FLATWORMS... What do I need to get rid of these guys???

[allenpantino]

So ive noticed these lil' flat purple ish things on my shrooms and frogspawn. I thought they were lil' mushroom pods starting to grow then i did some research and found out they were flatworms. i have quite a few and need to know what the best way to get rid of them.

i heard there was a liquid to buy called flatworm eXit that works good....but if they all die at one time then they could release toxins that could wipe out my tank?

has any one has had issues with Flatworms if so what was your method to getting rid of them thanks

[josephatmbibank]

This might be wierd but Chromis eat all types of flatworms. try a fish to solve the problem. Worked great in my tank!

-joseph

[dc_909]

Sixline wrasse

[allenpantino]

i have sixline but he's not doing much i had chromis before but i will get a few and see what they do i just siphoned about 100 off them with a turkey baster

do they mutilpy rapidly??????????

[NanoGurl]

Yes. Goto melevsreef.com and read his FW article. It's good advice. Six lines will eat them, and some mandarins. If you have a large population they will stick around.

[Racing1]

Using fish will not solve the problem.. as stated above go to melevsreef and read the article...

[cateyes]

scooter blenny....

[reggiepe]

If your follow the direction that Melev has given with his experience, you will not have an issue. I went through this same thing about 2 months ago with red planaria and it was a flawless execution. I have not seen a flatworm since that day.

[driftin]

I had no success with my 6-line. A LFS claimed success in keeping the worm population in check with a scooter blenny, but not complete eradication. I had fantastic success using flatworm eXit. You just need to be well prepared.

[Fiziksgeek]

This is how I successfully took care of flat worms in my 210.

1. Bought 3 bottles of Sailfert's Flat Worm Exit
2. Make up some dip tanks and treated many of my corals discarding the water and dead flat worms. Mushrooms and LPS seemed to harbor the most worms in my case.
3. Returned all corals to the tank and treated the entire display.
4. Add a good amount of carbon per FWE instructions
5. Did a 20% water change at 18 hours and 48 hours post treatment.

Here is a video of the worms freaking out...right before they die..

[ridinfast03]

When I went through this I basically followed the same procedure and fiziksgeek and was successful, but do read melevs topics!

[gman08016]

Flatworm exit worked for me but did have to do treatments

[allenpantino]

thanks for all the great advice guys i will buy the flat worm exit asap. and also try to syphon them like the article and you guys suggested. thanks again RC members

[allenpantino]

Fiziksgeek thanks for the extensive breakdown

[ReefTECK]

I would contest that a mandarin or sixline would work for this problem if the type of flatworm you have is what I am thinking of. Are they red flatworm about 1mm in length?

I had an outbreak of these when starting up a new reef tank a few years ago which was stocked with a sixline wrasse. I must have had tens of thousands of them piling on top of one another.

I bought a melenurus wrasse and he finished the job in three weeks! This also could have been spurious results. Good luck!

[ReefTECK]

holy crap fiziksgeek, that is one gross freaking video!

[TimL]

I did a fresh water dip when I noticed a HUGE number of flatworms on my hair mushrooms. The instant the freshwater hit the worms fell right off. Make sure that the water is RO and the same temp and ph.

I was skeptical at first as the coral looked terrible, but within 24 hours looked ok and after 2 days was back to normal. No worm since. Been about 12 weeks now.

[Waxxiemann]

Man, that video was so cool ... and disturbing ... but mostly cool.

[Fiziksgeek]

HAha, Glad everyone enjoyed...You should see it in HD on the big screen!

[reefworm]

no thanks! I'm going to have nightmares as it is! very cool clip, but creepy. how's the coral doing now? any damage?

[Fiziksgeek]

Everyone seems to be doing just fine. In fact, I think everyone is happier. The most obvious change has been to all the annoying red mushrooms that litter my tank. Their color seems to be darkening to a nice deep red and they seem to be open more. Other than that, I haven't seen any real difference in the tank. But I feel better knowing that I got rid of the flat worms...

[reefworm]

excellent. thanks for the input