found a flat worm eating fish

pitbullpooch

pitbullpooch

Member
well i went and picked up a yellow tail damsel today because i had one that would eat flatworms in my old nano. anyways i was told that this wasnt normal for them to eat flatworms and i just got lucky. well i put my new yellow tail in my tank and within 2 minutes he ate all of them off my front glass and now is working on the ones on my rock work. just wanted to let the people who are trying to get rid of there flatworms to try one out and see if they work for you.
 
I was gonna actually buy another one just to see if this was just luck so if the next one i buy eats them to ill pass one your way. I found a few other posts on other sites where people claimed theres also ate flatworms. mine ate them for about 15 minutes and then stoped but went right back to eating them a little while later. he must have had to let his belly settle lol.
 
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hmm....Ive always liked the yellow tail damsels. I dont have any FW in the 20 but I have a few corals in my 10 that has FW I was gonna move to the 20. Just in case any FW make after a dip the yellow tail could control them. Wonder if it would be fine in the 20 with aggressive ocellaris clowns? Or will all 3 just fight in a tank that small?

Steve
 
I have flatworms in my 29g. I don't want them to tranfer to my 75g. I have been dosing flatworm exit like religion w=every 2 weeks for a month and a half. I was told even if you get them all the flatworm exit will still leave the eggs behind and they will hatch within a 2 week period. Anyway I transferred some rock I had in the sump to the 75g that has been running for a month. Guess what I have a few popping up int the 75g. They don't harm anything they just multiply fast.

Is this damsel one of the terror kind. I had one one time and I hated that pest...But I am desperate so I may try one. I only have a bi color Pseudochromis and a yellow goby. Would they be OK with him in the tank.
 
Flatworms (planarian) don't lay eggs. They reproduce by fission. So, no if you kill all the flatworms they are gone... no eggs to worry about. The only problem is killing them all.

Yes, how aggressive are yellow tail damsels? I have one in my 12 gallon nano with the mantis I could try in my reef. The reef has a lawnmower blenny, royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, and a copperband.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9605388#post9605388 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TitansFan
Flatworms (planarian) don't lay eggs. They reproduce by fission. So, no if you kill all the flatworms they are gone... no eggs to worry about. The only problem is killing them all.

Click to expand...

That was what I remembered from science classes as well, I thought they just split to multiply. But I swear I have had several LFS tell me that, one that I truly trust. Doesn't matter the point is they are very hard to erraticate. I may try the damsel. I just don't want a bully in my tank...
 
I have looked around on-line and they seem to be fairly cheap fish. I am just concerned about the temperment of them. I started out with a yellow damsel and that guy was a ticked off pest. He would attack everything.
 
I have never had a problem with the yellow tails being to agressive and ive had them in nano's from 5-10 gallons with gobies and clowns mostly so id say there less agressive then most other damsels. I had a domino damsel that was alot worse then any yellow tail ive had. They are on the agressive side but ive always had good luck with them in my nano's and i hope it stays that way. I have a clown in my 40 now that is half the size of my yellow tail and they stay away from each other untill feeding time which even then the little clown runs the yellow tail away from his side of the tank.
 
Cool.. I am making a trip to Coral Reef Aquatics tommorrow. I will pick one up. I like the damsels they swim around alot and are cool colors I guess the Yellow i had just made me feel they were to agressive for my tank..

T
 
alot of people recommend the six line wrasse for eating flatworms but i guess there hit or miss. i know theres other types of wrasses that people claim will eat them. most of the time people say to try the six line but ive never tried one before since ive always had nano tanks.
 
Interesting information, I might have to try a yellowtail :) I have a sixline that eats flatworms and one that doesn't, but I can't catch them out to switch them!

Flatworms, can reproduce asexually and sexually (just as corals, anemones, worms, plants, starfish, etc can reproduce by fragmentation and by the combining of gametes). Like rotifers, daphnia, and even a few fish, sexual reproduction in flatworms is often seasonal (the rest of the year being asexual production). Having said that though, I'm not sure how often/if they lay eggs in aquariums. They actually have an unusual method of mating...let's just say I'm glad that humans are different :D
 
well i fiannly found the place that i read about the yellow tail damsel eating flatworms and this is what the person had wrote to someone asking what eats flatworms

"Okay, I recommend a wrasse. Some people find good luck with six line wrasse, or a dragon wrasse. I haven't personally tried either of those, but did have success in my tank using a Puddingwife wrasse. Another option (as hard as this is to believe) is that many people have reported success using the common yellow tailed blue damsel."

thats weird that he said "many people" have reported this but i cant hardly find anything about the yellowtails eating flatworms besides on wetwebmedia where i quoted this from. Hopefully they will work for others to. I know im not that lucky :lol: so it cant be just luck.
 
If the canary is what they also call the yellw coris (the small version of the 'yellow coris'), I'm not sure why they'd list them as expert unless they are like mandarins and need a large constant food source... My spotted mandarin munches flatworms (along with my Christmas wrasse and cleaner wrasse). I let them grow in the remote systems so they can feed the main tank.
 
I've got 4 pep shrimp in the tank. Either they are not interested in the flat worms or can't keep up with them. I'm trying to keep "fiesty" out of my tank which is why I've stayed away from the six line and the damsels. But I want something short of using FWE so I amy have to amend my rules. Of the two fish, six line and yellow tail, which do folks feel is less of a threat to fellow fish?

Gary, do you think or have you heard of the psychodelic mandrins eating flat worms?
 
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