Flatworm Exit and Sea horses?

[Northside Reef]

I QT'd everything going in my tanks EXCEPT the dang macroalgae. I thought "nothing will be in here for months so no pests can survive a bare tank" forgetting completely about flatworms. I blew it. Red planaria are all over the seahorse tank. And worse yet some of the macro I am growing in the there especially the Ulva was meant for my tangs in the big tang so I can't even feed that to them without risking getting the FW in that tank too.

Has anyone successfully used FWE in a seahorse tank?

 

[Northside Reef]

Another much more desirable option would be a predator that was also seahorse compatible.

 

[rayjay]

By adding another fish you can be risking exposure of new pathogens to your seahorse that he cannot handle.

 

[pledosophy]

Yellow Coris Wrasse and seahorses make great tank mates IME. I kept them together for years without a single issue.

You could also look into the nudibranch that is an obligate flatworm eater, but they are problematic as the population dwindles. The wrasse can eat prepared foods so that is the better option IME.

HTH

 

[Northside Reef]

Thanks Pled, I will get one and QT the heck out of him to help with RayJay's concerns. But it's also not safe to have the ticking time bomb of red planaria in the tank either so removing them is for the best and I prefer the natural predator method over a chemical one.

 

[tjdouglas]

The guy at my LFS recommended getting a target mandarin (not the blue or green mandarin) to eat flatworms. He uses one in his main display tank at his store.