NOOO Just discovered first flatworms!

[DSL]

What to do, What to do??? I just discovered my first flatworms! Any suggestions? Are there syphoning alternatives?

[hubris007]

anyone know if throwing a half dozen blue legs in there and starving them will get them to eat flatworms? they eat dang near everything else when they feel like it.

[jayjellyfish1]

siphon now dont wait . biggest mistake i made with my tankwas not getting them out at first sign.lol .. :eek: :eek: jjf

[eddiem]

I would recommend you give your tank a treatment with a product such as "Greenex".

Most flatworm treatments are reef safe....the toxins come from the flatworms themselves when you kill them in large numbers. Since you only have a few, now is the time to treat them...before they get out of control and a chemical treatment is no longer an option.

[DSL]

DAMN! I just noticed they are red:mad: should I medicate before a population explosion because syphoning them out in a 5.5 will be costly....

[stereomandan]

DO NOT USE GREENEX!

Unless you want this to happen:
http://mail.chartermi.net/~stereomandan/pics/aftergreenex.jpg

This is what it looked like before the greenex incident:
http://mail.chartermi.net/~stereomandan/pics/wholetank.jpg

Use flatworm exit by salifert. I have used it and it is much safer.

I will never touch Greenex again. I can't believe someone would recommend this. I tried it based on some old posts, but learned the hard way that it is NOT what you want to do. I took all the normal precautions too.

The tank now is better than ever, after months of hard work getting it back to life, but this almost made me get out of the hobby. I lost a lot of livestock due to Greenex.

Dan

[SeanT]

Dan,
That is horrible.

[stereomandan]

Yeah, it sucked big time. There were some residual benefits though. I was able to move my tank to my family room where I like it much better. Also, I was able to totally redo and add rockwork.

Here is the tank now. It is still not where I want it, and it's not matured yet, but it's coming along. I've shown this pic a thousand times, I need to take some new ones.

http://mail.chartermi.net/~stereomandan/pics/wholetanknow.jpg

Dan

[Flame*Angel]

I highly recommend Salifert Flatworm Exit. I went on a siphoning frenzy when I noticed my first flatworm. I hunted them mercilessly for days siphoning each one I saw. I still ended up with a plague of them. That was a year and a half ago.

[somethingfishy]

What does a flatworm look like?

[Tadashi]

There is nothing you can do. Just bag everything up and send it to me. :)

I have a magnified picture of a flatworm about mid way down the page: http://bonsai_reef.tripod.com/flatworm.html

[somethingfishy]

How big do they get and how big is the one in the picture? I dont have any thank goodness, was a bit worried there for awhile as I have some centapeed looking fellows in my tanks.Thanks for the information.

[RooFish]

I'd go with exit now, get them before they spread.

[Tadashi]

That pic is magnified by 20x. The red flatworms I had were generally about 2-3mm. But they we in plague proportions to the point where you could not see the rock or sand. However they did not get on the corals. I did have a heater go out and the cold kills a large amount of them causing a serious ammonia spike killing 80% of my fish and corals before I could stablalize the system (WC, carbon, cand skimming). Eventually they all died but they did not go alone.

[Foogoo]

Now I'm curious too. What are the signs of flatworms? Anyone have an unmagnified pic? Thanks.

[Tadashi]

Lets see, you know you have flatworms if:
1. You just put in a fresh layer of nice clean white oolitic aragonite and your sandbed is still rusty red.
2. You get sea sick from looking at your sandbed and LR because it seems to move.

:D

You will know if you have them or not. They crawl on the glass, rock, everywhere. 2-3 mm is visible to the naked eye. There are many fish that will keep a population in check but it may take them time to aquire a taste for the worms.

http://bonsai_reef.tripod.com/images/old_tanks/020322.jpg

This is the only picture I have. You can see the worms on the left side. This was after I started using a canister filter to vacuum them up weekly. Before that they covered the entire sandbed and LR.

[somethingfishy]

Can you take a picture of that corner for us. I have lots of little worms in my sand in one tank and am wondering what they are. Thanks for any info on these critters everyone.

[Tadashi]

Sorry I am flatworm free now. They did not like the tank move from Ft. Leonard Wood to Ft. Riley. :D

Do the worms look like flat bullet shaped worms or segmented worms or worms with a medusa head?

[manu]

^

[tag007]

Shoot now I am curious. There are several types of flatworms. Are these red ones considered the only "plague" type. I ask becasue I noticed two of what I thought were some type of flatworm in my tank the other night, about 6-8mm in length rolling through my sand bed. It was a translucent green. Anyone have any experience with anything other than this "red scourge" variety.