Something Infestation

E

EpicChunk

New member
Below is a picture of something that has infested my tank. I couldn't find any algae that looked liked it or anything. They are non-motile and about 1/10 size of a dime. They are red-ish orange and they just blow off the rock and side glass with the power head.
Any help would be appreciated.
No its not the plate coral, the red dots around it.
IMG_1700.jpg
 
Don't know how to cure them, some sort of solution out there though, I think. My neibors reef aquarium had those too. It crashed and he lost all of his fish except a clown and a dottyback (he used to have a Sohal Tang, Tomini Tang, Regal Tang, Sailfin Tang, and a flame angel). I think his corals made it, but I haven't been over in a while. I think it's like even if you do kill them, if left in the system they relaese this toxin, that can be deaadly I guess. Good Luck!
 
kill them quickly

kill them quickly

Do not take them lightly. They will whipe ouy your whole tank soon if u dont do something. Salifaert flatworm exit, and be ready for alot of water changes.
 
I have bought 9 bottles of Flatworm Exit at $15 each and still had them come back. I followed THIS THREAD and decided to try it myself .. Now I have absolutely NONE left in my system. I am very happy with the results and the cost is outstanding. I treated my 600g system and had about enough for 300 more gallons at $17 total. BTW mine were the red ones like yours in the pic.

HTH
-- Kevin
 
OMG, I hate these. After three doses of flatworm exit they still came back in my old SPS nano. Eventually had to take down the tank after the corals started dieing. I feel your pain, those pics make me cringe too.
 
Most pest infestations in reef tanks are the result of too many nutrients floating around that "feed" the growth of the infestation.

For example, one well-known reef scientist said that he had two aiptasia that sat in his tank for a year and never reproduced, while others end up despairing of ever killing all their aiptasia.


Many people have had these flatworms in their tanks without them becoming a nuisance -- I saw a few in my 6 gallon, but I siphoned them out and they never became an issue. I saw a few in my 30 gallon, but I didn't do anything and they never became an issue.

Remove the excess nutrients that is fueling their growth and you remove the problem. Dosing with chemicals without controlling the nutrients just creates resistant flatworms.
 
Actually I dont think it's JUST excess nutrients. This specific species of Acoel flatworm feeds on copepods and also has symbiotic algae in its tissue like photosynthetic corals do. Resulting in a dense population of these if you have the typical lighting that an SPS tank requires.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12724701#post12724701 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bubbly
Most pest infestations in reef tanks are the result of too many nutrients floating around that "feed" the growth of the infestation.
Click to expand...


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12724850#post12724850 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by danfrith
This specific species of Acoel flatworm feeds on copepods and also has symbiotic algae in its tissue like photosynthetic corals do. Resulting in a dense population of these if you have the typical lighting that an SPS tank requires.
Click to expand...

danfrith I'm glad you said that. I was thinking the same thing :)
I have a 140g refugium and all the copepods that a flatworm would ever want in my system. I had the worms because of frags that I purchased and didn't dip or quarantine like I should have. I will NOT make that mistake again. I don't have excess nutrients unless you consider a healthy copepod supply to be nutrients.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12724701#post12724701 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bubbly
Remove the excess nutrients that is fueling their growth and you remove the problem. Dosing with chemicals without controlling the nutrients just creates resistant flatworms.
Click to expand...

Dosing with a chemical that kills them all in one dose is going to remove the problem and will not make resistant flatworms since they are all dead flatworms which is why I sent the OP a link to a proven extermination method.
I guess, by your theory, if you get redbugs or Montipora eating Nudibranchs in a frag you will just cut back on the fish feedings to reduce nutients and hopefully they will all die off after they consume your SPS corals.

I would rather kill the beasties. ;)

-- Kevin
 
Nutrient control will help and should be a priorioty once you get them under control. However when there is a significagnt infestation you need more. I have used salifert flat worm exit twice a few years ago. You need to be very aware of the toxins the worms realease as they die. This is what can really hurt your system. If you see alot of them you can bet there are are many more deep in the aquascape. Siphon out as many as you can before dosing to limit the in tank die off as much as you can. I also ran an over the side filter on the tank to help siphon out the dying and dead ones and added a good sized portion of carbon about 30mins after administering the dose.I dosed per the manufacturers recommnedation and also aimed two a power heads at the live rock to blow it in. Within a couple of days, I dosed at 150% of the recommended dose to kill those remaining.They are gone and there were no discernable ill effects. good luck
 
I started having a bunch of these in my new 55g tank that I was setting up. They aren't harmful in themselves, but can smother your corals if they get too plentiful.

So I suctioned out 90% of them, and have seen maybe one or two since.
 
I tried the flatwork exit and it killed the flatworks. I also lost a small Sebae Anenome. I emptied the tank and flushed the rocks with RO water and set up the tank like a new tank this weekend. No sign of the flatworms yet.
 
I used flatworm exit and had great results. I followed up with a few six-lines that were proven flatworm eaters. haven't seen any since.
I added an extra fluidized bed filter full of carbon to the tank for the week of the dosing to take-up all of the toxic dead flatworm juice.
 
I used nutrient control - by letting the flatworms be the nutrients for my 4.5 inch melanurus wrasse. It took him 8 weeks, and he grew a big belly and grew another inch in length, but now I haven't seen a flatworm in 3 months. And I still have very high nutrients in order to keep gorgonians and sponges and LPS and 2 pink cucumbers, etc, alive.
 
Sorry if this q might be off-topic - do Mandarinfish also pick off flatworms? In the past I've observed this.
 
The green spoted mandarin is a somewhat reliable predataor of flatworms.
 
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