flatworms, nead help

[sailoracu2]

How do you kill flatworms?
Thanks Jim

 

[Dude]

buy a sixline wrasse they will take them out.

 

[osu133lbs]

I broke down today and went forward with a flatworm treatment. I was very apprehensive after all the horror stories that I have read about..... I followed the usually steps of siphoning off as many visible flatworms as possible. I would say that I had a moderate infestation. I replaced carbon and GFO in my 2 tlf reactors yesterday and ran the entire time when proceeding with the treatment. After dosing with the FW eXit, I started doing water changes from my RODI resevoir. I did one about every half hour for two hours. Every time I removed hundreds if not thousands more flatworms. Fish seemed a bit stressed within 20 minutes. Coral polyps retracted as well pretty quickly. Now about 6 hours later fish seem to be returning to normal but still a twitch now and then. Coral polyps are beginning to come back out. There are still a few visible flatworms on the sandbed, not sure if they are still alive, dying or healthy?? I plan on doing another treatment in a few days if even one FW is visible. I would have to say that my diligence in consecutive water changes had significant benefits... If I didn't and just let the little buggers die out in the tank I think the tank would have crashed. I will keep everyone up to date, so far things are looking good... Keeping my fingers crossed that they continue!!

 

[rwp1202]

You can use flatworm exit. It worked wonders for my reef tank. Just be sure you follow the directions to the letter. The flatworms will release a toxin as they die and you will need to be prepared to deal with it.

 

[aerius007]

I treated my tank a year ago with flatworm exit, I didnt have too many and didnt need to even do a water change immediately. I was also very careful to siphon out what I saw for a couple days prior to the treatment. The only thing I noticed was some serpent stars died but nothing else seemed to notice. I did another treatment around 2 weeks later just to be safe. My sixline wrasse didnt touch them.

 

[Briney Dave]

I would not waste money on a six line if you only want the fish for the worms. Mine did little to help. I did have tons of the worms though. The Six line spent his time chasing pods and killing my goby

It took me three doses of exit but I got rid of them or at least down to where the lazy six line took the rest out.

Be sure to follow the directions to the letter. I was shocked at how many I had. I knew there were a bunch in there but the bodies floating were stunning.

I did a water change focusing on vacing bodies then a second 10% change the following day. I did not want to take any chances. That may have reduced the effectiveness of exit and thus the three doses. But I did not loose anything as a result of using the chemical warfare either.

safe rather than sorry when it comes to that stuff.

On another related note, I was advised to just let them run their course and they will die out on their own. This seemed to happen once but they returned in even larger numbers and I think my tank suffered when the first wave of them dropped.

It has been about 6 months or so and I have not seen a single worm.
A very small population may very well still be in the tank but they are no longer harming things by massing over them as was the case last fall

 

[aerius007]

I should mention I doubled the suggested dose when doing my tank.

 

[osu133lbs]

My yellow tang took a turn for the worse around 11:00 a.m. today, the morning after. He is now(3:00) swimming very labored and doesn't look like he is going to make it. I took him out of the display and put him in QT. All corals look fine. I followed directions to a T and then some..... By the way I still have FWs!!!! My advice is take all fish out if you are going to use FW eXit!!!!! Corals are all fine! Disappointing day.

 

[rwp1202]

Did you run a large amount of fresh carbon while you were dosing? This is extremely important in order to take the toxins out of the water.

A water change is probaboly in order as well. Try to vac out as many flat worms as you can find in the process.

 

[plantankerously]

Much cheaper option....http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1379099

 

[osu133lbs]

If you read my first post.... I did run carbon the entire time I dosed the FW eXit.... I also did four water changes after the dosing. I just walked back in the door and plan on doing another now. FW are not gone though!

 

[sailoracu2]

thanks for the help, I guess I have a week end project.