Sahin Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 Due to those red planaria things, I have to dismantal my whole tank! They are spreading everywhere and absolutely ruin the look of the tank! I am going to take out every coral and leave them in a large container with tanks water and a powerdhead running. Meanwhile I am going to let the red planaria come out on top of the rocks to sunbath..d*mn B******S! Then I am going to have to work quickly, pic up a rock, and with a using a brush, get them all of the rocks. All cleaned rocks will go in buckets, and eventually once every piece of rock is cleaned, I am going to have to get these things off the glass and sand. Then clean up the tank and then return to rocks.... GO through another hard time aquascaping, then finaly get my corals back in the tank. Hopefully with th reduction in nutrients and very low numbers I might be able to eliminate them. I am just so frustrated now. Link to comment
jdiver Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 Yikes! I have had to completely dismantle and clean freshwater tanks before due to algae problems, and I do not envy you the task of doing the same with a nano tank. Are you certain there is nothing you can do before taking that drastic plunge? Perhaps this thread might help you: http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/archi...2002/01/2/54025 Good luck. Link to comment
fishymissy Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 Although I've never used Oomed against planarians, I have heard that it does indeed work. Just make sure to follow the directions carefully. I have used Oomed once, to treat oodinium in a tank that contained mushrooms, featherdusters, hermits, snails and a cuke without any problems. You will want to watch your parameters after treatment to make sure that you don't get any spikes. As the link stated, all the dead planerians can foul your water. Good luck! Link to comment
Sahin Posted June 22, 2002 Author Share Posted June 22, 2002 Thanks for that tip. However, its a little late and I am very hesitant about putting chemicals into a reef tank. I have taken the tougher route and actually dismantled the tank. I placed all the corals in a large container with powerheads while I cleaned all the rocks with a brush. I vacumed the sand surface as well. I know I have lost quite a few of the pods this way, but at least I know I have done a good job. The previous aquacape which I really liked is lost. I had to do things quickly and on my own, so I opted for a more practical aquascape. The tank is cloudy as hell, but it should be fine tomorrow morning. I havent yet seen one of those planaria buggers so hopefully the problem is solved. Most of my corals seen alright, but my starfish looks disturbed. The shrimp is fine too. I just have to wait and see what happens now. Took me 5 hours to do the whole job. PLUS I drank lots of yucky tank water! I nearly threwup. Its not so much the taste of salty water but rather the thought of all those bristle worms and other creepy stuff being in the water that I just drank. I am so glad the job is done. Link to comment
Satchmo Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 What exactly are these? Worms? Can someone describe them and why they're a nuisence? Link to comment
tosi Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 Planaria are a type of flatworm which are larger than the clear ones. They multiply quickly in the tank and are unsightly. Can see them crawling all over the rock, glass and even some corals. I believe there are no natural predators that are readily available to the public, so they continue to multiply and multiply. Im not sure about the planaria, but for the clear flatworms, several people have had them disappear on their own, myself included. Very happy about that, they are ugly. Actually enjoyed killing those things... suck them up into a cup, than add tap water in slowly and watch them all die. Link to comment
Sahin Posted June 22, 2002 Author Share Posted June 22, 2002 Satchmo; these are the things that plagued my tank until a few hours ago. Now they also have photosynthetic algae in them so they come up on the rocks and corals and sunbathe. They can reproduce sexually or asexually, so you can understand that in a new tank with plenty of nutrients and light they will just take over. They look really horrible too. They have eyes that are quite sensitive and can glide along rocks and glass fairly fast. They dont live in the sand or dark places, and they dont like fast water flow. Hope this helps. Link to comment
Paul G Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 Hi Sahin Pretty drastic !! But I know from experience how prolific they can be - just hope you got them all out. Link to comment
Sahin Posted June 22, 2002 Author Share Posted June 22, 2002 Paul G, I guess then that at one point you did have these things in your tank or know of someone who had them, so how did you manage to get rid of them? I am just asking as I want to be ready for combat just in case a few do re-appear. Thanks for any input. Link to comment
eferna Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 sahin: how did you get these worms? Link to comment
Sahin Posted June 22, 2002 Author Share Posted June 22, 2002 I bought a small bubble coral frag from a LFS (not my usual one). At the time I didnt know what they were and thought thet were some kind of slugs. The d*mn guy didnt even warn me or say anything. I guess it was a case of newbie buying infested coral. I have leanrt a lesson I wont repeat. I truly had a hard time today, and hope to god they dont reappear. Link to comment
eferna Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 you know what, I was just thinking that. I assumed that you may have bought the coral from a different LFS other than your usual. I did that once to save a couple of bucks. So did you tell the guy at the LFS about the infestation? Link to comment
Sahin Posted June 22, 2002 Author Share Posted June 22, 2002 As a matter of fact I did go back there last week to get some water and I told one of the guys. he said !"oh yeah, I know we got those, they are harmless, just siphone them out". Well, its hard to siphone them all out when we have sand in the reef tank as well. Its all right in their tanks as there is no sand at all, just bare tanks. One section od thier display is just infested now. Looks horrible. Link to comment
Satchmo Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 Thanks for the info. Sorry to hear about your woes. Guess you won't be going back to that LFS any time soon. Link to comment
Toyfreek Posted June 23, 2002 Share Posted June 23, 2002 Sahin, ********SIGH*******DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME*****SIGH***** I tried that on both my tanks I just made more, I syphoned, scrubbed, and syphoned some more. I just made more of the little buggers they reproduce by fission so if you scrub you will shread a few and you wont even see em for days. syphoning works for the ones you can see but*****SIGH******they come back in minutes! I dont know from where I think He11! You have four possible cources of action all of them might or might not work: 1. Six Lined Wrasses- about one out of three you get will eat them out of existance. 2. Oomed- some say it works Great I know people that it has worked great for. I also know two people who lost every animal in thier tanks. Its no longer for sale in the USA (because its really nasty) good luck finding some. 3.Berghia slugs- they eat them like crazy! problem is thats al they eat and they will die shortly after the flatworms are gone. That is if they arrive alive (they are VERY delicate shippers) If you have too much flow in your tank they will swirl around your nano till dead. 4. Latreutes fucorum- This is a shrimp found in the sargassum beds I am currently experimenting with these little cuties. there is a (bad) picture of one on my website under the 35hex page. I have two different species that were sent to me here in MN the one in my nano is definately eating the red buggers. the other two in my hex I'm not sure about I haven't noticed any red flattie reduction. search flatworm shrimp on reef central I have a couple of different observations posted there. Good luck and if my shrimp gets em all I'll pass him on to you! Toy Link to comment
Paul G Posted June 23, 2002 Share Posted June 23, 2002 Sahin, no I've still got them in my tank and just siphon out what I can every week or two. Real pests the way they multiply. Link to comment
rhinoivory Posted June 23, 2002 Share Posted June 23, 2002 I'm scared! what if i decide to buy live rock and there are one of the bastards and it multiplies? Thats a whole tank ruined!! I'm sorry to hear bout this pest, i feel ur pain guys!! HJas anyone ever fully recovered from this pest? Link to comment
Sahin Posted June 23, 2002 Author Share Posted June 23, 2002 Thanks for the info toy. And thanks for everyones elses input. Well, it looks like my efforts were vain. Though I managed to reduce numbers drastically, there are still a few. I guess I am going to have to siphone them out when I see any and look for natural removal methods. Because of these things my whole tanks aquascape has been lost. Oh well, I suppose its all part of the learning process. I will beat them though. I always win...one way or another. Link to comment
fishymissy Posted June 23, 2002 Share Posted June 23, 2002 I'm sorry to hear that all that work only reduced the population. I'm glad to hear that you won't give up though!!! I have a few of the red ones in my 20g....not sure how they got there, but whenever I do a water change I just siphon out as many as I can. I know I'm not totally removing them, but at least I can keep them in check. I feel for you with regards to your rockwork....it can take such a long time to get it looking good, but think of it this way, maybe someday you'll have it looking even better!! Link to comment
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