FRUSTRATION TO THE MAX! Flat worm help.

Christopher Davis · Jul 11, 2017

Well it turns out if you are in the hobby long enough and try and do things by the book, it can still get thrown back at you.

I have a flatworm out break that I discovered today in my rimless cube... I took it upon my self to pipet out as many of the little SOB's as I could. They were covering my green hairy mushrooms.
I must of managed to suck out at least 100.

I am not sure what kind of species they are if any one can ID them. Some of them are swimming around!

I am seriously considering treating both my tanks as I fear I may have cross contaminated without knowing... Is flatworm exit a good idea or am I just asking for hell.

As of now I am seeing no signs of them in my bigger tank but then again I have a wrasse that might be controlling the population.

Below are the pictures of the flat worms and both of my tanks any insight helps thank you!

Robink · Jul 11, 2017

I tried FWE and it didn't work for me. Can you put a wrasse in there to clean them up?
Maybe a yellow coris? I had a melanarus that took out an entire population of flatworms and spaghetti worms.

Christopher Davis · Jul 11, 2017

Im defiantly scared/nervous of using FWF
The only problem is it's such a small tank that the wrasse would soon outgrow. I think biological might be the way to go.

Robink said:
I tried FWE and it didn't work for me. Can you put a wrasse in there to clean them up?
Maybe a yellow coris? I had a melanarus that took out an entire population of flatworms and spaghetti worms.

Robink · Jul 11, 2017

I would put a wrasse in and when he's done take him back to the lfs or put him in your bigger tank as long as he's compatible with your other wrasse.

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 11, 2017

Honestly look like polyclad flat worms.
https://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhikers-guide/

A close pic would help

#reefsquad to confirm the Id.

Christopher Davis · Jul 11, 2017

Is there any rwrasse in particular that would work better you mentioned Coris

Robink · Jul 11, 2017

A melanarus should do the job pretty quick and then you could put him in your other tank. Had one in my 75 and he got rid of every pest I had.
What wrasse do you have in your other tank?

Robink · Jul 11, 2017

I would have one now but I like my sexy shrimp. He would eat them in a second.

TUSI · Jul 11, 2017

Robink said:
A melanarus should do the job pretty quick and then you could put him in your other tank. Had one in my 75 and he got rid of every pest I had.
What wrasse do you have in your other tank?

+1

TUSI · Jul 11, 2017

Do it the natural way. No chemicals

Christopher Davis · Jul 11, 2017

A purple and yellow!

Robink · Jul 11, 2017

Not sure of the compatibility of the melanarus with that yellow. Maybe a wrasse expert will chime in... @evolved .
That yellow wrasse is probably taking care of any pests you get in that tank.

Christopher Davis · Jul 11, 2017

Robink said:
Not sure of the compatibility of the melanarus with that yellow. Maybe a wrasse expert will chime in... @evolved .
That yellow wrasse is probably taking care of any pests you get in that tank.

He sure does! Swims around all my corals and frags and never stops hunting! I've seen him swallow a 3 inch bristle worm!

kireek · Jul 11, 2017

I agree with @saltyfilmfolks .Those look like polyclad worms.

Kershaw · Jul 11, 2017

I would go with malanarus. Very mellow fish and will take care of the problem just. get a smaller one. They are very hardy also.

Kershaw · Jul 11, 2017

Oh yea. Also I have malanarus, checkerboard, a lepored wrasse. And I put a bunch of small peppermint shrimp in my tank for aptaisa and non of my wrasses went after them but my malanarus did kill a small hermit grab once before it even hit the bottom of my tank. But it left the other 5 alone

kireek · Jul 11, 2017

If they are polyclad flat worms your best bet will probably be to dip the rocks in the tanks.You will want to blast the nooks and crannies with a small pump or turkey baster.
I am not sure how often you will want to do it.The product Revive or a Iodine based dip should work well.I doubt a wrasse could completely eliminate the problem. These critters can fit into the tiniest of places,even a hair line crack.A fish can't eat what it can't find.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/polyclad-flatworm-removal.243357/

Christopher Davis · Jul 11, 2017

As far as being polyclad, they seem way to small to me, and they only seem to be on my mushrooms. From my understanding polyclad flatworms are huge? They might be discilored because if the water I put them in?

I will try and get a better picture of them!