# will hot water kill nematodes and planaria?



## ShadowBeast (Jul 27, 2011)

I plan of moving my shrimp to a new tank as well as the substrate and I've been seeing nematodes & planaria in the tank, so will boiling the substrate kill them?
I also plan to get nerite snails to put with the shrimp.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

ShadowBeast said:


> I plan of moving my shrimp to a new tank as well as the substrate and I've been seeing nematodes & planaria in the tank, so will boiling the substrate kill them?
> I also plan to get nerite snails to put with the shrimp.


Theoretically yes, but I've done that before only to find a pond snail in my tank months later while I was cycling another tank. So somehow life finds a way to annoy me....lol


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

Boil or bake should kill whatever is in there. Keep in mind, killing all those things and putting the substrate back in the tank may cause a cycle as all that dead stuff decays.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Is this inactive substrate you'll be boiling? Hope it is


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

And in a tank without fish, you will always have nematodes and copepods eventually.


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## ShadowBeast (Jul 27, 2011)

Nubster said:


> Boil or bake should kill whatever is in there. Keep in mind, killing all those things and putting the substrate back in the tank may cause a cycle as all that dead stuff decays.


 I'll try using my big net to drain out any dead stuff but I also have some mts in the tank which should eat any dead stuff as well.


diwu13 said:


> Is this inactive substrate you'll be boiling? Hope it is


 it's the aquariumplants.com substrate which I think are inactive.


mordalphus said:


> And in a tank without fish, you will always have nematodes and copepods eventually.


 I have a couple of ottos in the tank but yeah I'm hoping to try celestrial pearl danios but I'm worried they'd go after the baby shrimp.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

CPD's will go after shrimp, I think with the PITA you are going to have, I would just get new substrate.


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## ShadowBeast (Jul 27, 2011)

Bananariot said:


> CPD's will go after shrimp, I think with the PITA you are going to have, I would just get new substrate.


 I've heard CPD will go after shrimp and I've heard they won't, I guess it depends on the fish's personality.
Do you have any fish suggestions aside from ottos and cories?
I've got some extra substrate in the bucket that the stuff came in so I'd probably only need about 60% of the substrate in the tank.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Be aware that they hitch a ride on plants too.


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## ShadowBeast (Jul 27, 2011)

mistergreen said:


> Be aware that they hitch a ride on plants too.


 Yeah I'll try using the dog dewormer for the plants in a small tank.


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## xenxes (Dec 22, 2011)

My advice is to let the nematodes be, you can dose dewormer to kill planaria.


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## Shrimpaholic (Jul 7, 2012)

I hate little bugs! There has got to be some other little bug that can eat other bugs and then die off when there isn't enough bugs to eat. I used to use nematodes to eat spider mites in my hydroponic gardens and the would mack all the spider mites then die off. So the question is, is there any benificial bug that could be added to our shrimp tanks that would eat all the little critters that live in our tanks?


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## ShadowBeast (Jul 27, 2011)

Shrimpaholic said:


> I hate little bugs! There has got to be some other little bug that can eat other bugs and then die off when there isn't enough bugs to eat. I used to use nematodes to eat spider mites in my hydroponic gardens and the would mack all the spider mites then die off. So the question is, is there any benificial bug that could be added to our shrimp tanks that would eat all the little critters that live in our tanks?


 Small fish like guppies and tetras would eat the nematodes, problem is the fish going after the baby shrimp.


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