Flat worms...

[Phoenix19]

Well I have them. They aren't very big and they come out after lights out and get all over the glass and then within ten minutes of turning on the light they hide...mostly. They are in a 20 high, with several different colors of mushrooms, zooanthids, a green star polyp, and a 3-4 inch bubble coral. I am pretty sure these little guys are not good for the corals, so how do I get rid of them. I also have nassarius and astrea snails, feather dusters, hermit crabs, and emerald and strawberry crab, a colored sea slug, and a cleaner shrimp. So that's a lot of inverts. I also have a firefish in the tank and have two clownfish I am quarantining at the moment. Basically, what should I be doing to get rid of these things? Is there something I can dose the tank with that won't hurt the other invertebrates? I've been running the ones down on the glass with the mag float, but I'm not noticing much of a difference in population density. Any suggestions are welcome.

Colt

 

[Phoenix19]

Anyone?

 

[Plecoman]

Flatworm exit works well but not sure if it's safe for your other inverts. Mandarin gobies will eat them sometimes as well and maybe a six-line wrasse. Good luck.

 

[Phoenix19]

Thank you. I will look the product up online and see if I can't find some info on it. Do you think a scooter blenny would eat them if a mandarin does? I could borrow my friends scooter for a while...or I could just buy one. I've been wanting a red one for a while. Hmmmm....

 

[urville]

I have never witnessed exit kiling inverts, I thought it was completely reef safe.

Either way you could do it the for sure way and remove the rock and dose it in another tank, because their deaths are toxic. thier body juice which is released at death at high levels can be bad, and if you see them theirs going to be high levels cause your population is probably huge.

in a smaller dosing tank you can vaccum off the bodies and water change and keep dosing, with out subjecting your animals, then you can physically remove those in your tank as then they should be easy to find and see.

 

[timthetoolman]

The Blue Vet stuff works good too.
If they are the smaller brown ones it will take a couple of doses. The turn a grayish color and wriggle like mad and float to the top. If they are larger and redder (I think) then they are true flat worms and one dose should wipe them out. I know it's safe for zoantids even at high concentrations but I haven't tested it on anything else.
They are usually reef safe but the are an annoyance.

 

[timthetoolman]

I aggree with moving everything out and dosing too. You could even try a Rubbermaid tote.

 

[yankeereefer]

FWE (on the box) and others with experience using it suggest having carbon on hand ready to run. Along with water changes, this will help in dealing with the toxins released by the dead / dying worms.

 

[Phoenix19]

Ughhh, with too many windows open last night I posted this in the wrong thread....


They are little bitty and white-ish clear. They look alot like the first Acoel flat worm in this link

http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweety...hitchworms.html

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom, it is the first one in the row of three with only one pic below it. Now, their little dots in the middle are white not red though...

So basically I have to pull everything out of the tank to treat for them because if I have a large die-off they are going to poison my tank...*shakes head and looks generally disgusted at the aquarium* After I treat, should I run a lot of carbon or what? I may not be able to take everything out so should I just dose a little at a time or??? *shrugs*