Flatworms!

[zygote2k]

This seems to be the red flatworm that everyone is talking about. I've seen them in half a dozen different tanks.

[rocko918]

if not kept under control they will smoother corals like monties. Wrasses and mandarins will eat them and keep them under control.

 

 

But why spread this pest. If its not wanted its a pest. Does it look good? no. do they eat corals? no. but if not kept under control they will get out of control. I would encourage eradication and not as food.

[flowerseller]

if not kept under control they will smoother corals like monties. Wrasses and mandarins will eat them and keep them under control.

 

 

But why spread this pest. If its not wanted its a pest. Does it look good? no. do they eat corals? no. but if not kept under control they will get out of control. I would encourage eradication and not as food.

 

+100

FWE is a great start but rarely 100% effective unless done several times, several days apart and then cleaned out with carbon.

Several fish are not tolerant of FWE also, filefish in particular. Best case is to treat and add a wrasse, yellow coris seem to be very effective. Any FW that are in rock crevices or in a low to very slow flow area may be affected but often not killed, even at higher than suggested doses.

good luck selling coral with FW's

[Coral Hind]

Are those spread over the whole tank or mainly on the mushrooms and leathers? I have seen a variety in the club that mainly feeds off of mushrooms and some leathers and is not the same as the planaria which are non-parasitic.

 

 

[Jan]

These flatworms areimpossible to get rid of. I have them in my hex tank. I put a 6 line wrase in there just to see if it would eat these. It doesn't touch them. I used flatworm exit several times. It reduces the population and annoys many of them, but it doesn't get rid of them. FW dip gets rid of them, but it kills many corals. Velvet nudibranch love them but the nudibranch get stuck to the powerheads. Revive doesn't effect them. Starving them doesn't help eaither. After I get everything settled with my 156 I'm going to knock down the 36, let all the rock sit in RO/DI water then dry it out and revive the rock. I don;t see any other way of getting rid of them. I have a handful of shrooms in there that I'll dip in FW and place in a small tank and treat with FWE. If that doesn't kill them then I'll throw those shrooms away. They are an ugly nuisance. A real pest. They damage and kill shrooms and softies by blocking the light. Tank roaches!

 

[hypertech]

Jan, do a muriatic acid bath instead of a freshwater soak. Faster and more effective.

 

I've only had trouble with these in small tanks that are difficult to filter (read high nutrients). They will grow to plague proportions and choke out the corals. FWE will knock them back. I generally dip with revive and I'm pretty sure it killed them or at least stunned them enough that they fell off. Anyway, I could put an infested rock in another bigger tank that had better filtration and they would disappear. So, my approach with these is FWE to knock down the population and then focus on water quality.

 

I had no luck with control by predation. The fish just seem to decide that fish food is better and if they eat them at all, stop after a few weeks.

[flowerseller]

What are suggesting and recommending she use a muriatic soak on?

Equipment ONLY I'm hoping.

Please clarify before someone reacts with live stock or rock.

 

FWIW

vinegar is a much safer approach in my opinion for equipment, does not typically hurt glued items such as power head impellers and is quite capable of dissolving hard calcium deposits on them.

[hypertech]

I'm suggesting it for the rock she wants to dry out and reuse. As far as live stock goes, you don't dip anything you want to stay alive in acid. It will kill it.

 

I do use it for cleaning equipment sometimes as well. Its faster than vinegar and doesn't smell as much.

[Buucca]

I've actually never seen these in reef tanks and always thought flatworms were the the pinkish brown worms living in our sandbed. So I'm reading up on these...

 

http://www.coralscience.org/main/component/content/article/7-front-page/151-flatworms-compete-with-corals-for-zooplankton

 

Also I clean all my equipment, splash guards, etc. in muriatic acid which I dilute to 20%. After all its hydrochloric acid just like in ours and the fishes stomachs, just give everything a good freshwater rinse when you're done.

Edited November 29, 2011 by Buucca