flatworms?

[fishpimp69]

I have a sh*t load of red brownish flat wroms in my tank. They have been there for months now with no signs of leaving. How do I get rid of them? And what is the safiest way to do so. I do have corals and such...

[LTJGAlex]

Fishpimp:

Don't worry about it. Bristleworms may be hideous maggoty little things, but they're good detrivores and are even sometimes purchased for cleaner crews. Even the large ones are not bad.

[Paintbug]

hes not talking about bristleworms he has a flat worm problem. and the redish flat worms will attack corals. there is a product called flatworm exit. alot of people here has had success with it. the only fish i know to eat them is some types of wrasses. but its 50/50 on them eating the flatworms.

[LTJGAlex]

Yeah you're right. Wow...duh on me.

I think there was a post about bristleworms right below it that I intended on opening. Sorry all!!!!

So yes, flatworms. Paintbug is right, there's a medication. There is also a slug called the velvet slug or velvet nudibranch that you can get to put in there. They eat flatworms exclusively. You'd have to sell or trade them off when the problem is gone.

[greenbean36191]

The flatworms do not attack corals. They are photosynthetic. Other than being ugly and mutiplying to plague proportions they aren't harmful. IMO flatworm exit is by far the best way to deal with them.

Predators like wrasses and mandarins that may feed on them tend to go for more appetizing critters first, so they usually aren't that effective.

The velvet slug will almost never get rid of a flatworm problem because they starve to death before they get all of the flatworms. Then without a predator to eat them the worm just come right back.

[my2girls]

Originally posted by greenbean36191
The flatworms do not attack corals. They are photosynthetic. Other than being ugly and mutiplying to plague proportions they aren't harmful. IMO flatworm exit is by far the best way to deal with them.

I disagree. I'm pretty sure flatworms munched my zoos to death (or just annoyed them so they would not open).

[greenbean36191]

They may have annoyed them, but no they didn't munch them.

[jstraka1]

I bought some flatworm exit and ended up not using it, they went away on their own. It took about 4 months total, I just siphoned off all I could when I did water changes. I would'nt waste $20 on the flatworm exit, spend the money on a new coral. BTW during the 4 months I had them, I did'nt observe any coral attacking behavior. I guess they would smother a coral so it would'nt be able to recieve any light, but they are very easy to blast off a coral with a turkey baster. JME

[zoebeaglezoe]

you have to be careful with flatworm exit if you have a large population and you kill them with flatworm exit, there body juice is very toxic! just siphon them out it even says in the instructions to do so I think flatworm exit is only good If you have just a few.