could flatworms kill my corals?

[scarf_ace1981]

can the deaths of my brain and plate be attributed to me magfloating my glass. i must say i had a great number of flatworms all over my rock and glass. lately though the flatworms have been less in #s. could the deaths of flatworms cause my corals to die?

[lgreen]

If you had like 200 and they all died at the same time in a 5g tank, perhaps.

 

More likely your brain and plate died due to water quality issues, which is also probably the reason flatworms are proliferating in your tank.

 

Decrease nutrient settling by increasing water flow. Will help naturally eliminate the flatworms slowly, but safely.

[chieferich]

copy that. he knows what he's talking about.

[scarf_ace1981]

thanks lgreen. it's a 30g. i did add a seio 620 for flow and they have died down since. your right, my water was most likely the cause. i'll be receiving my skimmer in about two days.

[proraptor]

Ive also heard of coral-eating flatworms....You might want to ID them to make sure they arent the ones you have

[Ricky@3rdshift]

Flow isn't going to decrease the population. My co-worker has a 24g nano cube with 2 nice sized power heads plus the normal flow of the stock pump, and his have gone freakin nuts in the last month. They are so bad they have covered up large portions of his rock. He purchased some flatworm exit which we are going to try soon.

[Caesar777]

Brown planarians just eat detritus, but are toxic when eaten or smashed (like by a MagFloat). They can inadvertently smother corals with their bodies when populations are high.

[lgreen]

Flow isn't going to decrease the population. My co-worker has a 24g nano cube with 2 nice sized power heads plus the normal flow of the stock pump, and his have gone freakin nuts in the last month. They are so bad they have covered up large portions of his rock. He purchased some flatworm exit which we are going to try soon.

 

Flow actually can decrease the population. And this is why...

 

When a food source is present, a population thrives until it reaches its maximum carrying capacity. As food sources diminish, the population will begin to diminish.

 

Therefore, if a population of flatworms is present, it must be due to the presents of a food/nutrient source. Typically you see flatworms on the sand, live rock, or any other places were nutrients settle.

 

By increasing the flow/circulation in the tank, those settled nutrients will be kicked up, and additionaly the extra circulation should decrease the amount of nutrients settling out of the water column. By keeping the nutrients suspended in the water column, it can more readily be removed by a protein skimmer, mechanical or chemical filter, and/or water changes.

 

Failure ultimately to remove the nutrients though, even w/ increased flow may show no results.

 

Also flatworms hate flow. If strong enough, it can blow them away from the food source, and in many cases they can starve before finding a new nutrient source.

 

 

Do you all see the pattern here?? Algae, Cyanobacteria, flatworms, diatoms, they all work pretty much the same way and can be eliminated pretty much the same way.

 

It's all about limiting nutrient input, and making sure those nutrients get exported.

[lgreen]

but are toxic when eaten or smashed (like by a MagFloat).

 

Perhaps. Certain types. But again, smashing a good 10 flatworms w/ your magfloat most likely will do nothing.

 

People make such a huge fuss over flatworms. As long as there populations are kept in check, and not going nuts, a lot of the common types are really nothing to worry about. Infact, I think some of them are kind of interesting.

 

The bigger pod eating ones are pretty to watch.

[scarf_ace1981]

mine are the size of small pods. the biggest are probably pinhead size, if that. there was a time when they covered my rocks and glass but lately i've seen a lot less.

[firefishbrain]

me too, they are neither benificial of bad according to a magazine (Tropical fish hobbyist 2005), they are just there and are considered a nuisence because the can rapidly reproduce and aren't very pretty. There are fish that can control them including (sorry no specific species) gramma, wrasses, damesels, tangs, and butterfly fish (last two aren't all that advisable for a nanoreef, specially the butterfly), again this all from a mag, so it isn;t through (they generally get the "big picture" sort of thing not too much detail)