Red Flatworm/Planarian Infestation

[herefishiefishie]

Hello, everyone.

I have what looks like the beginning of a planarian/red flatworm infestation. They look like tiny little rectangles or maroon-colored cellophane or plastic.

I have been siphoning out the ones I can get to, but they keep coming back. I have heard that green chromis eat them, but mine do not seem to be helping out. I also bought a green serpent star (because Baensch recommends them as a possible solution) but it does not seem interested in eating the flatworms.

My fish load is very low, so fish suggestions can be accomodated.

Does anyone know what will eat these things? Any information you have will be much appreciated.

[This thread was also posted in the Reef Discussion forum. Please accept my apologies if you are reading this for the second time]

[rshimek]

Hi HFF,

Not much seems to eat these - lots of folks give lots of different fish which eat them sometimes, but no fish seems to be consistent.

You might do a search on "red flatworms," "planarians," etc. and see what has been tried.

I have heard some tales lately that a spike or extended period of high alkalinity may do them in.

Sorry I can't help more here.

[herefishiefishie]

Wow, thanks for the super-fast reply. I'll do a search.

Thanks,

[goby]

hff,

I have had success with the following :

6line wrasse
yellow coris wrasse
4line wrasse

of all of these, i would suggest the 6line first.. and the 4line as a last ditch effort... this is based on my experiences, the 4 line seems to be quite aggressive. I really like the looks of the yellow coris, and the 6line did the best job.

Hope it helps.

g

[saltshop]

Hey HFF!

Have yet to find anything that will completely remove them from a tank with the exception of maybe the radical Marine Oomed treatment, but never actually tried that one myself. Tried the fish mentioned but none seemed to work for me, unfortunately. I have noticed ways to get their population numbers down to reasonable numbers. The best ways seemed to be raising the salinity up to a specific gravity of 1.027+ for awhile, although the mushrooms in the tank reacted very badly and it took a few months after the SG was lowered back down for them to recover. The other seemed to be seriously lowering the amount of food/nutrients added to the tank for a few weeks. The Yellow Tang was still given his greens daily but the rest of the fish were left to scavenge for pods etc. for the most part. Neither completely got rid of the worms but their numbers seriously decreased to a tolerable level. I believe Technobuyer posted about reducing feeding in his tank for awhile with the same results. FWIW the 2 Osc. clowns and the P. Fridmani seemed to actually gain weight when they were fed less and were allowed to hunt for their food, although the clowns would hit the Nori a little as well.

[Greg Hiller]

I sometimes wonder if the fish that are reported by some (please no one take offense) to eat the red flatworms really do so, or whether they are eating something else. I added a blue Mandarin recently to a fragment tank that I set up a few months ago. I only had a few very small pieces of live rock in the tank, and turned on a 400 W MH almost immediately. I had a large outbreak of various microalgaes on the glass etc., and an explosion of 'pods of all sorts, and also a lot of flatworms. These were not the photosynthetic red flatworms (I _have_ seen them at a shop or two), fortunately these have never made it into my tank (to my knowledge). These flatworms were smaller and translucent, or light brown, and usually do not migrate to the bright areas of the tank. Anyhow, the Mandarin has gotten extremely fat eating _something_ in the tank.

- Greg Hiller

[Joe Kelley]

Ron,
Thanks agian for the talk at the MASLA meeting last friday. Reading your material has greatly increased my interest in this hobby and to see you in person was great.
We had to leave before things ended. Thanks agian.!-)

HFF,
As you search find my posts from last august about flatworms. I had an mass extintion that was preceeded by 2 weeks of heat, tank was in the 84-86f range, DKH about 8 and PH, because of evaporation quite high from constant kalk top off. This event happened fast. THe flat worms covered the sand zone in a thick mat. Water went from slightly tinted to dark coffee. I lost other life but most made it through. Massive water changes and carbon for weeks after. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions. What eats them? I have never seen anything. FWIW, I to this day can't find one in the tank, even after adding new things. Hmm

? For Ron, I have seen a large flat worm 2"+ cruising the glass at night. Could it be possible that this eats the pests? I think it my be a limpet.?
Joe

[Alice]

We've been dealing with a planaria infestation at the LFS I work for part time. What a royal pain. After much syphoning, someone mentioned that wrasses of the Amnapses (spelling) sp. would eat the buggers so we now have one of the Red-Tailed variety and a six-line wrasse in each tank. I haven't noticed the six-line munching on them, I think he's getting fat on pods and bristleworms, but the wrasses are definitely eating them. The fish are small and the flatworms are many but they are starting to make a dent.

Brian at Atlantis Aquatics recommended the Christmas Wrasse to me, haven't tried one of those yet. (Sorry on no scientific names, I've lent my "fish books" to someone who is thinking of starting an FO).

We had a lone little saddleback clown in one of the tanks. He was so disgusted with me for not getting fed the normal fare that even he tried several of the flatworms but promptly spit them back out. Not to his taste I guess ;) Thankfully, his new owner picked him up today. He stuck his tongue out at me as she carried him out the door :D

~Alice

[cabowabo]

The Reef Aquarium vol 2 by sprung ,delbeek has a nice section on the most common red flatworm Convolutriloba retrogemma. They claim that "certain nudibranches may be the best natural predators for control of these flatworm plagues." Nudibranch species of the genus Chelidonura feed exclusively on these flatworms. Chelidonura varians is a georgous nudibranch that has a black body and electric blue lines . There is a picture of this species eating the flatworms in the book. The question is how common are these in LFS. This is a great book to have anyway. These authors seem certain that various nudibranches are the best control. They state that most fishes do not consistantly eat them because the flatworms have a bad taste defense.
Here are more species of the genus Chelidonura that are mentioned in the book for control of the red flatworm.
C.electra, C.inornata, C.amoena, C.castanea, C.flavolobata, C.punctata, C. sandrama, C.pallida.

[Tadashi]

Saltshop I have tried the Oomed (http://www.geocities.com/ktchinn/oomed.html) without losing any corals, fish, or my LS. The fish I tried would just spit the buggers out and eat something else. I could not find the nudibranch sold anywhere. It has been about 3 months since I medicated as I still have not seen any detrimental effects on the system.

Dr. Ron I thought the nudibranchs released toxins into the system when attack or die as a defense. Why are they not usually considered reef safe or are they?

[rshimek]

Hi Tadashi,

Well, the basic problem with Chelidoneura devolves back to the Delbeek and Sprung book, which I would say, is not worth the expense. This inaccurate portion about Chelidoneura is a case in point...

First off Chelidoneura species are not nudibranchs, but rather a different type of opisthobranch called a cephalaspidian. Most of the predatory cephalapsids are predators on nudibranchs, and while it is possible that some eat these flatworms, I doubt they will be of much help.

You can always go to the expense of trying though. It is your money. Chelidoneura not being a nudibranch, is unlikely to release toxins on its death.

Another problem with a predatory control will occur during the predator prey cycle. If the predator is transitory - and all slug type predators have a limited life span compared to fish, and will starve and die after they have reduced the flatworms to a low level. The flatworms will then return... If Oomed works go for it. There have been other reports of transient high alkalinity killing the animals.