Planaria--oh boy.

[gloriousspandex]

So I've got Planaria squirting around my chinese firebelly newt tank. Normally, I would just sift the gravel around, clean it, and get rid of them.

There's one problem.

My newts are a mating pair so naturally, I've got a lot of eggs/babies in the tank at the moment, attached to/hiding in said gravel. I'd really rather not squish the poor little guys. Any huge water or gravel change is out of the question right now.

I have started cutting back on the amount of food I give them, but does anybody know of any little tricks to get rid of the buggers? No medicine or anything, please. I heard something about sticking a slice of cucumber in?

Also, I noticed my male eating some of them, is this safe? I know fish can...

SO YEP. Looking for any tips and tricks that you guys have to get rid of these worms!

 

[Jennewt]

A slice of cucumber or squash will attract snails. I haven't heard of using it for planaria, but it seems like it would be worth a try. Certainly harmless enough, as long as you remove the vegetable within a day or so.

You can use a paper towel to wipe the inside surface of the glass and wipe away as many as you can that way. Beyond that, it sounds as if you are doing the right thing with cutting back on feeding (assuming that the larvae are still getting enough). Do you have a basting bulb to remove uneaten food after feedings?

 

[Niels D]

I used a siphon to suck up a big deal of these nasty creatures. With this method I sucked them up from the glass and while they were wriggling through the water. Offcourse I couldn't get rid of all of them, but at least the population decreased quite a bit.

 

[tmarmoratus]

Good luck - I have found planaria to be a royal pain in the you-know-what. I once went so far as to filter all the water through coffee filters, and that still did not get rid of all the planaria (though I found it fairly effective).