Red Flatworms Siphoning Method

[Kal]

Hello,

I have red flatworms on my mushrooms and I do not want to use Flatworm Exit if I don't have to. I am watching Youtube videos on the siphon method to getting rid of them, and they note that using this method on corals can be risky as you may injure the corals. Does anyone have any experience with doing this to corals? So far I can see them on my "regular" mushrooms as shown below, and on my hairy mushrooms.

I have recently added a wrasse and a peppermint shrimp to try to eat them away but no luck yet (only been 4 days to be fair).

 

[KrisReef]

Siphoning is risky if you are clumsy, but if you are careful you can easily avoid impacting corals by keeping the siphon hose end off of them. ( I generally suck up sandcrabs and other things by accident myself). Since you only have shrooms I suspect that you can easily avoid making my kind of mistakes and remove lots of flatworms very easily. Get a gravel vacuum/siphon if you don't have one already. They are inexpensive and will greatly improve worm extraction efforts and minimize coral disruption. Use a minimal drop on the exit end of your siphon to control/minimize the potential to injury corals by vacuum impact incidents.

I have had flatworms in the past, and by nutrient management and water changes I was able to beat them. Eventually they went away without having to treat with chemicals for me. GL,

 

[Kal]

Siphoning is risky if you are clumsy, but if you are careful you can easily avoid impacting coral...,

Thanks! I'll give it a go and just be sure to take my time

 

[ZoWhat]

Heres your Flatworm Exit

 

[Kal]

Heres your Flatworm Exit

I bought the only wrasse my LFS had but so far it hasn't made a difference. Is this fish more likely to eat them? What's it called?

 

[PDR]

I bought the only wrasse my LFS had but so far it hasn't made a difference. Is this fish more likely to eat them? What's it called?

What wrasse did you purchase? Some species won't touch pests. That is a Melanurus wrasse and is a pest-eating machine

 

[Kal]

What wrasse did you purchase? Some species won't touch pests. That is a Melanurus wrasse and is a pest-eating machine

It's a female Fairy Wrasse

 

[SandJ]

The best syphon I found for small things like the flatworms is a piece of 1/4” rigid airline tubing (it may be 1/8” actually, it is very small). It slips perfectly into a piece of flexible airline to make a syphon hose.

Sometimes I will cut the rigid tubing at an angle so I can scrape stuff off the glass/rocks easier.

Also easy to heat it up with a lighter and make any shape you need to reach tight areas.

 

[Kal]

The best syphon I found for small things like the flatworms is a piece of 1/4” rigid airline tubing (it may be 1/8” actually, it is very small). It slips perfectly into a piece of flexible airline to make a syphon hose.

Sometimes I will cut the rigid tubing at an angle so I can scrape stuff off the glass/rocks easier.

Also easy to heat it up with a lighter and make any shape you need to reach tight areas.

That's the suggestion I got from a friend at work and will be going with for sure. Just wanted to get a few methods lined up to make sure I did it correctly. Thanks!

 

[PDR]

It's a female Fairy Wrasse

I love fairy wrasses, but unfortunately they are not known to be pest eaters.

 

[Kal]

I love fairy wrasses, but unfortunately they are not known to be pest eaters.

And yet again The Fish Gallery in The Woodlands, TX leads me astray Are you serious?

 

[PDR]

And yet again The Fish Gallery in The Woodlands, TX leads me astray Are you serious?

Do you happen to know which species of fairy wrasse you have? This article is a great reference for wrasses https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/all-about-reef-safe-wrasses-in-aquaria.28/