red flat worms-help

[fishgardener]

I seem to have red flat worms on some button polps and ricordia. I took the rock it's on out of the tank and rinsed it with a slow flush of salt water and 53 flat worms washed off !!! I can't see any on the glass ( That doesn't mean much because I couldn't see these ones at first either. My son noticed them-younger eyes), but I imagine where there are 53 there are more. How do I get rid of them-I've never had them in my tank before.
Sheryle:sad:

 

[fish scales2]

8 line wrasses, green coris wrasses and spotted mandarins are all known to eat flatworms. You may hear a few people tell you velvet nudibranch' but this is not recomended due to the fact that it takes 8-10 months for a colony to establish and once the flatworms are gone the nudi' die offf and put off a bunch of toxins. Flatworm exit is another way of dealing with them but again I dont recomend using a chemical solution to kill them off due to the toxins that are released upon there death. Try all natural remedies first, such as the fish that will eat them and no negative toxins will be released.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

FYI: next time you remove a rock... give it a freshwater dip in RO/DI water to kill them... Wither that or use some coral dip.

 

[soarin']

I hear scooter blennies are also supposed to like them.

 

[budsreef]

I'm surprised your Six-line Wrasse isn't taking care of them. Do you still have it and do you feed a lot? Maybe if you cut back on feeding the Six-line it will go after the flatworms.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

If you cant see them all over on your corals, they arent a problem. People hear "flatworm" and panic. The red planaris flatwporms are harmful only if they populate in numbers to block light from the corals (or if you kill them). Get a biological control (I have neard that many shrimp will work on them too), and dont worry about it.

 

[steve]

The London Aquarium has them according to Raj, so I don't think anyone should worry too much. haha

 

[soarin']

I have seen so many people talk about how flatworm exit only works temporarily (one person said that they treated their tank 9 times, with the population coming back each time), that it seems like the hobby may be unintentionally breeding and spreading a strain of flatworms that is "flatworm exit resistant".

The more people use it, the more the flatworms will probably be less affected by the treatment.

 

[fishgardener]

The flat worms only seem to be bothering the ricordia. It was looking poorly when Blake noticed them all over it. After the salt water rinse, it now looks great. There seem to be 5-6 on it now. I also did 2 partial water changes of 5 gal. each over several days. I could take the rock out and do a RO rinse, but would that hurt the ricordia? The 6 line pays them no attention at all. I'm not feeding them too much. I'm going to stay away from the chemicals.
Sheryle

 

[skriz]

Hoevan's wrasse (melanarus) is the best terminator for red planaria; a single male has been known to keep a 800g system in clear (not mine). Many wrasses will eat them. Nothing will eliminate them, but you can atleast controll them.

Spotted mandarins have also been known to eat them. The velvet nudibranch's only diet are these worms; I tried them, but they didn't survive my tank.

If you don't have many fish in your tank, you can syphon as many as you can see and treat with FW Exit; it's reef safe. As the planaria die, you will need to catch them (filter socks), then run carbon and do a water change. THe chemical treatment will need to be run a few times to be effective. This combined with a natural predator and you may never see another one again