Treating flatworms

[seabass]

Oops, I let it get out of control:

 

Treating all of them in the tank would be very risky (even if I siphoned out as many of them as possible). So I took out everything and used a powerhead to blow the worms off into a 5 gallon bucket. Then I moved everything over to my old 40 breeder to treat the survivors:

[hexbasher]

i have the same problem....but worst

 

tomorrow im hitting up a LFS....they may still have afew velvet nudibranch...only problem with that it they sell em for 30 bones....which would make that slug the 5th most expensive thing in my tank

[seabass]

I thought about going that route too. I wondered if it would eat them all then starve or if it would leave enough for a perpetual food source. A nudi would be pretty neat.

[hexbasher]

I thought about going that route too. I wondered if it would eat them all then starve or if it would leave enough for a perpetual food source. A nudi would be pretty neat.

 

ya, me too....i try im gonna buy one on the condition that is doesn't only eat flatworms...if it eats algae too, them i'll buy it, though, i bought a little 5 dollar white nudi....dont know what happened to him...he was going between my tank and the sump for a while....meh dont know...

 

still a toss up....worm-x or whatever its called is 19 bones around these parts and the nudi is 30....though, the nudi is also cool looking

[nano-paul]

Holy flatworms.

 

Mine eventually all died off on their own without any treatments. Took several months, and mine were not near as bad as that. lol

[seabass]

Died off on their own Paul? I would never get so lucky.

 

 

I couldn't see any flatworms, but knew some were still around. After treating, you can see them floating in the water. Here is a shot of the worms I removed:

 

I'll treat again in about a week.

[joesmoe517]

i started to see an unusual amount in my 12 gallon about a month or so ago... I only had a neon goby at the time so i went and got a little six line wrasse. He has been keeping the population in the display under control, but i still see them on the glass in my middle compartment fuge. I suppose this will be a continuous food source for him.

I hear that the six line and green wrasse are natural predators of these little buggers if you dont want to risk the nudi. Do all nudibranch's have the risk of nuking your tank if they die, or is that only certain ones?

[GokesReef]

Mine were even worse than that (can see some pics in my tank thread)... I know it's almost too-standard-to-believe, but, I tossed a six-line in and, two months later, I couldn't find one if I wanted to. No manual removal, no treatments, no increase in WCs.

 

Two notes:

 

1. Even if it didn't eradicate the FWs, the six-line is a great fish. Super entertaining and amazing colors.

2. As far as I could tell, it looked like he was only eating pods.. I never actually SAW him eat a FW, but saw him go for a few pods. However, like I said, there's not a FW to be found in my tank (and I still have a solid pod population).

 

(edit: I thought about getting a blue velvet, but their susceptibility to power heads, difficulty to come by/price and inevitable starvation post-FW-eradication steered me away.)

[sstuckey]

I had them that bad. I mean it was so frustrating I couldn't even look at the tank. Everything was a big brown blanket.

 

So here is what I did:

 

Mixed up a ton of new SW. Siphoned out as many as I could possibly see mid light cycle. Replaced water as necessary. Got a ton of carbon in a madia bag and some Flatworm Exit. Had to put in about double the suggested dose until my nass snails came out and did cartwheels (I tried the recommended amount and although some FW where affected, others just gave me the finger.) Siphoned out all the FW that came out of hiding and was quite shocked how many there still were. Let it sit about 15min. Added the carbon and replaced water. There was a strange smell that came from the bucket of dying FWs that slightly burned my nose and eyes when I looked to close.

 

I had to repeat this about a week later, then again a couple weeks later (on a much, much smaller scale). I havent seen one since and that was about 2 years ago or more.

 

Still have some Flatworm Exit leftover so whenever a get a new frag a put a drop or two in the bag just to be safe.

[seabass]

(I tried the recommended amount and although some FW where affected, others just gave me the finger.)

 

That has been my experience too. I normally dose 150%, but even that doesn't seem to kill them all. I've noticed a couple still in this tank. Round 2 coming up next week (maybe I'll try 200% of the recommended dosage, followed by a large water change).

[pmoradi2002]

Sixline Wrasse.

[seabass]

Sixline Wrasse.

If necessary.

[Aquanist]

Deep 'em.

[highonfumes]

I had a nasty flatworm problem in one of my tanks too. I tried the six line with no luck. He had no interest in eating worms.

 

I ultimately ended up breaking down the tank and only kept a few corals. I dipped everything I kept in fresh water.

 

It was horrible. Talk about learning a lesson the hard way.

[pmoradi2002]

Try Interceptor, if you can grab some.

[bensanders]

Deep 'em.

 

lol

[seabass]

I did round two today. This time I dosed 200% the recommended amount, waited an hour, did a 25% water change, and added activated carbon. I only removed five worms this time. I might do a final round in another week, just to be sure I got them all.

[ednangel]

I caved, tried manual removal and fishes but they're not enough so I got myself some FW exit and will start the treatment today. I didn't know but someone told me they're photosynthetic so I kept a couple dark days to weaken them before I start.

[seabass]

I was so pumped up by the apparent success I'm having with this tank that I decided to treat my seagrass tank as well. It was much worse than I thought it was. I siphoned a bunch out beforehand; but after treating the tank, there were flatworms everywhere.

 

I would have taken some pictures, but I was busy removing flatworms with a net, a turkey baster, and a siphon hose. With all the worms floating around, my clownfish thought it was feeding time. I hope she didn't eat too many (I can't imagine that they would be good for her). I think she kept spitting them out, but I'm not sure if she managed to swallow a few.

[ednangel]

I got what I call the red rock syndrome, every available space it's covered by them. On Friday I did a 20% water change focusing on the sand and rocks (it's very tedious cause I hate to kill other life forms so I go back to the dirty water and wait for the sediment settle to remove mostly spaghetti worms and dwarf ceriths).

 

Yesterday I went and did this to vacuum the worms only and it worked great.

 

Now I’m keeping the lights off for 1 more day to see if that has any effect at all, I noticed thou they seem to seek the light faster after a longer dark period. My experience with them is they like the light but retrieve to the darkness after the lights go off so after a longer dark period they seem to be light thirsty and come out fast which makes it easy to vacuum.

 

Good luck I’m T-3 days from FW exit treatment.

[seabass]

That's a good idea; I wish I would have used that siphon setup. I'll use it on round two when treating my seagrass tank. Thanks!