Flat worms

Hilltopreef90 · Dec 20, 2022

I’m planning to move my fish and corals into another aquarium, the current one has a small outbreak of flatworms that I need to treat before moving any of the rocks and corals.
I plan to move my fish and whatever inverts I can find before I treat the tank, I’m wondering how long before it’ll probably be safe to move the corals and rocks over to the new tank after I treat the old tank for flatworms?

carmodpg · Dec 20, 2022

This article is very helpful. If you can, I would pull the rocks and give them a bath which should kill the flatworms instantly. I would then do an intank treatment as well to ensure all flatworms in the tank are killed as well. Put the old rockwork back and monitor for a couple days. Just my opinion....

vetteguy53081 · Dec 20, 2022

Hilltopreef90 said:
I’m planning to move my fish and corals into another aquarium, the current one has a small outbreak of flatworms that I need to treat before moving any of the rocks and corals.
I plan to move my fish and whatever inverts I can find before I treat the tank, I’m wondering how long before it’ll probably be safe to move the corals and rocks over to the new tank after I treat the old tank for flatworms?

Siphon as many as you can with a 3/8" tubing. Fish such as wrasses: 6 line, yellow coris, lunare will eat them as well as springieri damsel.
Moving the livestock is fine but if you are seeing flatworms, you likely have eggs and will need to find them and scrape them off outside of tank. These eggs are Very tiny.
Salifert flatworm exit works well but you will need to siphon the dead ones daily as they can potentially release toxins

Hilltopreef90 · Dec 20, 2022

What would you use to do the rock bath ?

carmodpg said:
This article is very helpful. If you can, I would pull the rocks and give them a bath which should kill the flatworms instantly. I would then do an intank treatment as well to ensure all flatworms in the tank are killed as well. Put the old rockwork back and monitor for a couple days. Just my opinion....

carmodpg · Dec 22, 2022

Hilltopreef90 said:
What would you use to do the rock bath ?

I have heard that just fresh water will kill the flatworms off rocks. Otherwise, I would mix some flatworm exit or elimi-phos (which is known to kill all flatworms including AEFW) in a bucket of tank water and soak the rock for a while in there. Then you can dip the rock in some fresh tank water or RO/DI to clean it off. I would venture to think that would do the trick.