live rock has flat worms

D

demos10

New member
picked up some live rock for a great price from kristof at $1 a pound.nice pieces but this morning the new rock has flat worms all over.has anyone used Flat worm exit? siphoned out as many as I could but want to get rid of these while the population is still small
 
ive always just siphoned them and they eventually would disapear. ive read up on them alot and from what ive read alot of times they will just die off which is also my experince from having them in my reefs from time to time so ive never had to use flat worm exit. so i guess i can say ive gotten lucky. i noticed some on my rock to and got most of them off when i scrubbed the rock before i added it to my tank so i dont see any more yet but im sure a few more will pop up. anyways heres a link incase you havnt read it yet about using flat worm exit.

http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html
 
Hopefully you didn't put it straight into your system. If not I have had the best success doing FWE dips at 3 to 4 times strength in a bucket for about 3 hours. That seems to get rid of them for good. If they are allready in your tank FWE will kill the vast majority but there always seems to be just a couple that can get the population going again after treatment. If that's the case adding something that will prey on them is something to consider. This is JME from treating my old frag tank several times.
hth, Chris
 
They don't really cause problems for anything, except that they are posionous if they die (to coral and fish). That's why it's important to siphon as many out as possible before the treatment and to run carbon after (esp. if you have tons of them). If they grew to huge populations (they are known to do that), they could smother a coral for light, but I don't think they actually graze, per se, on coral. I let them breed in the 7.5 that's connected to the 125 and supply the main tank for the cleaner wrasse and mandarin. I just dip everything before swaps, etc.;).
 
I have seen them so thick that they get on some of the sps and then the sps starts dying, of course the sps may have been heading down hill and the fw was eating dead stuff. I have used fwe and you have to be careful as even if you try to siphon them before you will see a lot die that you never got. I would try to treat indv rocks out of the system first then treat the system. Then after you are done treating the system wait 3-4 weeks and retreat it.
 
Sorry guys. I think because I hadn't had any fish in the tank for a year or so, they multiplied. I figured they would be good snacks for the fish in your tank. I thought they weren't dangerous.

Jason
 
If the rock is no problem to pull out and put in a tub I would do a strong dip in the tub for a few hours and then treat the main tank a few days later. I would do a treatment a week or so after also to get any babies that hatched out. Then just go the natural way and get some sort of wrass or mandarin. FW's are almost impossiable to not get if you do much trading so a fish that eats them would be the way to go. I would gladley have taken $1 a pound rock with FW's :) I will give you $1.50 a lb ;)
 
I dont think ive ever got rock with out having flat worms so to me it wasnt any different from the 8 dollar a pound rock ive ever bought in the past. ive never had them get out of control either. knock on wood lol. but ive noticed that my yellow tail damsel eats them so that might be why i never had trouble since ive always had yellow tail damsels in my tanks which i didnt know ate them but mine is.
 
Sorry Angela,you can't have the rock.Although If I'd known about it maybe I would have kept that aquapod.Not complaining just never seen flat worms in my tank before.Have to check the Critter and find a target mandarin.
 
anyone local have flatworm exit? Does AC sale it? I got a monti from Kristof and noticed some of those red flatworms. I sucked a bunch out with a dropper. I don't think theres too many, it was on the small rock the monti is mounted too. I didnt get a large amont of rock. So, If I go ahead and treat with FWE, I don't think that there will be too many that die off. I'm planning a water change wednesday evening, so was thinking of doin the treatment wednesday to be able to follow up with a water change after. Any thoughts? Don't need much, just enough to treat a 10 gal. tank...actually 8 gal. of water. If someone close to me has any, I'll buy it from you or take it and order you a new bottle. I want enough to do wednesday, and then do another treatment a week later?

Thanks,
Steve
 
Steve- I think the Critter usually does have it (I seem to remember seeing it there a bunch of time), but give a call over there before you go to double check.
 
Ya you start seeing them right away and I have gotten it from AC. I got two bottles coming in the 1st if you want one they are $15 and a beer del charge:D I don't know what the critter sells them for I was stocking up for dips I am going to do an everything before it goes into the big tank.
 
I use air line tubing and siphone them out as they die. This way you can siphone a long time without draining your tank of water to fast. Run carbon about 15 mins after the treatment also to be safe. And then replace the drained water with fresh SW for a water change also in the same setting.
 
cool, I started mixing 5 gal. of water Sun. So, If AC has any, I'm gonna get it ater work and do the treatment this evening. Thanks for the info.

Steve
 
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