Found these in my tank today.
-
******* To read about the changes to the marketplace click here
Flatworms?
- Thread starter Jbissell1289
- Start date
Salifert Flatworm exit is a product worth considering. I was on the losing end of a long battle when I discovered this product. After using, I have never had them again. Granted, this was many moons ago. There may be better options out there now. Caveat emptor.
zedxplorer
Non-member
Yeah that's flatworm. I had flatworm in my tank before and a mandarin goby took care of that. I usually prefer biological over chemical solution. But also keep in mind mandarin is tricky to keep and I am lucky to trained my on frozen and still breed and dose my own pods once a while. Maybe a wrasse would be easier if you wanna go that route?
Flatworm exit is also super effective like Salty hands mentioned, I use it to QT my corals. You can usually see dead flatworm within 10 min. Keep an eye on the water parameters though, since general belief is that flatworm release toxin when they die, especially if there's an abundance of them.
Flatworm exit is also super effective like Salty hands mentioned, I use it to QT my corals. You can usually see dead flatworm within 10 min. Keep an eye on the water parameters though, since general belief is that flatworm release toxin when they die, especially if there's an abundance of them.
OP
OP
Yeah, I ordered flatworm exit and got a lemon meringue Coris wrasse from @Blue Light Aquatics. Would highly recommend them! Within 15 minutes of being in the tank after acclimation, the wrasse was exploring the tank and picking at the rocks watched for a bit and saw it was eating flatworms already.
A friend also stopped by when he was picking up his kid from school and let me know there are enough pods and flatworms in the tank to get a mandarin if it is one that will eat flatworms at least. I’ve just read that it varies from mandarin to mandarin if they will eat flatworms or not. So I was contemplating getting a red scooter blenny or a green mandarin to help with the flat worms then using flatworm exit to finish of the remaining ones.
What type of mandarin do you have?
A friend also stopped by when he was picking up his kid from school and let me know there are enough pods and flatworms in the tank to get a mandarin if it is one that will eat flatworms at least. I’ve just read that it varies from mandarin to mandarin if they will eat flatworms or not. So I was contemplating getting a red scooter blenny or a green mandarin to help with the flat worms then using flatworm exit to finish of the remaining ones.
zedxplorer
Non-member
I have a green spotted mandarin. I actually had it in my display tank for a while to peck at all the pest. But after the pest were gone within a week it doesn't seem to learn that it can eat frozen. So to train I actually took it out and put it in a 5G QT tank for a month and only fed him various frozen. Eventually it got thin for a bit and slowly trying to nip on brine shrimp, and then mysis. Now it just eat everything. Took me sometime. At some point I was worried it'll starve itself to death but works out at the end.
Honestly if you have some sort of mandarin, I doubt you'll even need to flatworm exit. They tends to decimate pods and flatworms completely since they just peck at rocks all day. Just reduce the risk of putting chemicals in DT if avoidable.
Honestly if you have some sort of mandarin, I doubt you'll even need to flatworm exit. They tends to decimate pods and flatworms completely since they just peck at rocks all day. Just reduce the risk of putting chemicals in DT if avoidable.
Green Mandarins love it the most imo. I also keep a 6line in every tank i have because I prefer natural over chemical. One thing to know is for those to really ever effect coral growth you need to cover the coral with them so the coral can't absorb light.
Edit sorry forgot the reds have a green lol the targets are green i reffer to @Jbissell1289
Edit sorry forgot the reds have a green lol the targets are green i reffer to @Jbissell1289
Last edited:
OP
OP
Petco has a green, I’m tempted to give it a shot. And just keep a close eye on it.
OP
OP
Do you know if both target and green mandarins will hunt for flat worms?
zedxplorer
Non-member
Mine is a green spotted (target) and it ate flatworm for sure, I read that the blue/green mandarins will do similar since they share similar diet. But I was told the spotted one is easier to train on frozen, while people did have success with both. I never kept the blue-green one so not sure if that's just confirmation bias.
