Red Planaria; Good or bad, what to do about them????

[steri]

I have Red Planaria on one of my mushrooms (at least a dozen or so of them). They don't appear to be hurting it, as they've been on there for at least a month, and the shroom is still doing fine. They also don't appear to be moving onto any of the other surrounding mushrooms. I'm sure that's it's red planaria.

I just don't know much about these flatworms. Anybody have any experience dealing with these? Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[RandalB]

Freshwater or flatworm exit dip ASAP or they'll be all over your tank in no time...

RandalB

 

[steri]

so....they are bad I assume???

 

[Steverino]

Yes, they are undesireable, and they spread. I have looked into this subject recently too. They can cover the glass and cover up some corals, stopping them from getting the light they need. You can siphon them out with a smaller diameter tube, and if you use a filter sock you can re-use the water. They will be in your sand and hidden from view, don't think they are staying put on a small piece of rock. The FlatWorm eXit product that RandalB mentioned is good, but you need to siphon out as many as you can before using it since they release a toxic juice when they croak. Also, you should use a carbon filter to help remove it too. Some people say they go away after time, but keeping them under control ASAP is a better method. I hear that certain wrasses like to eat them, like a 6-line, or even a mandarin goby, but then there are plenty of stories of people who say their wrasse ignores them.

 

[steri]

I'll add to the stories. My blue sided wrasse ignores them.

 

[driftin]

I had a flat worm breakout. My six-line ignored them too. I used flat worm exit and let me assure you - for every one that you see, there are two hidden in the rocks. We siphoned for days leading up to the exit treatment, sand and rocks, and still - when we dosed the treatment they were floating up out of nowhere. EVERYwhere.

We didn't exactly follow the instructions because of how many flatworms we saw dying - we starting syphoning dead worms and water almost immediately, then topping off with new water, and wound up re-dosing the treatment several times that night to keep the concentration up. Used the better part of the bottle for ~70 gallons of tank water because of that. BUT - not a single sighting since. We only lost a few bristle worms in the process, and I think that is because they came out feed on the dead worms and were poisoned by their toxicity. Not the treatment itself. The dead worms were all in a corner of the tank that we syphoned dead worms out of last.

 

[derrikd]

Yes, start the exit now. I had them in my old 180. they take over Quick.

 

[derrikd]

The Flat worm exit works great. but Get them out as they die. you will See tons Floating around as it Kicks .Just have water ready.

 

[Dobejazz]

I have an outbreak in my 5.5 nano has anyone had any experience with Flat worm exit in such a small tank?

 

[hoosierpat]

If you use just under the recommended amount they will all start to go crazy and let go of their perchs on the corals. This makes them easy to siphon off and usually doesn't kill them quickly. That means that you don't have to worry about them poisoning the tank so quickly.

They aren't really that big a deal as they don't really directly harm anything. They usually feed on the mucus of corals but at times they congregate in such large numbers on corals that they may cause the corals to be irritated and close up.

I have noticed that at times they multiply very quickly and sometimes they will stick to one area of the tank and they won't spread. They are however, capable of very quick reproduction so you might as well try and get rid of them now.