Flatworm infestation! Please help

[madreefer14]

I just saw a bunch of flatworms in my tank. Can anyone give suggestions on how to rid myself of these boogers. I haven't added any new animals for almost a year. No new fish either. How can I safely rid my tank of these? Thanks for your help

 

[tmz]

Flat worm excit works very well. But you must follow the directions carefully including siphoning out as many as you can before treatment When the flatworms die they give of toxins so you need to be ready with extra carbon and extra aeration during this process. It is very effective and can safely be used up to 150% dose,in my experiende.

Pedators include various wrasses such as a six line(pseudocheilinus hexataenia) or a green spotted mandarin (Synchiropus picturatus). Predator reliablility will vary from fish to fish,however.

 

[jsimpson123]

yeah u could try a mandarin or a six line wrasse

 

[madreefer14]

Great. Thanks for your help TMZ. The guy at the LFS told me about the flatworm exit wednesday but I couldn't remember the name of it and I dont think he would appreciate me calling at 10:30 at night. So a mandarin will work too. Great I've always wanted a mandarin.

One quick question though about the flatworm exit, Will it kill off my pods too?

 

[samwrang]

Be prepared to do flatworm exit more than once if you have to. We had to do it 3 times and get a mandarin before they were completely gone.

 

[sgarron]

Mandarins and six line wrasse are hit or miss, they may or may not eat flat worms. A yellow coris wrasse is a good bet to eat them though.

I used flatworm exit, followed the directions and still lost 4 anthias and a carpenters flasher wrasse.

 

[McTeague]

I have flatworms I do not plan to do anything at all about it. They help keep the crushed coral clean.

 

[sgarron]

That's fine if thats what you want. Just keep in mind that they will eventually smother any corals in your tank.

 

[McTeague]

Oh noes!

 

[MSU Fan]

Oh yes!

I have a nasty infestation, and they finished off an unhappy elegance of mine. I just got some FW exit to use on them. And now they are ****ing off a brain too. These suckers got to go!

 

[tmz]

Yes, they will smother corals if allowed to reach plaugue proportions. There is aslo a potential problem with them crashing as they overpopulate and when the do die in large numbers they can poison a tank.

The mandarin that I have seen control them is the greenspotted(Synchiropus picturatus) not the(Synchiropus splendidus).I agree the (Halichoeres chrysus) might be more reliabe if it works in your tank. It can harm fanworms,snails and shrimp and jumps.

When I used flatworm exit. The following steps worked for me:
Shiphon out as much as you can.Place a small over the side filter on the tank to run extra carbon and add flow. Use a power head on the bottom to blow the med into the rock. Turn off the skimmer and remove carbon or resins. Administer a 100% dose. Turn on the over the side filter without carbon, it will help siphon out the dead worms.Let the med work for the reccomended time(45mins I think, check the instructions). Add the extra carbon and resume skimming and/or other filtration. Do the reccomended water change. Wait 24 hours and repeat if needed with a 150% dose.

 

[Swanwillow]

I had to use flatworm exit once... the recommended dosage didn't work, sooo....

I squirted, then ran carbon and skimmed and siphoned. Nothing died other than the stupid worms. And, I cannot honestly tell you how much over the dosage I actually got.

 

[madreefer14]

I'm not sure if this is related or not but my lobophila and my favia are suffering from receeding tissue. I don't see any signs of RTN but the tissue is definitely receeding from the skeleton. I wouldn't say that they are plague proportion yet but some may be dying and poisoning the tank and that may be whats killing the corals.

 

[wachuko]

Can you share photos of what they look like in your tank?

And is there a way to make sure we never get them?? Preventive measures to avoid them in the first place??

 

[rick12]

what causes an overpopulation of flatworms? overfeeding?

 

[Ricky1066]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bedford's_Flatworm.jpg

 

[rick12]

what damage is caused by flatworms?

 

[tmz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11675954#post11675954 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wachuko
Can you share photos of what they look like in your tank?

And is there a way to make sure we never get them?? Preventive measures to avoid them in the first place??

Quarantine observation and treatment or pre treatment of new corals and rocks with flatworm exit in a dip are the only ways I know.

 

[RichardScottRice]

There are different types of flatworms, some are pests, some are harmless. Before you go adding chemicals to your tank make sure you are actually dealing with the red planaria flatworm pest. Read all the instructions on Flatworm Exit and follow them exactly or you could have a bigger mess. It is essential that you siphon out as many flatworms as you can before you use the product as red planaria excrete a toxin when they die. Flatworm exit is detrimental to snails, stomatellas, nudis and beneficial worms in your sand bed such as bristle worms. It also will affect your nitrifying bacteria and you may notice a spike in your water chemistry stats.

 

[taillonjohn]

I tried to do nothing about my flatworms, I waited about 8 months,thinking they would eventually die themselves out, but no luck.

They multiply by splitting, and they are photosynthetic, so it basically means there is no stopping them from multiplying. They smothered my GSP, and thats when I used FE. I couldnt even see some rocks at all, most of the front of my glass, was all ruct-red from those things

I used 3 times the recommended dosage (no way I was doing all that work again a few days later just to be sure they were dead). Im proud to say that every sinlge flatworm is dead, and I didnt lose any livestock at all. just big time water change, and frequent changing the carbon, and no problem. Everything was receded and shriveled for a couple of nerve-wracking days, but on day 3 things started opening up again.