Red planaria crashed tank?

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Hi all,
This on behalf of a friend of mine. I got a phone call asking for help.
He has a 200 gallon reef, not heavily stocked at all. He only has 2 clowns with 2 huge bubble tips, 2 yellow tailed damsels, 1 yellow tang, goby shrimp pair, and a few others. They were hiding so cant say exactly what they are (I never saw them). Coral wise , hammers and a few big leathers, pulsing xenia, mushrooms and a bit of digitata. Cuc, he has about 30 trochus snails and 6 red legs.
The tank is 20 months old and looked fine and open before he went to work.
Now the problem, the phone call was help my tank has crashed and everything is dead, help.
I went to his and upon walking in could smell that something was wrong, It smelt like a dead snails. All his corals were closed up, all snails had fallen off the glass and rocks and weren't moving. His tang was gasping at the surface, but the clowns and other fish i could see, seemed fine. Now on closer inspection looking around his tank he has a major outbreak of red planaria (he thought was just red algae) and they were not moving that I could see. They seemed to be stuck in a jelly type film spread everywhere through out the tank. My conclusion is that he has had a mass die off of the flatworms and that has released toxins into the tank and poisoned the tank. I have told him to siphon out as much of the dead flatworms through a sock in to the sump while new water is mixing for a big water change, so as not to waste the water and he can siphon for much longer. Keep all pumps pointed at the surface for gas exchange, run carbon. This is about as much help I could give on this . Does this seem a good start, or is the tank and inhabitants a goner?
The trouble is, he is going on holiday tomorrow.

 

[mfinn]

Mass water changes and carbon is probably all you can do and hope for the best.

 

[cancun]

Hi all,
This on behalf of a friend of mine. I got a phone call asking for help.
He has a 200 gallon reef, not heavily stocked at all. He only has 2 clowns with 2 huge bubble tips, 2 yellow tailed damsels, 1 yellow tang, goby shrimp pair, and a few others. They were hiding so cant say exactly what they are (I never saw them). Coral wise , hammers and a few big leathers, pulsing xenia, mushrooms and a bit of digitata. Cuc, he has about 30 trochus snails and 6 red legs.
The tank is 20 months old and looked fine and open before he went to work.
Now the problem, the phone call was help my tank has crashed and everything is dead, help.
I went to his and upon walking in could smell that something was wrong, It smelt like a dead snails. All his corals were closed up, all snails had fallen off the glass and rocks and weren't moving. His tang was gasping at the surface, but the clowns and other fish i could see, seemed fine. Now on closer inspection looking around his tank he has a major outbreak of red planaria (he thought was just red algae) and they were not moving that I could see. They seemed to be stuck in a jelly type film spread everywhere through out the tank. My conclusion is that he has had a mass die off of the flatworms and that has released toxins into the tank and poisoned the tank. I have told him to siphon out as much of the dead flatworms through a sock in to the sump while new water is mixing for a big water change, so as not to waste the water and he can siphon for much longer. Keep all pumps pointed at the surface for gas exchange, run carbon. This is about as much help I could give on this . Does this seem a good start, or is the tank and inhabitants a goner?
The trouble is, he is going on holiday tomorrow.

Oh no!!!!! That's like every reefers worst nightmare! I agree run a bunch of carbon and do a massive like 50% water change. Before doing that make sure he removes anything that has died.... corals, fish, nems, even if he has to move rock around to find things. Please keep us informed as to how it turns out! Also if possible pics might help too.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Mass water changes and carbon is probably all you can do and hope for the best.

Thanks, Well that's what he's done so it just a waiting game now as he's on holiday until sunday he had said his yellow tang and another fish had died before he left.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

He mistook flatworms for algae? He probably needs to join our club here.

 

[Cell]

Ok but why did a thriving flatworm population suddenly all die at once? There must be an underlying cause that started the death.

 

[ScottB]

No chance he dumped a bunch of Flatworm Exit in there, correct?

Unless he did, I agree with @Cell something else is going on. Something really basic like temp, salinity...

I never thought of flatworms as delicate before. More like roaches -- they survive everything except really hungry wrasses.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

He mistook flatworms for algae? He probably needs to join our club here.

I think hes going to go back to fresh water when he comes back from holiday. I'll let you know

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Ok but why did a thriving flatworm population suddenly all die at once? There must be an underlying cause that started the death.

From what I understand when you have a massive population of them they can just die off.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

No chance he dumped a bunch of Flatworm Exit in there, correct?

Unless he did, I agree with @Cell something else is going on. Something really basic like temp, salinity...

I never thought of flatworms as delicate before. More like roaches -- they survive everything except really hungry wrasses.

He didn't know that he had flat worms to begin with. I dont go and see him much so I didnt pick up on it. It's just weird that in the morning everything was all open and thriving then 9 hrs later closed up and not looking very well at all. The flatworms when they died they were in a big snotty sheet all over the sand and rocks. I took some out and a couple were still moving slightly but most were dead.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I am still waiting on a reply from him as to how the tank is after he got back from his holiday, and if anything has survived. If not I know hes going back to freshwater. It's sad that it was him who got me into reef keeping over 13 years ago, he used to keep a fmreef tank years ago, then only came back a year and a half ago and now this.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

An update on his tank. With all the things he did he saved his nems, clown fish a pistol shrimp and goby pair. And a few corals. He has now sold off all stock and shut his tank down. I had what he said was his smallest bubble tip a dying torch and an orange mushroom. £15 for the lot along with some hermits he chucked in aswel. Well the story doesn't end there, that was nearly 2 weeks ago. We dipped all corals (not nem) to kill the flat worms and we scrubbed the rocks and even the hermit crab shells as I didnt want his issue in any of my tanks. The nem is massive and doing fine.

also the torch is looking alot better.

the mushroom looks good also.

this I put in my sons 7 gallon nano that's been running perfect for 3 years. I did a water change last Wednesday and guess what I saw in his tank on the glass? ....

You guessed it flipping red planaria. So annoyed at myself. I spent 2 hours that evening sucking out the ones I could see that night then 1 hour each for the next 2 days. I ordered salifert flatworm exit. I went away for the weekend and hoped they didnt multiply too fast.

I received the exit today and set to treat the tank. I got the carbon ready and water for a water change if needed. The tank is only about 25 litres ish, so I only require 4 drops, before I added any I got a powerhead and blew all around all the rock work and across the gravel to blow out any I could, to suck out as many more that I didnt get in the last 3 attempts. From reading all the horror stories about using flatworm exit and the toxins they release when there is a mass die off I thought I'd do the labour first, to manually remove them as per instructions.
This is all I got out

I have now treated the tank with only 4 drops, i left it 30 mins and blew the powerhead around again to get any dead ones out. I got another 20-30 dead ones. The tank and its other inhabitants look absolutely fine. I am running carbon and I'm going to do a 25% water change tomorrow. This is the tank 7 hours after the treatment.

I just hope to never get these things again. I think the main thing to do with flatworm exit is alot of manual removal first. I know what the smell is like after a mass die off, like my friend had,
I would never like that in my house!

Thanks if you've read all this.

 

[andrewkw]

They really aren't too bad as long as you don't let them get out of control.

I recommend you treat the nano tank a second time and maybe even a 3rd time since you obviously have a lot less. This just eliminates any possible chance you have any stragglers. 2 treatments is often required and I would typically do 3 if it didn't require ordering another container.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I was going to do another dose in a week and a half as 2 weeks is around the time the eggs if any would hatch from what I have read, as for having enough flatworm exit. The bottle holds roughly 250 drops according to the instructions and 1 treatment in that tank only needs 4 drops so I've got loads.