Flatworms

[ichthyojason]

I believe I recently got an outbreak of flatworms. There are hundreds of them covering many rocks, though seemingly are not on any corals. They are no more than 2 mm in length and reddish brown in color. I was thinking they are the red planaria. Any input as to the negative qualities these guys will have on my system? Should I get rid of them? If so, how? Six line wrasse? Scrub all my rocks? I have heard mixed things about these guys, from they will eat my SPS to they won't do anything. Also any idea on where these guys could have come from? My current guess is thhrough a large shipment of snails i got not too long ago.. Thanks.

 

[raskal311]

Get rid of them before they get out of hand. They donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t do much harm other then being ugly. But once they die they release toxin that could kill your tank. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢d take action before it gets out of control. Flatworm Exit works very well.

 

[Gooli]

i noticed flatworms in my tank a couple of months ago - all over the shrooms. After the intial "freak-out" i researched and discovered that they are more of a nuisance than a coral-eater or something like that.

So, I added a six-line wrasse and it looks like the population decreased, i also turkey-baster them once in a while on the weekend. I hear that mandarin will eat them too as well as velvet nudibranches.
I heard of the chemical solution called flatworm exit - but i do not like adding chemicals to my tank - like to keep things natural.

good luck

 

[SirLight1337]

Siphon off as many as you can see, then get some of the salifert flatworm exit and bomb the system. As the flatworms die, use a very fine mesh type next to next out their bodies before they explode and release the toxin. After that, do a 30-40% water change with the correct salinity, temp, and pH water, then run as much carbon as you can replacing it atleast once every 2 or 3 days for a week or two. Problem solved. This is the only almost sure fire way to get rid of all of them. a sixline wrasse may put a big hurt on the population, but they will still always be around.

The import part in this whole ordeal is to siphon off as many as you can see and to net their bodies as they detach from the glass/rocks.

 

[Kenfuzed]

I had a problem with them a long time ago. I first tried the Flatworm eXit treatment, but since I couldn't siphon behind my rock/cave work my tank had a near fatal crash from the severe die off. Finally a few months later I added a six lined wrasse and a mandarin. Nothing changed for over a month and then suddenly they were all gone. I haven't seen any of the worms in over a year.

If you go the treatment route, be ready with extra water and lots of carbon. I still use the Flatworm eXit as a coral dip treatment when bringing new coral frags or rocks into my tank, but not directly in my main tank.

 

[codybug]

I solved my flatworm problem by not feeding my sixline as much. He got hungry and ate them. He's still fat. Just cut waaayyyy back on your feeding and see what happens.

 

[So Cal shaggy]

flatworms

flatworms

I had a flatworm problem years ago when some can in on a mushroom rock at the time I did not even think anything of it and went about stocking the tank after I put in some skunk cleaners the flatworms dissapeared.