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| The Hydra lived in the swamps near to the city of Lerna in Argolis, and was a terrifying monster. |
Like its namesake, Hydras are carnivores. They do not eat dried food. Hydra uses its tentacles to capture live food. It stings its prey before feeding. It uses its tentacles with barbs to capture small prey, and feeds by bringing the BBS or fry to its mouth located in the round portion of the creature. http://webs.lander.edu/rsfox/invertebrates/hydra.html
If only a small percentage of your fry are surviving and you feed live food & have little hair like things clinging to the glass of your fry tank, use a 10x magnifying glass to check it out. You can make out the cnidoblasts, which contain the unique nematocysts, closely dotted along the tentacles. These discharge stinging barbs into the hydra's minute prey.
Also, like the mythical Hydra, killing the beastie without destroying it’s home is next to imposable. The best solution till now has been to stop feeding live food and say good by to your fry. But following the lead of Matt Patrick’s successful experience treating his shrimp tanks I have found a solution.
Fenbendazole
Fenbendazole is a medicine used to fight parasites found in dogs. Fenbendazole is sold in most LPS under the commercial name Safe Guard. Safe Guard comes in granular form in packets of 1 gram each. For more information on the drug itself please visit
Matt Patrick had success with 2mg of Fenbendazole per gallon in his trials. Each packet of the powder contains 222mg of Fenbendazole so one packet would treat 111 gallons of water. Fenbendazole is reportedly difficult to dissolve in water. So I put 5 tablespoons of hot water and half a packet of Fenbendazole in my magic bullet (mini-blender) and zapped it for 5 seconds. I think the hot water and the blender did a good job of helping it dissolve. Then I added 1 tablespoon of the solution to each of 5 infected 10-gallon tanks with baby bettas ranging in age from 4 to 7 weeks old and crossed my fingers. Within 24 hours all the hydra were gone and even my 4-week-old fry had survived.
Just call me Heracles the slayer of Hydras
Heracles called on his nephew Iolaus for help. His nephew then came upon the idea using a burning firebrand to scorch the neck stumps after decapitation. Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus burned the open stump so it could not grow back. Its last head was invincible to any weapon so Heracles ripped it off with his hands. Its one immortal head Heracles placed under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius