Red Flatworm Testing new treatment method

[Kth]

Hi All,

I have red flatworms in my reef. I've successfully treated them in my reef by using flatworm eXit once. I did not treat the tank a second time, like everyone on this form suggested. Six months later the worms are back. I do not want to go through the process again because I lost a few corals and the ones that survived looked sick for a long time. Also, it was stressful and a lot of work.

So, being reckless I've decided to try something new: micro-dosing the flatworm eXit to see what happens. I'll explain my logic in a later post if I have time.

I have a 50 gallon reef tank with 6 fish, 50+ types of coral (sps, lps), a few anemone, shrimp, crabs, snails.. etc.

I've been dosing 3 drops of Flatworm eXit daily for a 9 days now. By my observations the flatworms are darkening in color and their population has dropped by 75%. They're also getting significantly smaller in size. Everything in my tank looks as healthy as when I started. I'm going to continue to dose 3 drops/day for another week and I'll report back. Attached is a photo of how the flatworms look now. Sorry for the low photo quality, I took it on an iPhone 6. I would've taken a photo when I started if I knew that the changes would be this significant.

Please do not try this. I still do not know if this method will even work or if it will backfire.

Biggest risk factor: flatworms somehow becoming resistant to the medication.

I will not be adding or removing any corals or fish until the end of this experiment. If it fails, I'll try a full dose. If that fails and the flatworms have become resistant (unlikely) I'll need your guy's advice on how to proceed.

 

[eraser2001]

Pls keep post your progress and thanks for share

 

[reef lover]

I would be concerned of the toxins released when the fw die. The instructions state to do a wc when they die to remove them and toxins....but if your killing them little here and there therell be a continuous release of toxins...i wish you luck. Keep us posted.

 

[garbled]

The toxins in low amounts might be taken out by a skimmer? Not sure.. I had a flatworm problem once, and just let them run the course. Nothing died in the tank, even though they all eventually died. Also, they must have a short lifespan individually, so presumably while you have them they are dieing all the time. I suspect the issue is if you mass nuke them, the toxin builds up all at once and is a problem.

Many toxins are oxidized away normally, so just running a protien skimmer and keeping ORP high might be enough for normal or even slightly accelerated dieoff. Just kinda theorizing here, so don't quote me.

 

[reef lover]

Not sure how much toxins the skimmer would remove but carbon definately. And i would agree theyre dieing while in our tanks but not at a mass amount. Am interested in how this turns out.

 

[Kth]

The toxins in low amounts might be taken out by a skimmer? Not sure.. I had a flatworm problem once, and just let them run the course. Nothing died in the tank, even though they all eventually died. Also, they must have a short lifespan individually, so presumably while you have them they are dieing all the time. I suspect the issue is if you mass nuke them, the toxin builds up all at once and is a problem.

Many toxins are oxidized away normally, so just running a protien skimmer and keeping ORP high might be enough for normal or even slightly accelerated dieoff. Just kinda theorizing here, so don't quote me.

Wouldn't introducing carbon into my system pull out the medication?

I really don't know if they're dying all the time.. I thought that planaria can live for 3-15 years. Something interesting that I've read though is they can shrink when they're starved. It'd take a month for a fully developed planaria to shrink from adult size to egg size, and still be alive.

My hopes are for one or all of the following to occur w/ the micro-dosing:

• They stop eating (or photosynthesizing) until they shrink away.
• They stop reproducing
• New babies wouldn't pop up
• What garbled above said.

@garbled, How did they die off in your tank? Was there something that you did, or have a fish that ate them or reduction in nutrients?

 

[Kth]

Planeria release tetrotoxin upon death correct? If that's the case, technically it's a protein so maybe the skimmer could be pulling it out... I'll be very careful cleaning my skimmer going forward since that stuff is some of the most potent toxins in the world.

 

[garbled]

No, I just gave up fighting them, and eventually, after about 6 months, I didn't have them anymore. They grew out of control for awhile. I suspect they just wiped out whatever the food source was and died.

 

[Kth]

Monday update. I'm still on the same schedule. All corals and fish still seem healthy, the flatworms are still getting smaller and they're much darker in color. Below is a photo from about 6 inches from the original spot. (again, sorry I don't have a nice camera). Notice that the flatworms seem to be closed up. Second photo is from the same spot as before (flash on), I don't know how to reproduce the same lighting as last time.

 

[Kth]

Update: Almost all flatworms are completely gone. The only ones that I see are very tiny, and might be newborns. I'm thinking about doing a full dose soon to see what happens.
Any thoughts?

 

[Thaxxx]

If what your doing now is working, why change?

 

[Paul B]

I have about as many as you, give or take 5 or 6. I never do anything to them and they never seem to do anything to my tank. They are welcome to stay as long as they like as they always did. Eventually they get bored and croak. You can add chemicals and they will still croak. Either way, they croak.

 

[Nanoreef13]

Any updates on this experiment?

 

[SMSREEF]

This seems like a tricky thing to do and pull off successfully.
With low dose Flatworm Exit (FWE), it seems like you would select only the FWE resistant ones to survive and breed. Making problem worse and harder to solve in the tank.
However, I think it’s the flatworm toxins that cause problems, not the medication itself, so maybe you are onto a new way to use Flatworm Exit.
Please keep us updated.