I got flatworms

I'm assuming you mean planaria (not AEFW's). If so, Flatworm eXit will get them, but they tend to come back. They aren't a big issue unless they explode in population. With no fish, though, there won't be too much to predate them. Just run carbon and do water changes, siphoning whatever you can find.
 
Actually, they ARE acro-eating FW's. I don't have any SPS in this tank though.

Do you still recommend the same process? Or is there something else I need to do to get rid of them?
 
I highly doubt they are AEFWs. Are they clearish? If so they are common but the population doesn't explode like the red ones.
 
AEFW's can't live without a host (that I'm aware of, anyway)... Where do you see them? You can give FWE a shot and see how it effects them. I don't think it'll hurt the mantis, but anything more drastic would... There aren't any AEFW's in tank treatments that have worked (without redefining worked as crashing a tank and losing most of the inhabitants, so the pest dies). They are nasty little buggers. Probably the most used treastment right now is Levamisole, but I lost a lot back in March using it (and others seem to as well). I started treating everything incoming with TMPCC and QT'ing to reduce the likelihood of them coming back. I don't think what you've got are AEFW's unless they've just been around for a few days (introduced recently) getting ready to die off from no host. There are all kinds of flatworms, though, so it could be something else that the FWE will take care of.
 
And I would love for someone to tell me what the heck THIS is....

31778whatisthis.jpg
 
Oh, the flatworms are planaria. Nothing much to worry about, but FWE will keep them under control. I've got them in my nano and 7.5 frag, but let them go (have a fish in the nano, so it may keep populations down). No issues yet. If they start to look like crawling brown coraline, siphon and nuke em.
 
I have the same guys in my reef. I have yet to do anything about them. Nothing is hurting from them right now. I feel using a chemical to get rid of them may do more harm than good. Any corals I have given away I just drop a few drops of flatworm exit in the bag and send them off. By the time they have gotten to their new homes the flatworms were dead.

I know I see quite a few in my tank so I can only imagine how many are there I don't see. This makes me afraid to treat my tank so I don't poison anything from the worm die off.

Since this is in your nano maybe you can remove the rock and treat it separate from the tank. Then do a large water change siphoning out what you can of the guys. That would leave you very little in the tank and could then safely treat the tank. After treatment it would be easy for you to do another large water change.
 
Ryan,

Flatworm eXit did the trick for me. I overdosed and treated every other day for a week. The last time I didn't even run carbon... I just left the stuff in there! :) No problems at any stage for me and I believe I've totally eradicated them. I haven't seen a planaria in around a year now!

-Ryan
 
I definitely had several thousand. You should definitely follow the directions to a capitol letter 'T' the first few times you do it because they are very poisonous when they die. I think the instructions include siphoning out as many as you can before treatment, doing the treatment, doing a water change, and running carbon. I also ran a mechanical filter to get rid of any floating around int he water column.

This stuff is amazing. Within seconds, you'll see the flatworms running for their life. You think they're slow until they get a taste of Flatworm eXit! Its the freakiest stuff I've ever seen. It didn't affect any of my crabs or snails either.

If you can search back in the forums... I did an hour by hour update of my progress when I did the treatment.
 
I've not known many Ryan's... so we won't win that battle. :)

In that second link you gave, I doubt seriously he followed the directions properly. I think key is mechanical filtration, carbon, water change, and heavy skimming.

If you can get any rocks out before treating and scrub them off, that would also be helpful in reducing toxins.
 
I've noticed an increase over the last month or so, in the number of flatworms. If they aren't hurting anything, then I'll leave them be. I hate using chemical treatments IN the tank. A dip in something is one thing....but adding a chemical to the tank....yeesh!

I might give it a try if they become a problem.

Gary, what kind of fish would you recommend for keeping these things in check, that could safely exist in a 5.5g nano with a mantis that's about 1.25 to 1.5 inches long?

Yeah Ryan, we've got a lot of catching up to do to overtake the Chris-es.

Oh...the Keyhole Limpets...harmful?
 
Limpits are fine. I have heard they eat coraline though but I don't know. I doubt there would be any fish that would go in that size tank and not be mantis food.
 
those limpets are pretty cool. Brother has some that came on some TBS rock. The smallest fish I know that eats them is a sixline wrasse. I did 3 treatments of FWE on my 10 gal. I couldnt see them like you have. But after the 3rd treatment, I seen one on the glass, so I went to AC and picked up a sixline. I actually saw it eat one and it just picks at the rock all day. I don't know if its finding more worms or what. He will be moved to a larger tank soon though. I think its a velvet nudibranch? Cant remember the name, I hear those are really good cause I think thats all they eat. Don't really know for sure.

Steve
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9293573#post9293573 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rcmike
Limpits are fine. I have heard they eat coraline though but I don't know. I doubt there would be any fish that would go in that size tank and not be mantis food.
Click to expand...

Agreed. If you didn't have the mantis, a six line wrasse *should* pick away at them.
 
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