Help! Planaria flatworms are taking over

AMReef · Mar 16, 2020

Hey guys I’m at a point of just breaking down, these dang planaria flat worms are taking over my tank.

I’m scared of using flatworm exit because I have heard horror stories, of fish and corals dying.

I removed two of my big rocks out, and there is one huge rock in the middle that I have no way of removing with out damaginf something and it’s filled with planaria flatworms. They haven’t hurt my corals but they just look so ugly. It looks like I have rust on the sand and on the rocks.

I need advice, what should I do?

hdsoftail1065 · Mar 16, 2020

I have used FWE numerous times now the first time was the worse. With that said I have lost only 1 fish and I cant really say if FWE was the cause. We had to treat our 32 gallon about 6 times before we won the battle and twice in our 144.

The first time we used it we did experience an ammonia spike do to the large numbers it killed on the first treatment, we had thousands. Follow the instructions, vacuum out as many as you can before treatment. When they started dying we had our pumps off and used a net to capture the ones suspended in the water column. Have your water ready for an emergency water change. We did have to increase the dosage as the bottle recommends on the treatments after the first one.

Edit - to add to this -
Have your water ready for an emergency water change. We only had to to a rapid WC once during all of the treatments.

Spare time · Mar 16, 2020

How big is the tank? If possible, I would get a scooter dragonet. They can go to town on those little red guys. When they are mostly finished, you can use flatworm exit (if your tank isn't big enough, you will need to add pods eventually for the guy.

Crabs McJones · Mar 16, 2020

My best advice is to siphon out as many as you can manually and then run the flatworm exit. When these guys die they release toxins which accounts for fish and coral death. If you greatly reduce their numbers first the toxins wont raise to such high levels, stock up on carbon and run it to absorb the toxins and at the end of treatment do hefty water changes.
Uncle and I did this and his tank was COVERED. Havent seen a flatworm since and all fish and coral survived

AMReef · Mar 16, 2020

hdsoftail106 - thanks for the reply, so you only lost 1 fish the first time you did it?

Spare Time- my tank is 125 gallon display with a 39 gallon sump. I have two spotted mandarins, melanurus wrasse, green wrasse and leopard wrasse, none of them are interested in the planarias

AMReef · Mar 16, 2020

Crabs - thanks for the reply, I will start syphoning as much as I can see, eveytime I syphon, it seems like more appear lol

DonTavo27 · Mar 16, 2020

I had this same issue. I bought a large enough container to hold about a gallon of water, dosed
flatworm exit according to the instructions, and dipped every piece of rock with coral I was able to fit in it. Haven’t seen any since. I also went out, and got a wrasse. Just take your time, and have enough saltwater to do a 25% water change and some carbon of course

hdsoftail1065 · Mar 16, 2020

AMReef said:
hdsoftail106 - thanks for the reply, so you only lost 1 fish the first time you did it?

Spare Time- my tank is 125 gallon display with a 39 gallon sump. I have two spotted mandarins, melanurus wrasse, green wrasse and leopard wrasse, none of them are interested in the planarias

Only one, I belive it got hurt in our panic responding to the spike. My wife is convinced she hurt it dumping water into the tank during our emergency WC. Prime would be good to have on hand just in case you need it. We never lost anything on any other treatments.

AMReef · Mar 16, 2020

DonTavo27 - thanks for the reply, I might give it a shot.

hdsofttail- I think I’m going to give it a try, I have pricey torches I might just remove them, and place them in a bucket with my saltwater for a few hours until the water change is done.

laverda · Mar 16, 2020

I am surprised you mandarins and wrasses don’t keep them in check. They always have for me.

DonTavo27 · Mar 16, 2020

IME it’s best to just dip everything outside the DT. That way your keep the toxins in water you’re throwing away. I’m sure your high end torches would go through less stress in that manner. Let us know how it goes regardless.

ReeferWarrant · Mar 16, 2020

I used FWE as well and it worked fine. Like above mentions be prepared to change out water and have carbon on standby. Just follow the directions on the bottle and you should be fine. I had to do the dosing two separate times, because they returned I was about to go for a third time and they all just disappeared. All of my corals and fish were completely fine during the process (LPS, Mushrooms, Zoas)

DonTavo27 · Mar 16, 2020

laverda said:
I am surprised you mandarins and wrasses don’t keep them in check. They always have for me.

I think they would if he had less planaria worms in the DT, I thought the same as well, it wasn’t until I dipped everything, that my sixline was able to keep them under control.

AMReef · Mar 16, 2020

Dontravo - the problem is the flatworms are unfortunately everywhere. The sand, on rocks and on corals, or else I would of started dipping the corals

AMReef · Mar 16, 2020

Reeferwarrant - did you have a lot of planarias?

ReeferWarrant · Mar 16, 2020

It wasn't a complete outbreak, I did the syphoning first. Get some air hose (flexible and rigid) and just suck them out individually. This is my first tank so it's just a 32 gallon Biocube, but everything worked out fine for me.

DonTavo27 · Mar 16, 2020

AMReef said:
Dontravo - the problem is the flatworms are unfortunately everywhere. The sand, on rocks and on corals, or else I would of started dipping the corals

the idea is to kill off as many outside the DT, so you can do one final dose in the DT. It’ll cut down in the amount of planaria toxin in the tank

DonTavo27 · Mar 16, 2020

Even if you need a larger dipping tank, I think it’s a safer bet. A 10-20 gallon maybe?

Spare time · Mar 17, 2020

AMReef said:
hdsoftail106 - thanks for the reply, so you only lost 1 fish the first time you did it?

Spare Time- my tank is 125 gallon display with a 39 gallon sump. I have two spotted mandarins, melanurus wrasse, green wrasse and leopard wrasse, none of them are interested in the planarias

I've seen a single scooter dragonet (not the target ones) wipe out red planaria from a 160g. I would have thought the spotted ones would do it to.

hdsoftail1065 · Mar 20, 2020

AMReef said:
Hey guys I’m at a point of just breaking down, these dang planaria flat worms are taking over my tank.

I’m scared of using flatworm exit because I have heard horror stories, of fish and corals dying.

I removed two of my big rocks out, and there is one huge rock in the middle that I have no way of removing with out damaginf something and it’s filled with planaria flatworms. They haven’t hurt my corals but they just look so ugly. It looks like I have rust on the sand and on the rocks.

I need advice, what should I do?

How is your FW battle going?