Red planaria-eating fish with open top

[thrillreefer]

I’m noticing a decent uptick in red flatworms on rocks and low on the front glass in my 50 mixed. Considering to add a fish that will eat flatworms, but I have an open top and no plans to cover it. What fish might eat flatworms and is unlikely to jump? I have a sunrise dottyback in another tank, but would likely be hard to catch without emptying the tank. Not impossible but a pain. Current fish in the 50 are a pair of clowns, lyretail anthias and a few Banggai cardinals.

Wrasse? Mandarin? Transfer the dottyback? Something else? Just wait and see since the flatworms aren’t bothering anything but me?

 

[Spare time]

Scooter dragonets seem to do it

 

[thrillreefer]

They seem to be a bit difficult to feed, on par with other dragonets. I have been culturing some Tig pods but not sure I want to be locked into a finicky feeder if it won’t eat frozen. Maybe if I can get a captive bred one from ORA

 

[thrillreefer]

Cool looking fish though!

 

[Spare time]

They seem to be a bit difficult to feed, on par with other dragonets. I have been culturing some Tig pods but not sure I want to be locked into a finicky feeder if it won’t eat frozen. Maybe if I can get a captive bred one from ORA

I have found them to readily eat frozen food. You can always ask the lfs to feed them and see what happens.

 

[fishyjoes]

Springers damsel will eat planaria and are pretty well behaved in my experience.
No idea if they jump - I think not too much, but I have a lid so I don't really know or care

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

I've heard that melanurus wrasses do a good job eating them. I have no idea if they jump, but really any fish can jump out so I would just get a lid if I were you...

They are beautiful fish that cost around 50 bucks, depending where you get them. Could be cheaper, could be more expensive.

Note: its never a guarantee that any fish will actually eat something that its intended to, unless it's diet is strictly that. I would recommend removing the majority of then that you can with a pipette by just sucking them up, and then whatever fish you decided on can keep them under control.

Edit, I just found out that they can jump. Only get this one if you get a lid.

 

[thrillreefer]

Follow up: planaria slowly have gotten worse, and I just picked up a sixline wrasse. I know they can eventually be aggressive, but I have no other wrasses and don't plan on more. Already happily exploring the whole tank after a couple of days. Haven't seen her eating flatworms yet. But a nice active addition to the tank in any case!

 

[lil sumpin]

Good luck! I recently discovered what appears to be red planaria in my 1 year old tank. I’ve had a sixline wrasse for a few months now, I see him grazing on rock and pecking away at the glass often but I can only hope he’s not just going for pods.

 

[Slocke]

Follow up: planaria slowly have gotten worse, and I just picked up a sixline wrasse. I know they can eventually be aggressive, but I have no other wrasses and don't plan on more. Already happily exploring the whole tank after a couple of days. Haven't seen her eating flatworms yet. But a nice active addition to the tank in any case!

Try blasting them off the rocks. Wrasse sometimes need to learn to eat worms like that and won’t start eating them otherwise