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Coral Vue Hydros

Flatworms


nemonlizzy

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So I did my research before frantically posting.

 

I have Flatworms. Some are all green, some are greenish reddish. They are in different parts of the tank, but my pico is primarily zoas. This is my worry.

 

I don't see any zoas receding yet, they are all out and happy. I am worried about the future though. Has anyone experienced flatworms that become a problem later on?

 

I can upload a picture if that would help in anyone telling me whether I should be worried or not.

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Flatworms very quickly multiply. I'm just resetting up my tank after I tore it down due to having a plague of them. They may not bother the zoas much right now but they will cover every inch of rock overnight if you do not get them under control. I dipped every piece of rock and coral before I put it into the temp tank i had set up. The amount I had would have killed everything if I had used Flatworm exit in the tank with everything still in it.

If you have few you can try using Flatworm eXit but be ready to do a water change they release alot of ammonia when they die.

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Interesting, I have not done anything about it for now and they seem to be somewhat under control. I have read they release a ton of ammonia when they die off so I'm thinking about suctioning them off for now. See how well that works. They still aren't bothering the zoas.

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Also, something to keep in mind is that some flatworms are not dangerous to your reef at all. Alot of the ones that are, just cover almost everything but I have some that just chill on the glass and never on coral. They seem to eat film algae and other than the initial population explosion of new critters in a tank, I barely see any these days.

 

A pic would help out I'm sure. I've never seen green ones but the most common bad flatworms (in reef tanks) are usually the rust colored variety.

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There are fish and nudiebranch that can help in flatworm control. However, results very and I am not sure your tank could support such an option.

Like cdxanti said, they aren't a big deal till they run over the tank. Eradicating the problem now is wiser then waiting for plague you can't handle without some drastic measures.

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Melanurus, yellow, six-line are good candidates. If it is a Pico tank, I wouldn't use first 2 or even six-line. Springeri Damsel also eats those pesky worms. That's what I got. I didn't really planed on getting another fish (don't want to overstock) but due to some hitchhiker worms that came on larger colony, I had little choice. With 2 smaller gobies and 16g of real estate, this should be ok for a while tho. Good news, don't see any flatworms anymore.

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What's your tank size? A 6 line would solve it and is an awesome fish to boot.

 

I've also seen outbreaks just up and stop eventually - may be something nutrient related?

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i have flatworms, always on the glass, some rocks. never really an issue. i mean i dont love them but they arent killin anything yet...

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