Flatworms - biological control

[Norse]

Hello everybody,

I´ve been observing two flatworm species that arrived with a couple of frags (Euphyllia sp. and Ricordea yuma).

I´m pretty sure that they are harmless if they are not out of control but I decided to not give them the chance.
In general terms, I don´t like chemical treatments so I looked for a natural predator.

Some Cephalaspidea slugs eat them avidly. I introduced one of them in the tank (Chelidonura genus) and the little guy has been able to eat almost all the flatworms (both species) in less than a week.

I´m not sure if it climbs up corals chasing flatworms or only hunts them in substrate/glass.

I've recorded the process. Here is the link to the video if you are interested :

https://youtu.be/rVsvgrcF5dg

I strongly prefer biological strategies instead of chemicals

 

[Nina51]

that's pretty cool! i had a pretty bad flatworm problem until i added a yellow coris wrasse and a vrolik's wrasse. it took them a while but they cleaned them up. i haven't seen any flatworms for quite some time.

 

[Norse]

Yeah, wrasses are a lot more fun than a slug! This is a 1 gal picoreef so it was my only option .

It sucks the flatworm like spaghetti!

 

[Nina51]

once the flatworms are gone, will it eat other stuff?

i've never been an advocate of suggesting the addition of fish for somebody fighting this sort of problem. too many times, people think oh, i'll just add a couple of wrasses and they'll eat all the flatworms. that's fine unless that person happens to have a mandarin in which case, the wrasse(s) will decimate the pod population and the mandy will starve. it always makes me cringe when i see somebody suggest add this fish or that fish if you have a problem. many times, that only creates more issues.

maybe your slug would be more fun if you taught him to play fetch or roll over.

 

[Calappidae]

Unforunately, Chelidonura (varians?) does not eat anything else. They're obligant to flatworms.

They usually have short life spans of a year anyway, in a larger system their starvation period is a small window from the end of their lifespan anyway. In a one gal however it's not going to last.

Been meaning to get one of these myself, but I need to cover my overflows and powerheads first.

 

[Norse]

once the flatworms are gone, will it eat other stuff?

Nope... but you can give it to a friend with similar issues!

i've never been an advocate of suggesting the addition of fish for somebody fighting this sort of problem. too many times, people think oh, i'll just add a couple of wrasses and they'll eat all the flatworms. that's fine unless that person happens to have a mandarin in which case, the wrasse(s) will decimate the pod population and the mandy will starve. it always makes me cringe when i see somebody suggest add this fish or that fish if you have a problem. many times, that only creates more issues.

maybe your slug would be more fun if you taught him to play fetch or roll over.

You are completely right here. One should think and do a little research before add animals in the tank.

In this case, as I told, this flatworms seem to be harmless and the only possible issue with them is being uncontrolled.
I´m pretty sure that only one slug simply can´t eat all the flatworms. Equilibrium is the key.

 

[Norse]

Unforunately, Chelidonura (varians?) does not eat anything else. They're obligant to flatworms.

They usually have short life spans of a year anyway, in a larger system their starvation period is a small window from the end of their lifespan anyway. In a one gal however it's not going to last.

Been meaning to get one of these myself, but I need to cover my overflows and powerheads first.

This is Chelidonura africana... much more tiny but not available in stores currently. It has been collected by myself.

It will be in the tank during the time I´m able to find flatworms. For those users with C. varians, give them to a reefkeeper partner when the job is done could be the best thing to do .