Flat Worm Extermination

[tigerslacrosse4]

Today is the day. Weapons of choice carbon bags 6 of them (empty) a couple pounds of activated carbon and some flatworm exit. one of the bags will be used to filter the worms out of the tank via a siphon so I can keep the water from the tank as I don't have enough water on hand to siphon out all the worms and then for a water change. Today its going down any tips on how to go about this to make my plan of attack more effective.

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

Any big dogs want to get in on this? tell me what I'm doing right/wrong?

 

[JohnK]

If your infested, don't try to do this all at once. Try to siphion out as many as you can every day for a week or more before using the exit. Otherwise your tempting disaster....

 

[dcforester1]

I have never done this, but I would think without water for a waterchange, you might be asking for trouble

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

I'm leaving the lights out and I'm going to pull out the cheato, that's where they are all at I believe. after I do that I'm going to turn the lights on and see what comes out. Ill kill all my flow and siphon out a crap ton of them for a couple hours today and see what happens. I have school vacation this week so I can take my time with this. I am going to have 10 gal. of water on standby if it comes down to 2 50 % changes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I got mojanos too. I'm taking care of the flat worms first though. I'm kicking the tank maintenance in gear I finally got a bulb so I will have more Coraline algae growth too I would like to get my tank back to 100% but it is going to take some time. thanks for the advise john

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

Bumpity bump bump

 

[s_kelley]

I think I remember reading a great link one time on that melevsreef webpage. Anyone know the link that can post, I'm using my phone and can't post links.

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

I think I remember reading that. I got an update for you guys. I pulled out all the cheato and some other kind of macro and siphoned out some of the flat worms for about an hour and a half. I'm not seeing a whole lot of them but I know that there are some there in the tank and I'm going to do it again tomorrow since I'm on school vacation. After I off the ones that are in there I have to wait for the eggs to hatch that they laid if there are any. after those hatch I kill those off before they can reach a mature enough stage to lay eggs. If all goes as planned I will be flat worm free by the end of the week then I'm on to the mojano nems that are slowly popping up around the tank. I think I can combat those fast enough so they are not out of hand when I do so. as of right now I plugged my filter back in with the filter all cleaned and packed full of carbon I'm hoping that it will clean out all the settled waste that was in the cheato. So for now I'm going to get out of the tank let everything settled down my clown is spooked as well as the skunk shrimp some of the corals are closed up and everything just needs a break. I'll hit it hard well not literally but again tomorrow

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

after a few hours and everything settling down the tank looks better but as expected there are a lot of flat worms still I will try and siphon more out tomorrow and see what happens on monday night or tuesday.

 

[jdeb101]

I plan on really taking a stab at my fw problem soon. I just ordered some fw exit myself. Since my tank is infested reallly reallly bad Im too scared to dose in the tank and its a pita to syphon these cuz theyre in all hard to reach crevices.

Im thinking I may try a different approach than most people. I plan on pulling out frags and LR, placing them in 5 gallon buckects, dosing the fw exit in the bucket, and soon after they die off I will put the frag/LR back in display. THis way I keep the water with the die off seperate from my display.

I will for safety concerns run carbon on the display and have 25-50% water change water prepared.

 

[Takara]

1.If you can take rocks out that have them on them and dip them separately, it really helps.

2.If you have a whole bottle i'd suggest over dosing the fwe just to make sure you get them.

3.Do it twice, or even 3 times if you can. I did, it once, then again the next day, then again 5-7 days later.

4.Use a powerhead to get flow into infested areas.

5.Use a net to scoop the dead ones out as they die and float upward. If you have a powerhead you could place the net infront of it to make it easier.

6.Setup a system to prevent this and other problems in the future. Grab some Coral RX and start dipping corals when received.

 

[jdeb101]

1.If you can take rocks out that have them on them and dip them separately, it really helps.

2.If you have a whole bottle i'd suggest over dosing the fwe just to make sure you get them.

3.Do it twice, or even 3 times if you can. I did, it once, then again the next day, then again 5-7 days later.

4.Use a powerhead to get flow into infested areas.

5.Use a net to scoop the dead ones out as they die and float upward. If you have a powerhead you could place the net infront of it to make it easier.

6.Setup a system to prevent this and other problems in the future. Grab some Coral RX and start dipping corals when received.

Step 2...Overdose!? Thats not very safe is it? Especially since some of the LR Im dipping has coral attached.

 

[Takara]

FWE IS REEF SAFE, ***it's the toxin's that the flatworms release when dead that kills***

 

[paulthomas]

According to someone on RC (I believe she's a biologist), the basic scavenging clear/yellow/brown flatworms () carry very little toxin and are pretty harmless. I recently OD'd FWE once and killed a ton of them. They're back in full force. Bristleworms, brittle stars and pods were stunned (I thought dead) after dosing FWE. The cause had to be either toxins released by the flatworms or the FWE. I'm thinking the latter because the remaining bristles, stars, etc., slowly made a comeback in a day's time. That leads me to believe that the "dead," err... stunned flatworms that I missed may have made a comeback as well.

I plan on controlling these particular flatworms with fish, in the future.

BTW, I used ROX carbon shortly after dosing FWE.

6.Setup a system to prevent this and other problems in the future. Grab some Coral RX and start dipping corals when received.

I'm sure mine came in on inverts and/or their little bit of water via acclimation.

QT'ing them may be a good idea, too. But how does one rid their inverts of them? You have to feed your inverts while in QT, which means you're feeding the flatwrms, too.

 

[paulthomas]

I think I remember reading a great link one time on that melevsreef webpage. Anyone know the link that can post, I'm using my phone and can't post links.

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

I used my, ah hem... my iPhone.

BTW, the so-called harmless flatworms I have look like this:

The flatworms in Marc's link look like a different variety.

 

[gweston]

I have (mostly) clear flatworms in my ~2 month old tank. They look similar to paul's pic above. They likely piggybacked on a few corals I picked up from other members recently. They are effectively transparent with a light tan U-shape internally. Unfort my coral dip regimen wasn't effective on them (eggs most likely). Other critters did hop off from treatment.

As far as I can tell they are the un-harmful variety (I guess). Still deciding on if I should bother using FWE on occasion just to keep their numbers down. They haven't been a problem, thus my hesitation to do anything about them. Though.. by the time flatworms become a problem, it may be a big problem at that point.

The worms seem more interested in hunting tiny pods on the glass than hanging out on corals. They are quite few in number (what I can see). Maybe up to 4 or so on the front glass at a given time. Of course, when you see one.. a lot more are elsewhere.

I guess my methodology would be this:

-identify for certain the variety is a bad flatworm.
-think the plan through, and get prepared (water changes, meds, carbon, etc)
-Go slow. Don't overdose on the first shot. See if the FWE works and how your critters react first.
-Go the multiple treatment route. Increase dosage in stages later if necessary. Take it in stages.

 

[Greg Hiller]

From reading the beginning of this thread I assumed that the initial poster was speaking of the red/brown photosynthetic form of flatworm (C. retrogramma). I hope that is the case. In that case Flatworm exit is probably a good way to go. These can be an annoying pest.

Other later posters might be talking about other flatworm species. PLEASE, be careful with your comments about what forms/species you are talking about. There are many clear or small brown flatworms that live naturally in tanks and NEVER become a problem. They do not reproduce to plague numbers. For these flatworms, IMO, you should do NOTHING. Leave them alone. Do not dump chemicals in to try and kill them.

If we are talking about parasitic flatworms that eat corals, then that again is another very different issue.

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

red/brown photosynthetic form of flatworm have those. I got rid of the ball of cheato and rid the tank of the infestation. I have to fight them off still going to do the last day of siphon tomorrow and then dose the tank. I'll keep everyone posted.

From reading the beginning of this thread I assumed that the initial poster was speaking of the red/brown photosynthetic form of flatworm [/COLOR](C. retrogramma). I hope that is the case. In that case Flatworm exit is probably a good way to go. These can be an annoying pest.

Other later posters might be talking about other flatworm species. PLEASE, be careful with your comments about what forms/species you are talking about. There are many clear or small brown flatworms that live naturally in tanks and NEVER become a problem. They do not reproduce to plague numbers. For these flatworms, IMO, you should do NOTHING. Leave them alone. Do not dump chemicals in to try and kill them.

If we are talking about parasitic flatworms that eat corals, then that again is another very different issue.

 

[jayman10134]

Sheldon are these the ones you got from me. Because they aren't the plague type greg is talking about. How bad are they? What are your nitrates and phosphates at? I would try keeping them down and you shouldn't have a problem. At least thats what I would do before using FWE.

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

there is so many that my rocks are having coraline die off because of the carpet of flatworms sitting ontop of them. They arent eating corals but it was huge numbers till I pulled out the cheato.