Red Flatworms

tagging along- unfortunately i have the same problem. tried a 6-line, then a melanarus wrasse, neither do much. Maybe a corlis would be better, haven't tried that one yet.
As far treatment with FWE, for the double treatment on consecutive days, do you do regular doses 24 hrs. apart and continue to siphon and do water changes during the treatment time. Or is it better to do a higher dose treatment 1 time to rid 100% of them and take your chances w/ the rest of your tank. I'd hate for to do the treatment and then they come back a couple weeks later.
 
No, the problem is the amount of toxins that will result from mass death of all flatworms (planaria) all at once from a single standard dose, therefore it is better to do to half doses on consecutive days siphoning off the dead planaria between doses thereby cutting their toxins in half...causing less shock to your fish population CAPT KAOS
 
So it seems that everyone is hitting the nail on the head with this one, so I will just add my two cents as to what has helped me in the past. Wrasses, specifically Coris, help control it but not eradicate the pests. Same with freshwater baths, good to lower populations, but not to eliminate all. I have not used the BlueVet treatment, but Flatworm Exit seems to work well. And the best way to use the Flatworm Exit without too much fear of toxins from the worms is to physically remove as many as possible with siphoning and freshwater baths, then to proceed with the Flatworm Exit. A turkey baster also helps remove them from corals that can not be taken out for the baths, but careful of soft corals with delicate tissue like the Euphyllias, I've ripped open a few when I first tried.
 
Wrasses in a reef predator tank are mostly a snack, and please don't bother with Blue Vet....it's about as effective as a wrasse in a predator tank, only keeps them under control for a short time..... fi your flat ya ain't squat....iradication is the final solution

Capt Kaos....UW graduate in marine invertebrate zoology
 
I have just been told Melafix is a good solution. I have some on order and will report back:)
 
I didn't see if anyone mentioned this either, but use carbon to filter out the toxins if you decide to go with any flatworm medications.
 
i just treated my 210 this weekend and so far so good.
my total main system is a 210 display and a 40 breeder, i had them pretty bad.
i ciphoned as many out as i could but could not get them all.
i treated the tank with flatwork exit and waited one hour, then turned the skimmer back on a i had 3 media reactors ready filled with carbon and turned those on at the same time as the skimmer, 1 hour after treatment.
again so far so good, no issues.
tank looks great now, no red flatworms
 
i forgot to mention i did have 60 gallons of new saltwater readt to go for a water change and did that ~5 hours after treating the tank with the salifert flatworm exit
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15307796#post15307796 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CGRANT
i forgot to mention i did have 60 gallons of new saltwater readt to go for a water change and did that ~5 hours after treating the tank with the salifert flatworm exit
Click to expand...
so after you used the exit and killed the FW did you siphon out the dead ones ?........was there lots of them ? anything in the tank got effected?
 
I took the advice from this thread and the FWE instructions. A few times before using FWE I siphoned out the ones I could see and finally treated at a less than 100% dose. Probably around 70%. That was enough to wipe out hundreds of them- they just kept coming out of different crevices. I siphoned out as many as possible, did a 20% water change. The next day I added another 50%+ dose to make sure I got them all, but after the 2nd 50% dose I saw no more dead ones, it seemed the original 70% dose wiped them out. I did a 2nd 20% water change and siphoned out a few more. as of now, 1 1/2 days after starting the treatment I see no negative affects on anything else- fish, corals, snails, hermits, although the invertebrates may be hiding- I dont' see any dead ones as of now. Overall I'm happy and will dose again in 1 week in case any eggs hatch or any have survived the previous treatments.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15307937#post15307937 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mario4254
so after you used the exit and killed the FW did you siphon out the dead ones ?........was there lots of them ? anything in the tank got effected?
Click to expand...


i did not have to ciphon out the dead ones as i installed all the power heads i had in the tank, it was like a freak'n monsoon but it suspended the flatworms into the water column and the filter sock got them, i just swapped out the filter sock a couple of times.
the only negative... some of my chalice did brown out a little, so at some point the toxin's from the flatworms did affect them at some point or another over the last 2 days, i am pretty sure it was during the 1st 24 hours as the tank is fine now with the exception of it browning out my chalices a little but they should bounce back fine.
 
they will release a toxin into the tank, i would not do that if it was me, you need to siphon them out as much as possible, my one chalice that browned out i can easily get 100 bucks a frag for so i am not happy that it happened but it should bounce back fine.
they can nuke your tank, they are nasty little bastages!!!
 
i just spent 5 hours siphoning all of the stupid flatworms out of my 55 gallon. there must have been 1000 of these things, the whole bottom of my styrofoam rock container 24x24 footprint was brown i couldnt see any white through all the flatworms...gross, lets see how many there are tomorrow.
 
it took me a good 3-4 days to get most of them out, also i just dosed the tank again this past weekend cause some of the eggs must have hatched but i didnt have a lot this time.
i dosed again but i didnt have many in the tank from the 1st round, i would dose the tank again a second time just to make sure you got them all cause in my tank it looks like a few hatched after the 1st dose but like i mention it wasnt anything to worry about and i think i got the all this time, i will give it a couple days.
imo... it's a good idea to have a bottle on standby incase you see a couple and can dose the tank at that moment so they dont overrun the tank, i ordered 2 from dfs for spares.
 
I've used both. The Blue Life stuff is weaker so you need to use around 3x more of it but they both work. Do a second dose a week or so later to get any that may have hatched after the first treatment.
 
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