flatworm exit

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Gravesj1s

New member
Just a brief idea of what Ive done so far.

About 2 weeks after the syracuse swap I noticed some ailing lps corals in my tank.I dosed interceptor as best as I could determine how I should go about it.
In the end ,I believe it was more related to a drifting refractometer than anything else.
If theres anything in my tank from getting frags or whatever its definately self inflicted.My own fault no doubt for just assuming things are pest free.Lesson learned.

So, where Im at now.I noticed flatworms on the glass.I have flatworm exit arriving soon.Just wondering if theres something I should know about using this stuff in advance,Ive heard it works well but Ive also, read flatworms upon dying do or might release toxins.
Is this something you guys have done or worried about,if so what protocol did you follow? (Can get pics if needed)
Thanks for the help-Graves
 
I'm about to dose my wife's office tank. First I plan to rig up some airline tubing and manually remove/syphon as many as I can first. After this I will dose and then do a major wc.
 
They are tough pests to get rid of! I syphoned out as many as I could when I had my 125gal running and then dosed. That didn't get rid of them. Several months later, I syphoned again and then doubled or tripled the dose. That failed too. When I broke down my 125 into a 90gal and 40gal, I freshwater dipped all the rock that I could fit into a 5gal bucket, one at a time and shook vigorously for 2-3 minutes. That killed them. There was one rock that was ~15lbs with a very large leather on it ~12" in diameter at the crown that I couldn't dip. Six months after setting up the two smaller tanks, guess what appeared in the 90 gal? You guessed it, flatworms. They must have come in on that one rock, because the 40 gal is still free of them - 2 years and counting.

Good luck!
 
For real!!! Lovely....

Yep, Im looking into goverment help now,theres got to be a flatworm bailout program I qualify for.
 
I dosed last month with what appears to be total eradication. I had carbon on hand and water ready to go for a change, but I would recommend a bigger water change than what I performed. I did 15 gallons on a ~ 90 gallon system, then followed with another 15 gallon the following day. My brown powder tang looked pretty stressed for about 36 hours. I read reports online about effects on clams, but both my maximas and all of my corals were unphased. I think I dosed just slightly over the recommended dose (~10%), and found it to be efficacious. Flatworm exit is such an easy solution as far as aquarium pests go. Good luck!
 
Flat worm exit took a few doses but it seemed to get rid of them eventually. It was either that or the Canary (Yellow) Wrasse.
Dave
 
Take out any starfish if you can, it can/will affect them, I lost a big blue star, all my lil black ones were paralised and half died and it paralised my huge red serpent star for a couple days!! you deff wanna have water ready and do a water change, for my 120 I did 50 gallons. The more the better. And like they said get some tubing and syphon as many as you can before you dose. I did 50 percent more or so than what is recomsnded to kill them in one swoop!! And def run carbon if your not going to do as large a water change, at least IMO. Good luck!!!
 
Thanks for all the replies and advice.

I do have a red serpent star that Ill remove.Have 50 gals of ready mixed satwater on hand. Im going to give it a shot later tonight.
As far as the flatworms go,I can only see them in the corners of the front glass and there extremely small.The only way I can tell there flatworms is the back end having the w tail as indentifying them.
 
If they aren't the AEFW's they can be rather benign. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want them either, but the liklihood of getting them out of every nook and cranny in your tank is IMO low without massive frequent dosing. That would include frequent huge water changes and fresh carbon. You can try it doing all that too. I experimented on my 40 breeder and saw little to no effect on fish, LPS, SPS, or softies. The serpent star did not fare as well.

Another option is to try to control numbers if they are the small redish brown type. Target Mandarin (psychadelic mandarin), or various wrasses. 6-line, Melanuras, etc...
 
To me they look white and very small. I dont think there aefw, I haven't seen any sign of the dreaded bite marks.

My initial thought was aefw but after looking and thinking about it I'm not convinced.What I saw as possible bitemarks ,I believe was more related to drifting salinity.I didn't notice at first until my alk was low ,thats when I discovered the refractometer had drifted.

Upon getting things back in check birdnest showed what I can only describe as "small blisstering of the tissue" not the tips but at the intersecting parts of the branches.It would start as a little blisster ,then peel away leaving exposed skeleton.I dont know if thats something that makes any sense but its what I noticed.

After parameters were more stable and back in line the areas recovered pretty quick.Its not noticable at all now. So what I was thinking might have been aefw by assuming the blisstering were aefw bitemarks.That redplanet I got from you showed no signs of anything but good growth,maybe Im wrong here but I was thinking it being an acropora and the only acro in my tank it should have shown signs of aefw.

The only other sps that I still cant seam to figure out whats wrong with is the ponape birdsnest it looks just like what some of the others posted pics of recently(apperance and & no growth) with redbugs but I'm sure I dont have redbugs.Also, as mentioned I treated with interceptor.I've even checked with a magnifying glass as well as used a macro lens to zoom in (both day & night).I just dont see anything.

Any thoughts here are much appreaciated.
 
Another respected RC member once brought up that FW infestations can actually be self limiting. But, I'm with you, I'd want em out or at least out of sight. I've seen tanks with the larger FW's, maybe 5 mm in length and they had just taken over. Really unsightly.

Can you get any Macro shot's of the FW's in question. I know that would help.
 
Blistering I was refering to.Flatworm pics are proving tricky,get to them tomarrow.




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i recently moved my yellow corey wrasse into my larger tank that had some flat worms and hes been taking care of them pretty well. someone else on here said that their manderin enjoyed the taste of flat worms
 
Pic of adult flatworm.Took some work and use of new software for raw editing,still a bit foreign.Much to learn yet.



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Good to know and further confirms to me anyway not the cause .I dont notice anything being bothered by them.
I couldn't help wonder if that blistering on the birdsnest was caused by the flatworms.More convinced than ever it was caused by drifting salinity whitch lead to low alk.Bringing parameters backup just happened to be the same time I noticed flatworms.Wasn't sure if it was the flatworms or not causing issues from that point.

upon further researching ,Im sure alot more people have these in their tank but either dont mention it or are unaware of them.
 
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