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Red bugs or Flat worms ? Please help


eddiev0008

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Good evening fellow reeferrs 

 

I was looking at my reef tank this evening with the lights off and i noticed a few red bugs on the glass. I couldn't take a good picture since there pretty small. What can i do to get rid of this parasites. I am sure they i got them from an aquired coral. Please any advice would be great, I would like to get rid of them before they multiply and gets harder to get rid of them.

 

 

Eddie  

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Red bugs and only affect acropora, and won't be noticeable anywhere else.

 

Red planaria are visable on the aquarium glass and you use flatworm exit to treat for them. Do a little reading about it online and you can find pics to confirm what you have.

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(edited)

Red bugs and only affect acropora, and won't be noticeable anywhere else.

 

Red planaria are visable on the aquarium glass and you use flatworm exit to treat for them. Do a little reading about it online and you can find pics to confirm what you have.

 

I just googled it and you are correct i have Red planaria i only see a hand full on the glass, I also see some smaller critters on the glass but they are so tiny and they move very fast on the glass. But the Red Planaria are very slow.. So what are my options ? My tank has only been running for about 5 months 

Edited by eddiev0008
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+1

Make sure you read up on it before you treat.

 

Red bugs and only affect acropora, and won't be noticeable anywhere else.

 

Red planaria are visable on the aquarium glass and you use flatworm exit to treat for them. Do a little reading about it online and you can find pics to confirm what you have.

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When anyone in this hobby first sees a flatworm they automatically think danger! There are lots of types of flatworms and the most common type I have seen looks like this. It's an algae eater and is on your glass because that's where their food is. I have Never had acro eating flatworms but I'm pretty sure they don't graze on the glass at night eating algae. Fish love the ones pictured so typically you will only see these in a fishless fuge or sump. Fish will control their population. 6b65ff643b8a386621cfb5db7e6351e7.jpg

 

 

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878516113836ef20b68ec36dfee37356.jpg

Now if they look like this it's time to research the heck out of flatworm exit.

 

 

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Thanks I'll keep an eye out the ones I have are def on the glass . I'll have to look again tomorrow night to see which one of the two I have

 

 

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Best remedy I believe is mystery wrasse or yellow / lemon chromis. As long as those fish are in your tank you shouldn't have to worry about them coming back

+1, the first pest I had to deal with was red bugs, flatworm exit didn't kill them all, and they kept coming back.  Within 2 days of buying a mystery wrasse, they were all gone and I haven't seen one since, it's been well over a year. 

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Red planaria, treated with exit, they are the ones visabke on your glass pictured above.

 

Red bugs, treated with interceptor, visable on acropora as small orange bugs.

 

Aefw, only on acropora, treated with multiple dips of every acropora weekly for 5 or more weeks. Other in tank treatments are being experimented with but are not very friendly to your livestock or tank health from what I have read. Also not as effective IMO, because your not inspecting each colony weekly to be sure anything is gone.

 

If you collect acropora you should read up on these pests so you don't get them. And so you can prevent spreading them unknowingly.

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