flat worms

[brian91]

are flat works bad

 

[beckbrass]

If you have acros and they are the acro eating variety then yes. Normal ones can also get to epic proportions and cause prOblems

Here is a link to an article about them

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

 

[brian91]

Ok thank you

 

[brian91]

whats the easiest way to get rid of flat worms

 

[livewire]

A very hungry wrasse will keep the population down. or you could use flatwormexit.

 

[brian91]

any wrasse

 

[JohnK]

Some are a lot better than others for hunting FWs.

 

[brian91]

ok thanks ill try the 6 line wrasse

 

[Kungfukid]

i would say start fresh all over again and qt and dip every corals is sure the best way to prevent fw.

 

[livewire]

ok thanks ill try the 6 line wrasse

I had very good luck with my yellow wrasse. commonly sold as a yellow coris wrasse. They seem to have a neverending appetite. good luck. also a melanarus could set you straight.

 

[DisplacedInTranslation]

Are we talking little red flatworms (2-3mm in size, rectangular, and crimson-colored)? If so, wrasses will keep the population in check but they can overwhelm your tank and die from over-population. Each one that dies releases a small amount of toxin, and when thousands die they nuke your tank.

A SHORT-term solution that you can do routinely is siphon them out with a piece of hose. Simply get 6-7 feet of small airline tubing and an empty bucket, stick one end in the bucket, the other end in front of a powerhead to force a siphon, and then use the hose to vacuum out the little buggers. This worked great in an afflicted frag tank I had a year ago.

THe only permanent answer is to use FlatwormExit. This will rid your tank of all of them but you have to keep in mind they release toxins when they die, so the safest course of action is to remove any CUC and anemones from the tank, siphon out as many as you can see, dose 1/2 the recommended dosage, wait a day, and do a substantial water-change, repeat for about a week. Otherwise, once you get them you aren't ever ridding yourself of them and they breed like Frenchies at a bakery

 

[brian91]

ok ill try the wrasses aproach first

 

[Jocko]

What kind of flatworms are we talking about here? Not all of them become pests. In a new tank you will have an explosion of population of various critters from time to time as the tank stabilizes, but they are temporary explosions. So make sure the kind of flatworm you have is actually a problem type. Otherwise you can just wait for the population to settle down and you'll rarely see them after that. You don't want to stress your tank with flatworm exit unless you absolutely need to.