Flat worms

[Piscevore]

So I was informed thursday night that the little green specks at the bottom of my tank are actually flat-worms. Having never known what they looked like, I didn't know i had them. I have two clams, a squamosa and a maxima, a bunch of sps and lps, 2 perculas and a coral beauty.

I have read "Flatworm eXit is a safe solution to get rid of flatworms in your tank. It is perfectly harmless for the reef inhabitants, both fish and invertebrates, but definitely deadly for the flatworms. Flatworm body juice can be toxic for the reef when present in high concentration"

SO the eXit is harmless, but the buggy body juice is not... I don't know how many I have...Some, but how mnay is "high concentration".

I know there have been bouts with people dealing with this in the past. Should I take out the clams? The fish? If I remove a clam, couldn't the worms hitch hike out and back in? Lastly, I don't need 300 gals worth. I only need to treat 50 gallons. Anyone have any they want to sell? Know a LFS (Skiptons?) that carries it?

 

[saltwaterB]

You could also get a fish that is a predator (Halichores sp.)\But the Flatworm Exit works well. We do not have any in stock right now.

-B-

 

[Daragon]

Ryan, I wouldn't use the flatworm exit yet, have you tried syphoning them out, or if you've thought about buying a wrasse, now would be the time. I bought a mushroom rock from Skiptons before that had flatworms and my Sixline ate them up pretty quick.

 

[Piscevore]

Hey Brendan, you guys got any wrasses

 

[Daragon]

They always have wrasses, that's where I got my sixline...

 

[Scuba_Dave]

If you are going to use Flatworm exit, use it BEFORE the faltworms increase in population. The red ones will become a carpet upon your sand & LR. Not sure about the green

 

[joefitz]

I wouldn't jump the conclusion that the "green specs" at the bottom of your tank are the "bad" flatworms. The 'bad' flatworms are brownish and usually have a noticeable red spot/tint to them. Not green. Not even close to green. If they aren't the "bad" flatworms then I wouldn't do a darn thing.

If they are the bad flatworms, I'd would definitely consider Flatworm Exit but I'd be very, very careful with it. I used it with fantastic results, but I consulted with Habib from Salifert and he helped me create a process that helped minimize the impact on my tank. I didn't lose anything in during (or after) my treatment, clam included.

My process was basically to remove all the rock (that didn't have (many) corals attached to it) from my tank and treat each piece. First in bucket of saltwater, super-saturated (triple+ dosed) with flatworm exit (they sat for a couple minutes, tops in there), followed by a few minute soak in normal saltwater, followed by storage in a bucket of saltwater double-dosed with FE. When I had removed everything I could from the tank, I siphoned out as many flatworms as I could. Then I double-dosed the entire tank and kept siphoning. Then I put all the rock back in (I had to re-aquascape anyway so I was planning to do something like this anyway).

By the time I dosed the main tank, almost all of the flatworms were already gone. Nothing even looked stressed after I dosed the main tank...well, no more so than they had prior to dosing anyway, I had just rearranged their world after all! I had MILLIONS of flatworms. They were EVERYWHERE.

I wish I had done it when I first noticed them, before they reached plague proportions. I read threads that said they would extinguish themselves in time and things of that nature. Maybe they do. They didn't for me in the six months I dealt with them...they just kept getting worse. And even if they do end up nuking themselves, I didn't want my tank to die from their toxins so waiting didn't seem like a great option to me.

I noticed a flatworm a few days after my initial treatment and I re-dosed (double) and haven't seen them since (months).

I believe Flatworm Exit is a fantastic product that works just as advertised. But it isn't perfect and should be used with extreme care, just as with any other chemical you put in your tank. If you are safe, you will likely have great results. But again, based on your desciption I'm not convinced you have the type of flatworms you should be using Flatworm Exit to kill...

Joe

 

[Piscevore]

Joe- Thanks so much! I appreciate the input a great deal. This is hardly epidemic proportions. I'm going to pick up a six line or something of the like, and see if he doesn't clean up my problem before I go the FE route. I might do a small dosing on the main tank to reduce the population after a few weeks/month of watching the wrasse's impact. Being colorblind, I honestly don't know what color these buggers are...green/red/brown are tough colors for me.

 

[dima96]

if you want a flat worn eating fish i would go with a coris or melanurus wrasse. i've seen sixlines be hit or miss about eating flatworms.

 

[Piscevore]

Yeah, I am getting a coris I believe

 

[ScottM]

green coris wrasse will keep them at bay.
i'd dose it and be done with it.
that way when you set up the 72, you won't have to worry about it.
you have the brown ones.
the red ones are worse. brown ones can still be a massive problem
i can hold you clam if your worried about it.