Very effective removal of flatworms.

[kstyle13]

I found that the rough velcro side on my magna float glass scrubber is great at catching the flatworms. it took every single one off my glass and then ran it under the sink faucet and scrubbed the pad with a fork to remove the dead worms. I have done this and it has removed hundreds. There weren't any worms on the glass this morning and I don't have to fuss with a siphon and trying to such up every single worm I see. if I end up resorting to the flatworm exit then I will set up the siphon but for now I don't seem to be overrun anymore.

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[ringo®]

Wait till the lights go back off. If you have hundreds on the glass, you have thousands in the rocks. They are a very prolific pest. You may want to be careful with scrubbing them to death......the can release a toxin when they die.

 

[sbfishman]

A melanurus wrasse from Rit wiped mine out.

 

[hiimsean]

Ringo®;948055 wrote: You may want to be careful with scrubbing them to death......the can release a toxin when they die.

I was about to post that. A mass die off can be very bad so monitor your tank parameters closely the next few days.

A simple fix, dip before putting frags in your tank and inspect for eggs.

 

[kstyle13]

Eggs? How what's the best dip method?

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[kstyle13]

And I think I'm gonna get a wrasse as well. I'm kind of thinking one of my other fish were eating them tho. Because they didn't show up until I took all the fish out and then they suddenly exploded. I have seen my purple dotty back picking at my green star polyp. Which is where I believe they came from. It literally always hovered over it picking at it. Never the coral just the bugs.

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[hiimsean]

I've had success with Coral RX killing them. Nothing that I've read will kill the eggs so you have to visually inspect for the eggs and manually remove them.

Fish are not always a guarantee to eat them. Most people have luck with melanurus wrasses, yellow coris wrasses or a few other from the Halichoeres </em>genus, both get to about 4-5". People say 6-lines will eat them but they can be real A-holes.

 

[jennm]

The wrasse is the way to go, IMO.

And yes, they release toxins when they die. Kill enough of them all at once (ie with a water treatment) and disaster *can* strike. Happened to me back in 2003 and I lost 7 of 13 fish. It wasn't the chemical that killed the fish, it was all the toxins released by the sheer volume of flatworms that died all at once.

I, personally have found the Melanurus to be the most effective, however there are some gotchas with that too - if it gets big and you have small shrimp, they'll go too, and possibly small inverts like smaller snails and/or hermits.

Well worth the price to pay for flatworm eradication, IMO.

Jenn

 

[kstyle13]

I don't have any fish in my tank. Lol they are all in qt. I'm not going to add anything for another month just because I want the ich to die. Now corals that's another story. I can actually just remove all my coral place them in qt and then treat my tank. The shrimpshrimp can go in with the corals. Then I can move my lights for the corals as well. Plus I'm switching to leds anyways. I have a 55 gallon that I'm raising copepods in. I can just move everything into that. Yes I know I have a 60 gallon qt for the fish now a 55 gallon qt for my corals. Lol and I will have a 130 dt that will be bare until the worms are taken care of. I can treat for a week cleaning every 6 hours. Then a mass water change and the corals can go back in. While I'm at it I might as well treat the dt for ich. Lol won't the ich die if I empty the tank then fill it with freshwater? Then just add the salt to my return section and let it run for about a week. I should be OK right? And it will kill the ich without leaving copper traces.... plus it will kill any remaining flatworms.... I shouldn't have to cycle again because the bacteria will still be in there since it will only be freshwater enough to kill the ich and flatworms.... I can throw a bit of stability in there just to be safe. ;-)

 

[mikesmith34]

Your time tearing down and putting back together must be off the charts. I don't know how you keep track of all that. You must be the busiest reefer in the club!!!!

 

[kstyle13]

Lol I love you tanks. It's my passion so I do spend a lot of time playing with my tanks. Lol I clean house all week long so it's never messy. I work a full time job, I am renovating my house all while managing to spend at least an hour with my 6 tanks everyday. On my off day I work on my tanks as well as building tanks for clients. I currently am working on a 55 gallon reef for a couple, a 55 freshwater planted tank for someone else, and a 75 gallon reef for another couple. I posted about opening a store a few weeks ago. It's becoming a reality sooner than expected. But yes all in all I love my tanks and I am alway alway always looking for better ways to make my system better. I love it. For 17 years I have spent every chance I have messing with my tanks. Lol that's why I build everything. Because I love it!!! lol but does the freshwater thing sound like it will work?

 

[player_505]

Blue Devil Damselfish