• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 19:04
CEST 01:04
KST 08:04
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 202547RSL Season 1 - Final Week9[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16
Community News
BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams4Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up0Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed19Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8Team TLMC #5 - Submission re-extension4
StarCraft 2
General
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 2025 Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing RSL Revival patreon money discussion thread RSL Season 1 - Final Week The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings
Tourneys
Esports World Cup 2025 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation #239 Bad Weather Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava
Brood War
General
Ginuda's JaeDong Interview Series BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL20 Preliminary Maps BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams BW General Discussion
Tourneys
CSL Xiamen International Invitational [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [CSLPRO] It's CSLAN Season! - Last Chance [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread [MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok) Path of Exile CCLP - Command & Conquer League Project
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Games Industry And ATVI Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[\m/] Heavy Metal Thread Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment" Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Ping To Win? Pings And Their…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Socialism Anyone?
GreenHorizons
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 586 users

How to take care of a Hydra

Blogs > evanthebouncy!
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12796 Posts
Last Edited: 2007-11-09 09:57:15
November 09 2007 09:50 GMT
#1
[image loading]


Seeing how people want to know how to raise a hydra in the thread "Hydras, the origin of eyes", I decided to make a thread on how to raise your own hydras since I've petted them for some time.

**-Content-**

-Intro-
>What is Hydra?
>Why do I want a pet Hydra?
>Pros and Cons of having a pet Hydra?

-How to Secure a Hydra?-
>From nature
>Buying a Hydra

-How to Take Care of a Hydra?-
>Conditions which Hydras love
>How to feed your hydra


=Intro=

-What is a Hydra?

According to wikipedia,

Hydra is a genus of simple, fresh-water animals possessing radial symmetry. Hydras are predatory animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria and the class Hydrozoa.


Let us translate it to some more humanly readable language.
Hydras are a kind of little critter that inhibit ponds and streams, lakes, and many other mild water environment. A good way to think about hydra is you take a Jellyfish, shrink it until it is about the size of a grain of rice, and tape it head-first onto a surface.

Let us see a magnified visual of a hydra so we get a feeling for it:


So, being a jellyfish taped to the surface, it behaves very similarly to a jellyfish, except it cannot swim around. Like a jellyfish, Hydra has sting cells that sting its prey and inject neurotoxins to paralyze it. Hydra will then engulf its prey by rolling its tentacles inward. Having only mouth and no anus, hydra will regurgitate the indigestible food out from its mouth.

As you might've learned in bio class, Hydras reproduce asexually by budding, It sprouts a fresh miniature hydra from the mother's body, and the miniature hydra detach itself.
[image loading]


+ Show Spoiler +

Here's a goofy code to transform a jellyfish into a hydra in scheme xD
[image loading]

Jellyfish

(Define (Function-Jelly-To-Hydra Jellyfish)
(Tape-to-Surface (Flip-Up-Side-Down (Shrink Jellyfish))))

(Define Hydra (Function-Jelly-To-Hydra Jellyfish))

[image loading]

Hydra


-Why do I want a Pet Hydra?

For very obvious reason. It's a HYDRA! It also requires minimum efforts to raise, and it is very sturdy. Hydras a beautiful creatures that are radially symmetric, something special to gaze at in a world where we associate animals with planar symmetry.

-Pros and Cons

Pro: Easy to raise, Nice to look at, Reproduce readily, makes you ponder about neurons and geometry and science.
Con: Might be hard to get, you don't get much emotional attachment


=How to Secure a Hydra?=

-From Nature

Hydras are ubiquitous creatures in many mild watery environments. People tend to overlook them because they are so tiny. What we need to do is to acquire a chunk of hydra's habitat instead of trying to pick hydras one by one.

Where do we start?
You might want to recall some local rivers or little creeks that flow around your neighborhood. I am sure there are many sources of natural water around where you live, even if you tend to ignore them on a daily basis.

Somewhere like this will be a good place to start.
[image loading]


Start heading out with some clean water bottles, soda bottles are okay too, just rinse them a lot in the creek. Take the bottles to the creek, pond, lake, river, whatever is nearest to you.

Go down to the bank, and walk along it. You want to look for a dense patch of algae, water weed/moss of some sort. I would always go for "filamentous green algae". As its name implies, these kind of algue are made of little filaments, and resemble messy hair balls when in stagnant water, and flows like a lady's hair in moving water.
The look Something like this:

[image loading]

From the bank

[image loading]

When you pick it up

You should fill your water bottle with creek water, take a handful of these green algae (might be slightly disgusting but really you'll get over it), and stuff your bottles with a reasonable amount of them.
If you have multiple bottles, feel free to sample other niches of the water body, take a scoop from the top algae layer, fill that in one bottle, take a scoop from the muddy bottom, fill that in another bottle.

After you feel comfortible with your collection, start head home. It is important not to let the bottle get too hot, the heat will kill any interesting organisms inside. So put the bottles inside a backpack and head back asaply.

Once you are home you can transport your algae mess inside jars if you want, open the cap and let the water rest. By night time, take the jar/bottle and examine it closely under a lamp.
[image loading]


Hydras are few millimeters long, so about the size of this bolded I in normal conditions, it can stretch to 3,4 times it's body length when trying to net preys, and it can shrink and curl into a tiny dot when threatened. They are transparent, sometimes a little bit yellow or green. So look for them. By good luck you may have some already moved themselves from the weed to the outer surface of your container.

If you do not find any hydras in your collection, wait a couple more days, maybe then they'll start to show up. My first jar of hydras were purely by accident, as I had not known they were lurking in it.

If still no luck, I am sure a jar of pond water contains many many other interesting organisms, little critters of all sorts of planktons and little wormies. So you can have some fun with those.

-Buying a Hydra

If you are lazy or do not have any natural water resources nearby, you can try to purchase some hydras. Hydras will probably free if you happen to find them as they are considered a pest inside aquariums. Because like mini-jellyfish, they eat freshly hatched fish.
I've tried and failed to find any online store that actually sells this 'pest'. Your best luck is to find the most shady, unhealthy looking fish store and ask them for the most dirty water weed they have on stock, and pray the weed is infected with hydras.


=How to Take Care of your Hydra?=

-Conditions Hydras thrive in

The jar of weed put at light shade by day time and preferably close to a lamp by night time will suffice. If the water is from a pond or creek, it is a chunk of hydra's natural inhabitant and it will contains all the things that a hydra will eat. Simply feed that body of water some light, the micro ecosystem will reach some kind of equilibrium.
In case your linear transformation of on the state vector predatory species fail to lay inside the bound of the Eigen vectors of the linear matrix and your species preyed each other to extinction, get a new batch from the creek.

-How to Feed a Hydra?

The water body should contain micro-orgasms that will suffice the hydra's need. However, if you want to see a feeding hydra in action, you can carefully remove the hydra to a separate jar (stock the jar with filtered tap water and let the jar sit in the sun for couple days so we dechloroize the water), put some algae in the new jar, and wait awhile while the hydras establish themselves.

You then need to find little wormies, water fleas, or any smaller animals than the hydra, and drop them inside the new tank. Now you can observe when these small planktons drift past a hydra, it will attack and eat them

Something like this:




Okay it's late and I'm calling it a day, GOod night!





Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
Ilikestarcraft
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Korea (South)17726 Posts
November 09 2007 10:14 GMT
#2
Thats cute
Hows college?
"Nana is a goddess. Or at very least, Nana is my goddess." - KazeHydra
vhallee
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
899 Posts
November 09 2007 10:40 GMT
#3
awww, i want a hydra of my own and call it george
Marijuana causes amnesia and other things I don't remember.
fanatacist
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
10319 Posts
November 09 2007 15:04 GMT
#4
Very nice blog post [:

I'm actually thinking about getting some hydra because it's something pretty unique in this world.

I've raised various fish and snails in the past, but one of the most enjoyable was a pack of Triops and Fairy shrimp.

Fairy Shrimp
[image loading]


Triops
[image loading]

This one is scary big o: They grow up to 2-3 inches normally. This is a different species :
http://mytriops.com/articles/images/Triops_numidicus.jpg

The amazing thing about these creatures is that like the hydra, they have survived for millions of years. Triops are often called "living fossils" because they are the ancestors of an entire extinct branch of crustaceon-like animals, like this one:

http://www.ideofact.com/archives/trilobite.jpg

Here is a wikipedia quote about them:
"Their external morphology has apparently not changed since the Triassic appearance of Triops cancriformis around 220 million years ago. Triops cancriformis may therefore be the "oldest living animal species on earth.""
From mytriops.com:
"They are very ancient creatures and long ago evolved the ability to breath with their feet! Fish have gills in the sides of their head. Triops have their gills in their legs! ... Triops have been around a long time and have evolved some strange things. One of their eyes sense light so it knows which way is 'up'. Whilst the other two eyes look out for predators or snacks."

I find that to be particularly amazing, and when you learn more about them it gets more incredible in which ways they have evolved to survive all these millenia. I strongly recommend anyone who enjoys animal biology to get a few of these low-maintenance creatures and watch them grow and maybe even reproduce n_n.

For anyone interested, it takes at most 20 dollars to buy the eggs, glass container, water, thermometer, and food for them. Generally it takes a lot less than that. They live around 8 weeks and by the 10th day of their life they are mature and may lay eggs n_n.

Here is a good ling about triops. The package I got included ways of raising and maintaining them.
http://mytriops.com/

They are generally sold in animal stores or toy stores in many places n_n. I hope you guys consider getting hydra/triops, they are great!

+ Show Spoiler +
Not stolen <<
Peace~
QuanticHawk
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
United States32051 Posts
November 09 2007 15:07 GMT
#5
WTF ? Triops are creepy. They look like horseshoe crabs
PROFESSIONAL GAMER - SEND ME OFFERS TO JOIN YOUR TEAM - USA USA USA
fanatacist
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
10319 Posts
November 09 2007 15:41 GMT
#6
On November 10 2007 00:07 Hawk wrote:
WTF ? Triops are creepy. They look like horseshoe crabs

They are kinda creepy, but the ones you raise are actually relatively small, transparent and pinkish, and they don't look mean at all.

That's because they are related n_n.
Peace~
SonuvBob
Profile Blog Joined October 2006
Aiur21549 Posts
November 09 2007 15:55 GMT
#7
How do you turn them into lurkers?
Administrator
to miss the mark
Profile Joined November 2005
Bosnia-Herzegovina1381 Posts
November 09 2007 16:23 GMT
#8
evan the bouncy aka:

The REAL Hydra Rancher
Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world. Then you can love, and do what you will.
Bub
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States3518 Posts
November 09 2007 18:33 GMT
#9
On November 10 2007 01:23 to miss the mark wrote:

The REAL Hydra Rancher


something tells me a new version is coming out soon. I wish I knew where I could buy little terran units so I can see what the hydras do to them. I guess army men will have to do for now.
XK ßubonic
Jyvblamo
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
Canada13788 Posts
November 09 2007 20:22 GMT
#10
Great googly moogly, this is amazing.
Raising Hydra will definitely be on my list of 'must-do-because-of-awesomeness' things.
Also, Triops look really cool, reminds me of depictions of trilobites.
Snet *
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
United States3573 Posts
November 09 2007 21:14 GMT
#11
hydras seem pretty interesting, but i don't think id ever have one as a pet
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12796 Posts
November 10 2007 01:38 GMT
#12
Yeah I rly rly wanted a Triops. Cross of facehugger and horseshoe crab.
Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
Pseudo_Utopia
Profile Blog Joined December 2002
Canada827 Posts
November 10 2007 03:20 GMT
#13
I just had to point this out.

"The water body should contain micro-orgasms"

ooh, from the hydra? or do I have to put mine in there? XD
Retired SchiSm[LighT]
Physician *
Profile Blog Joined January 2004
United States4146 Posts
November 10 2007 17:18 GMT
#14
awesome blog - might try it with my kids. big huge thanks man for the effort witting it after people expressed the interest in it! evanthebouncy! = nice guy always
"I have beheld the births of negative-suns and borne witness to the entropy of entire realities...."
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12796 Posts
November 11 2007 01:11 GMT
#15
On November 11 2007 02:18 Physician wrote:
awesome blog - might try it with my kids. big huge thanks man for the effort witting it after people expressed the interest in it! evanthebouncy! = nice guy always

Thx phys, you should look more into hydras as they have a great neuron network of simple contraction motors, they are used in bio a lot, great science material.
Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12796 Posts
November 11 2007 01:12 GMT
#16
On November 10 2007 12:20 Pseudo_Utopia wrote:
I just had to point this out.

"The water body should contain micro-orgasms"

ooh, from the hydra? or do I have to put mine in there? XD


YES! I put it there and hoped somebody would notice it
Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
mikeymoo
Profile Blog Joined October 2006
Canada7170 Posts
December 30 2007 07:24 GMT
#17
On November 10 2007 00:55 SonuvBob wrote:
How do you turn them into lurkers?


You feed them the minerals and gas duh

Awesome. I don't think my roommate would approve of dirty moss water sitting on the living room table though.
o_x | Ow. | 1003 ESPORTS dollars | If you have any questions about bans please PM Kennigit
JensOfSweden
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Cameroon1767 Posts
December 30 2007 10:25 GMT
#18
rofl yea I would want lurker technology for my hydra lol
<3 Nada [On and off TL.net since 2002
Jibba
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States22883 Posts
December 30 2007 10:48 GMT
#19
In 3rd or 4th grade I had some science kit with triops in it. It was a little plastic tank that came with some dirt and eggs, and you just added water and dropped food in. One of them started winning all the races to get to the food, so it was like 2x the size of the other ones and some of the little guys started dying. o.o
ModeratorNow I'm distant, dark in this anthrobeat
tanya
Profile Joined February 2017
1 Post
February 25 2017 16:27 GMT
#20
you can buy it here http://www.carolina.com/freshwater-coelenterates/hydra-living/132800.pr its a brown one
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 10h 56m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nathanias 232
Nina 141
ViBE57
StarCraft: Brood War
Sexy 36
Bale 5
Dota 2
monkeys_forever689
Counter-Strike
Fnx 1299
taco 296
Foxcn292
Super Smash Bros
Liquid`Ken76
Other Games
summit1g9966
tarik_tv9010
Grubby2531
C9.Mang0210
Maynarde100
Day[9].tv1
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick421
BasetradeTV34
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• davetesta83
• Hupsaiya 41
• musti20045 35
• RyuSc2 33
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota23102
League of Legends
• Doublelift3857
Other Games
• imaqtpie1154
• Scarra1094
• Shiphtur278
• Day9tv1
Upcoming Events
Esports World Cup
10h 56m
Reynor vs Zoun
Solar vs SHIN
Classic vs ShoWTimE
Cure vs Rogue
Esports World Cup
1d 11h
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
CSO Cup
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
FEL
3 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
3 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
3 days
Bonyth vs Zhanhun
Dewalt vs Mihu
Hawk vs Sziky
Sziky vs QiaoGege
Mihu vs Hawk
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs Bonyth
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
[ Show More ]
Online Event
5 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Xiamen Invitational
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
CC Div. A S7
Underdog Cup #2
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 20
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
SEL Season 2 Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
HCC Europe
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.