Crap.......I have flatworms.

[steveoutlaw]

That's what I get for not dipping the frags I got from others.

 

Now, does anyone have a recommended natural cure? I hate adding chemicals to my tank.

[Supreme Reefs]

Target mandarin

[sachabballi reef]

from reef keepers magazine:

try wrasses from the genera Halichoeres, Psuedocheilinus or other small inquisitive wrasses. Many times biological controls can keep a predator or pest population in check, but cannot eliminate them completely.

[sachabballi reef]

if you want to go the chemical way....this might be your best bet:

 

http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html

[Pants]

I have flatworms too. I tried the chemical treatments and found mine too resistant even if 20x the recommended dose to be killed by it. I gave up. Then I bought a pair of watchmen gobies and now I only have flatworms in the refugium. They aren't one of the typical choices for flatworm control but they seems to do the job for me.

[johnnybv]

Steve, are you talking acro eating flatworms or just plain old planaria?

john

[Der ABT]

Sorry to hear man, all these reports of pests lately has me dipping all my corals from my old tank (though its clean as far as i know) before i put them in the new tank just to make sure

 

just started using the bayer dip (home pest plus germ) and have dipped a few trial corals to put in my daughters tank....500 efflow and hawkins frag.....no pests came off on the dip...killed some bristle worms, copepods/amphipods, brittle starts but so far the corals are just fine granted its only been 4 days since the dip...

 

i hope i never have to deal with these things.... but definately has made me start a full qt set up for corals alone..

 

best of luck with them... thought you were talking about AEFW...i hope you mean planaria or something along those lines

Edited March 6, 2013 by Der ABT

[Guest]

I had some a while back. Used flat worm exit two times (double recommended dose) and that did the trick. Also followed up with hydrogen peroxide (1 ml per gallon daily) and haven't seen anything since. Also got rid of some algae in process.

[Coral Hind]

I have flatworms too. I tried the chemical treatments and found mine too resistant even if 20x the recommended dose to be killed by it.

What type did you have? Were they eating corals or something like planaria? WHich product did you try that didn't work?

[Pants]

planaria. I used flatworm exit. Did the test to see what dose would kill them and followed up every five days 3 times. I would have gone higher on the dosage but it was clearly bothering inverts. For example the cerith snails we completely paralyzed until I stopped.

[Coral Hind]

I expereinced the same thing. FWE only seemed to work on certain ones like the red planaria. I had small tan ones witha small white dot on them. I did notice that one of my 40GB frag tanks was clear of them and then I saw clear flatworms eating the little brown ones in there. I then siphoned clear ones and spread them to other tanks. It took a couple of months but they slowly wiped them out.

[steveoutlaw]

Got anymore of the clear ones?

 

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to use flatworm exit........there are a kajillion of them.

[ToddR]

Get a yellow coris wrasse.Mine ate all the flatworms on my mushrooms. It's rough on bristleworms too.

[sachabballi reef]

Six Line Wrasses, Leopard Wrasses, Target Mandarins and even Blue Damsels eat flatworms, as does one Nudibranch (Chelidonura varians)

 

clear ones sound cool...so you can only see their mouth?? lol...can you see the other flatworms inside them when they eat them? maybe I am watching too many zombie shows with my kids....

[steveoutlaw]

Does anywhere locally carry flatworm exit? Or anyone have some they want to get rid of? It's looking like it's going to take multiple treatments.

Edited March 7, 2013 by steveoutlaw

[Coral Hind]

Sorry, they were in my old system I tool down to setup the 600g. They clear ones are fast and would come up and completely cover the tan worms and digest them. Yes, you could see them at first inside the clear worm.

 

Can you post a pic of the flatworms you have? If it is the type that isn't killed with FWE it might save you some money.

[steveoutlaw]

Dave - They are Red Planaria, I'm almost positive. They look exactly like the ones on the rock in the picture on Melev's site:

 

http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html

 

I'm going to stop by petco and get the fixings for a syphon today.

[zygote2k]

I have lots of fwe.

 

[sachabballi reef]

Are they actually destroying any corals? I have always read that they will eventually just die off if you keep your water really clean.

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[steveoutlaw]

I haven't noticed any coral damage, just tons of rust colored flatworms. I'm going to syphon out what I can and try to get a pair of target mandarins.

[sachabballi reef]

yea I would hold off on the FWE and go natural and siphon as many as you can often and let nature take its course....I would turkey baster constantly to keep them in the water column and siphon. I am fairly certain that if they aren't damaging anything they will die off on their own. I think it will take a few months of diligence but they wax and wane on their own ...more of an eyesore and nuisance than a reflection of husbandry or damage.....they REALLY dislike strong flows also I would increase skimming if you can.

Edited March 7, 2013 by sachabballi reef

[sachabballi reef]

if you werent planning on the mandarins I would hold off...they are a gamble for these and will consume a ton of pods if you weren't prepared.....suck the buggers out and blast them with some flow and they will go away on their own eventually....

[steveoutlaw]

Thanks Jenn - I will give that a try.

[sachabballi reef]

[Origami]

Steve, if you need FWE, I think that I saw a box on the shelf at F&F about 10 days ago. Did you try giving BRK a call?