Hydra Question: Adult Bettas

[soritan]

Now, to be honest, I'm not 100% sure that I have hydra anymore. After I 'realized' I had hydra, I did some research and became horribly concerned. People exclaiming that they were poisonous little hunters who fed on fry and were impossible to kill and death! mayhem! rip the tank apart!

I became quite distressed, to say the least.

Now, I'm starting to read other posts that say hydra are harmless to just about everything except very small fish (such as neon tetras), and whatnot. I even read that, if the hydra occur in the instance of fishless cycling, the only reason why they prosper is that there is no higher life in there to compete for food -- so, by that logic, introducting a fish or three means that the hydra go away because they starve (or, at least, reduce in numbers).

Now, my 10gal is finally done cycling, and every hydra 'cure' I've read about sounds like it might uncycle my tank. I'm starting to be hopeful again, after reading all the 'mostly harmless' posts. I'm also to the point where all my former plans of filling the tank with dwarf puffers has worn me out. I'm ready to just put my betta, some ghost shrimp, and a few adfs in there and be done with all this relentless studying.

To that end, would hydra endanger an adult betta? They don't seem to be full grown hydra, they aren't as big and wild looking as all the pictures I've seen. However, I'm willing to grant that none of the pictures I've seen of adult hydra have given me a proper thing to compare the size to, and I lack a magnifying glass.

I don't want 2.5 weeks worth of careful study and patience to go down the drain. I'm hoping one of you will chrip in and say, "Why, yes, that's right! All that hydra, deadly predator of the aquarium, business is totally disportionate with reality!"

 

[soritan]

Uhn, please and thank you?

I could do my big water change and put one of my bettas in it as soon as tonight, if I thought it was safe...

 

[Synirr]

Hydra are nearly microscopic, and as such pose very little threat to anything that isn't about the same size. They would worry me with very small fry, but to that end, I had hydra in my spawning tank with ~2 week old fry and didn't notice any unusual deaths. Larger fish (and by larger I mean bigger than 1/2", lol) may even eat them.
They are Cnidarians, and their tentacles can indeed sting, but I doubt it is painful enough to deter most predators... it's for the purpose of catching food, mostly.

 

[soritan]

Bless you, my dear. I was getting quite worked up, since I spent a fair bit of time and energy, researching tennants in my 10gal tank, carefully making sure the fishless cycle was on track, spending money, researching some more... the thought that the whole of it would have to be ripped apart, cleaned violently, and recycled just made me crazy.

I don't have proper buckets for my big WC, so I'm going to have to do a series of smaller ones over the course of a day. And then I'll introduce Furin into the tank, and if he likes it, he can keep it!

I almost suspect he won't like it, as the current in there is fairly swift even with current killers all over the place, but if he doesn't, he's got another home waiting in a 5gal I purchased on a whim.

I'm really glad those hydra don't hurt adult fish. Every single search I made up on hydra made them seem like a coming plague.