Flat worms galore

dmh41532 · Oct 16, 2015

My tank has been taken over by the little devils. I've stopped using an airline to pull them out, that's a waste of time. Flatworm exit was a fail. Anyone have suggestions? Our local fish store has some fish that supposedly eat them. Does anyone have experience with using a fish? Any animal i would add would need to be happy long term in a 65 gallon tank.

glweek · Oct 16, 2015

sapphire damsels eat them, they look great, are cheap, and the least aggressive of all the damsels, never seen mine do anything aggressive.

Kali · Oct 17, 2015

I have/had the red planaria flatworms and thought I had eradicated them some time ago using flatworm exit. (I'm not a fan of using a fish to remove anything, as that seems to always backfire) The fish in my system after the flatworms were "eradicated" were a young pair of clown fish and a pair of neon gobies (Elacatinus oceanops). I'm fairly certain the neon gobies were keeping the flatworms at bay!

It seems like anything that goes after copepods may also eat flatworms, at least that has been my experience.

lauderdalestunner · Oct 17, 2015

+1 on glweek. I have one, he/she? was the first fish in the tank years++ ago and has given me zero problems in my 90. Haven't ever seen a flatworm knock on wood...

Pete polyp · Oct 17, 2015

6 line wrasse will put a dent in them.

eg8r210 · Oct 17, 2015

My tank was overrun with red planaria a few years ago and I added an a christmas wrasse, melanurus wrasse and yellow coris wrasse. No red planaria seen again after about 2 weeks. The yellow coris wrasse seems to be insatiable and always eating something.

There is no way I would put flatworm exit in my tank, I am not a fan of adding stuff like that when there are beautiful fish that can do the job.

Scythanith · Oct 17, 2015

I took the following steps:

I spent a week siphoning out whatever I could off the rocks, etc.
I started with a single dose of FWE (as per manufacturer's directions) and had a double dose ready.
Watched the tank for a couple minutes and there weren't enough coming off the rocks so I added the additional double dose and they started coming off the rocks in droves! I waited the recommended time before bringing the carbon online and then started netting the floaters out with a large fine meshed net.
Once I was satisfied with how many I scooped I did a 25% water change.

My tank is a 270g full reef. I had a large FW problem and now they are all gone. I make sure that when I get new corals in I also add FWE to my dips.

Cheers,
Scott

Scythanith · Oct 17, 2015

DeniseAndy · Oct 17, 2015

I have used flatworm exit in the past to get the buggers under control. Now that I have a christmas wrasse and a mystery wrasse, I will not use it. However, I still have a few out there. Now, my Yellow coris was a great little eater of them! Beautiful fish too. I eventually lost her to jumping into the overflow (which was not big enough for her and she injured herself before I got to her). I loved that fish! My only reason for not getting another is my christmas wrasse can be a bully towards others similar.

domination2580 · Oct 17, 2015

Blue velvet nudibranchs only diet is flatworms...

domination2580 · Oct 17, 2015

If you have a bunch growing and a big population, you shouldn't have a problem keeping a cool looking nudibranch alive!

Pete polyp · Oct 17, 2015

domination2580 said:
Blue velvet nudibranchs only diet is flatworms...

I was trying to think of which one it was

domination2580 · Oct 17, 2015

I posted it earlier sir, it's the blue velvet nudibranch I've always wanted to get one but don't have any flatworms

dmh41532 · Oct 17, 2015

From what I've read, blue velvet nudibranchs are pretty delicate shippers, and not the easiest to keep. It would certainly have an abundance of food though. This is what a get for not dipping coral.