Flat worms....how do I get rid of them if they are bad?

[Coralreefdiver]

I found what I think are flatworms. I just noticed them on a part of my main rock. Little ones and bigger ones. They dont look they are moving until I went to touch one...they move fast! My tank is now is about 9 months old.

Okay...so what do I do???? I assume they are BAD.... can I use a nudibranch or something to eat them?

Help!

Khara

 

[djconn]

Lots of posts on the subject. Here is one:
http://www.nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic ... tworm+exit

 

[EDGRAY]

THE velvet NUDI will eat them but is better to just kill them with FLATWORM EXIT from salifer...just be caustious on using it here is other threads about flatworms..

http://nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... c&start=15

http://nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... sc&start=0

 

[proraptor]

Suck them out when you do a water change or get a wrasse they love to eat them

 

[Coralreefdiver]

I got some of the Flatworm Exit. I will being using it tomorrow, when I can use a siphon to first get what I can out, and then siphon what are dying out. I also have 10 gallons of new water that I will do a water change after treatment or of I see any troubles with my creatures as the worms die. I can only visually see about 15 worms, if that, so I hope I caught it early.

Any tips/troubles on use the Flatworm exit?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jennie]

Here is where JohnandDawn went ahead and used Flatworm Exit and documented it pretty well. DJ posted it ealier but I'll repost the thread.

http://www.nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic ... tworm+exit

 

[EDGRAY]

The only tip i can give you is take as many as you can then run 2 extra pumps to create kinda hurricane(like some one recomend me) and then dose the tank with FE try to do a double dose as directions and then wait for 30-45 minutes if you see the buggers die run a new bag of carbon then wait 20-45minutes then do a big water change 50-75% and thats it ... thats what people here recommend me and did and work like a charm only sideeffect during the threatment my nassarius and other snails acted weird like they were dying after water change and some hours everything was fine! so good luck with it! then in a 1-2 weeks dose your tank again.. HTH :mrgreen:

 

[Coralreefdiver]

Treatment done, lost my "Lenny"

R.I.P "Lenny...the bi-colored Blenny"....

Did the treatment. I sucked out as many as I could find and then sucked out the ones that started coming out as they were dying. I think I caught it early enough, because I only ended up with maybe 20 worms. I look at my tank very carefully everyday, so perhaps thats good!

I lost my blenny though. I noticed today he was not out to eat with everyone else, and not sleeping in any little nooks and crannies. I found no body, and yesterday when I did the treatment and water change, all the fish went into hiding, so I did not notice if he was there or not yesterday.

I have to say, I have a feeling I may have siphoned him out of a hole and didn't notice!! I was using small and medium sized tubing, so I guess he could have been sucked up. I cannot believe though that I would not notice! I guess the good thing is I will never know, but I still feel bad it might have been me.

He was my favorite fish, and the only fish I have every owned that really had a little personality!

:cryinga: :cryinga: :cryinga: :cryinga:

Thanks for the advice on the worms though!

 

[EDGRAY]

I feel so so sorry about your Benny :cry: :cry: and well he could also die with no reason too like sometimes happen to everyone and well if thats the reason the cleaners always make an exellent job for you to dont realize that you lost one of you loved creaters.... and well im also glad that you got the FW on time... but remember in a month or so just for caution do treatment again and always deep new corals in separate container with water tank some louigols iodine and flatworm exit for 10-15min always follow directions and you'll be clean of parasites :mrgreen:

EDDY..

 

[Abarnswell]

I used to have a SERIOUS infestation of flatworms -- we're talking thousands, millions of them. I hated them, all over the glass, all over everything. I read that you should just ignore them. They won't hurt anything. Eventually, the infestation will simply disappear. And viola, one day my infestation simply vanished. I don't have a single one left. It took a long time, maybe a year, for them to disappear, but they did. And I did nothing to treat them.

 

[reefman23]

Ignoring them depends on the variety. The white ones arent necessarily a problem, however the red ones should be treated.

Jesse

 

[Abarnswell]

Mine were GREEN. Goodness, how many varieties are there?? My green ones didn't appear to hurt anything, because all of my corals thrived during this period, no harm to them.

 

[TimSchmidt]

maybe the actinics made them appear green but they were just white??

 

[drty811]

i have the red ones and i cant seem to get rid of them. im using FWE and still they show up every couple days. little bastards.lol

 

[reefman23]

Be careful Erik. If you use the FWE for a long period, they can become resistant to it. Have yoy tried to remove as many as you can and then administering a double-dose? It worked great that way for me and I believe others here have done it that way too.

Jesse

 

[drty811]

i am using airline tubing to siphon them out, and then once a week a day before my water change i use FWE( double dose). cant seem to nuke them. any other suggestions.

 

[reefman23]

hmm.. not sure. I'll have to research other options.

Jesse