The Battle with Red Planaria Flatworms

[Rakie]

Melanarus Wrasse! End of flatworms. Done!

Mine wouldn't touch the things.. But the leopard wrasse I got ate em into extinction in like 8 days... Months of hassle, bottles of FWE, nothing worked. But a very happy and pudgy little leopard wrasse. I kinda think he misses them sometimes lol

 

[Coronus]

Mine wouldn't touch the things.. But the leopard wrasse I got ate em into extinction in like 8 days... Months of hassle, bottles of FWE, nothing worked. But a very happy and pudgy little leopard wrasse. I kinda think he misses them sometimes lol

Mine made quick work of them. Leopards are awesome too!

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Bayer

 

[ChuzUThisDay]

Melanarus Wrasse worked in our tank as well.

We had flatworms EVERYWHERE. There was nothing that seemed to work permanently. Our sixline either couldn’t keep up with them or just didn’t care for them. Chemical treatments were the same. We used the turkey baster and vacuumed them out or netted them. We were getting frustrated!

We bought a melanarus and within three weeks the flatworms were completely gone and we have seen none since. I’m betting a leopard would do the same.

 

[Johnike]

A pair of Potters Leopards wiped out a horrible infestation I had in very short time.

 

[Literallyhydro]

I've not seen a noticeable decrease in flatworms having used both FWE and a Melanarus wrasse.

 

[Addie_Coral]

Thank you for posting this! Very informative, and well written.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

What about arrow crabs, they'll switch to zoas and polyps occasionally, but they are awesome for picking worms off of the rockwork

 

[Midrats]

I threw in a blue velvet nudibranch yesterday and it immediately started to eat them. It's been parked on the sand not moving since last night in a sort of semi-shriveled dormant state. Do they park like snails sometimes?

 

[Sump Crab]

Melanarus wrasse ate all of mine in an old tank I had. The tank was absolutely infested before the wrasse.

 

[TripleDogDareYah]

FWE would not do it for me either... I think these things have gotten resistant over time. Yellow coris and melanarus were champs and took care of it for me.

 

[Baldguy]

I've tried FWE, Melanurus, Yellow Corris, Damsels and a few other fish hoping something would help with flatworms. Nothing worked. For those that had success with Leopard wrasses, which one? Leopard, Blue Star Leopard or Black Leopard?

 

[hyprc]

I've tried FWE, Melanurus, Yellow Corris, Damsels and a few other fish hoping something would help with flatworms. Nothing worked. For those that had success with Leopard wrasses, which one? Leopard, Blue Star Leopard or Black Leopard?

That's pretty remarkable that none of those solutions has had success. I had them for about 1.5 years (had a six-line for the last year that wouldn't touch them but killed most of my fish and some of my inverts.. took for ever to catch him) and they all died off during a somewhat aggressive erythromycin treatment where the skimmer was left off for about 72 hours. I don't recommend this as I almost lost a few corals (presumably from the lack of oxygen in the tank from leaving the skimmer off plus the toxins from the dying cyano that it was meant to treat). Strangely enough I didn't get a crash from all the die-off but did a water change the next day just in case and ran some carbon the next night for about a week... ymmv like I said wouldn't recommend it but willing to answer any questions you may have.. I've been free of them for over 4 months and check regularly.

Every single shop owner and experienced hobbyist I've ever asked has said first and foremost is FWE, assuming you follow the instructions, usually you'll need a stronger than initial dose and well-timed follow-up doses (I forget the time frame) are likely to be needed to irradiate the problem. I'm sure it's been noted already that melanarus/six line/etc vary from individual to individual as to whether or not they'll eat planaria. Might take a few tries to find one with a taste for them.

 

[Joshua Snyder]

I used a 6 line wrasse, I left to RAP early April and didn't feed my aquarium for 5 days, its been over a month and I haven't seen one.

 

[brad65ford]

Purchased a leopard and it die on me, it was so small (baby) didn't have a chance with the rest of my fish messing with it. Shame really need to get rid of these they suck so bad.

 

[brad65ford]

Purchased a Melanurus from the LFS, turns out he was removed from a system since it killed all of the owners snails. Moving forward a few days I think there are less flat worms lol. Don't know yet but this guys it pretty big comparing it to a 5 year old hippo! He eats anything thus far including pellet food and so far no snails have die. Have a feeling our system has a lot of food including flat worms at the moment. Also we have a 6 line so it will be interest if there are issues, but the Melanurus is 3 to 4x's the size lol. Will report back after some time.

 

[tigé21v]

I've tried FWE, Melanurus, Yellow Corris, Damsels and a few other fish hoping something would help with flatworms. Nothing worked. For those that had success with Leopard wrasses, which one? Leopard, Blue Star Leopard or Black Leopard?

+1
I've tried both six-line, and then added two melanurus from different sources with no luck. I saw Johnike mentioned Potters leopards, but they seem to be a little hard to come by right now...

 

[brad65ford]

Update: Melanurus purchased from local fish store. Owner said a customer brought it since it kept killing his snails. I didn't care at this point even though I have at least 20-30 snail in our system. I'm about two weeks in and its like night and day difference! I'm now looking for them which i can't find compared to seeing them everywhere. Hopefully I can keep him happy with pellets and other food, his big almost the size of our yellow tank which we have had for 3 years now. These guys get big and hungry lol.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Springeri, Talbot, Melanurus, Yellow Coris, Mandarin, Dottyback... 4 Velvet Nudis.... Nothing.... Still have plague-like numbers.

 

[brad65ford]

My Melanurus was a god sent. Get youself a fat big one, mines 5" if not bigger in length