people's experience online with that generally is that if dosing enough to kill a large infestation, you will kill all invertebrates as well.

 

[anxiouslotl]

I was very tempted to try but ultimately did not. Instead I introduced a fish known to eat them and that sorted it out. It sounds like you have a lot of invertebrates that such an animal would also eat, but noplanaria would definitely kill the other invertebrates as well. I know they say it's shrimp safe.... But people's experience online with that generally is that if dosing enough to kill a large infestation, you will kill all invertebrates as well.

What fish was it? And did it eat them all up? I thought the ones eating planaria are so big they might also scare the newts.. or even nibble on them.

 

[minorhero]

What fish was it? And did it eat them all up? I thought the ones eating planaria are so big they might also scare the newts.. or even nibble on them.

I used a darter, a small species native to the USA. If you live in the USA chances are good they are in the steams nearest to where you live. They do not bother the adult newts, but definitely would eat eggs and/or larva. Also you will never catch the darn fish without draining the tank once they do their job. And ya, they did eat them all eventually but it took a few months.

 

[anxiouslotl]

Well I've been meaning to post a little update on this.

I never got a response by the producer of noplanaria about its toxicity towards amphibians, so didn't use it.
I also did nothing else to combat them. As I said, traps wouldnt work.

But the planaria kind of disappeared anyway. I noticed that in my parent newt tank, there were only small planaria, which made me wonder if my adult cfb's eat them... and I think so, yes, because as my juvenile newts grew bigger, the planaria in their tank also disappeared with only little ones being left.

I've never actually seen a newt eat planaria with my own eyes, and I don't actively watch them.... but that would be one explanation..
Alternative explanation: the growing newts eat more food, leaving less for planaria.