Flatworm - Acoel Planaria

[ReefGuy69]

Well i can be added to the red rusty Flatworm club. I noticed a few on the glass this past weekend. i thought nothing of them. At the time i thought it was just little red slime things left by snails or something. Tonight i was staring into the tank and i noticed more on the glass and a few on the rocks. I also noticed one or two on my sand sifting star. Will he be ok? I am debating getting a 6 line wrasse. I was going to eventually get one anyways. or im debating doing Heinz's total darkeness for 2 days method. In theory it seems it would work. Has anyone else here done with method with success? it seems easy enough. I have carbon on hand and i can go to town siphoning. I dont have a mass outbreak yet. but i would rather get it now then when i have a full blown outbreak. Im thinking Ill do the 48hr darkness and then addthe 6 line wrasse once i light the tank back up.

 

[Woodstock]

Do try the 48 hour darkness. I would love to know if that is successful. Heinz is extremely knowledgeable so it probably will work
Let us know how it goes!

 

[ReefGuy69]

I will. Starting tomorrow (Thanksgiving) I will be giving thanks back to the FLATWORMS by starving them of all light sources for 48 hrs straight. I will be running Carbon in my Phosban reactor and skimming the entire time. and i will also be using a micron sock to catch any dead ones floating in the water column. Luckily it will be placed in my sump right next to my skimmer so im hoping any toxins will quickly get taken from the skimmer and carbon. Wish me luck.

 

[ReefGuy69]

My tank is in Dark Mode. Completley Darked out. All lights are off and unplugged and i have a sock to catch the little boogers. My skimmer is going and i have carbon on hand and water for a salt change. I dont have a full outbreak so im hoping all goes well since im doing it very early in their development. Wish me luck... oh and Happy Thanksgiving All!!!

 

[ReefGuy69]

its still dark.. I just hope the fish are ok. Im scared to look in then i would have to let some light in and i dont want to let one flat worm get some light and be able to survive and blow this whole thing. Keeping my fingers crossed everything is ok. i really hope this works. I have a bunch of family coming over saturday and they will want to see the tank. wont be cool if all my fish croaked.

 

[lcstorc]

The fish don't need the light. They will be fine.

 

[ReefGuy69]

Well 48hrs of no light didnt work. i am 100% sure that my tank didnt get an ounce of light and yet the little boogers survived. I doesnt even appear they dwindled any in population. Looks like i have no choice but to go chemical on them. Sorry Hienz this was a no brainer to me. But it just didnt work.

 

[Woodstock]

Let us know how the chemical treatment goes.

 

[UTCreefer]

I didnt read throught this whole thread but you may want to try a yellow coris wrasse or a sixline wrasse.

 

[miaskies]

I just purchased a large organ pipe coral, and guess what came with it as a bonus? Lately they have been gathering on top of the rock where I have the organ and I have been plucking them out into a disposable cup with my l'oreal tweezers. I thought they were algae until I tried to grab one and it moved. It takes a little precision, but I have been having a good ol time plucking them out one by one. Does anyone know how fast these things multiply?

 

[Woodstock]

Faster than you can pick them off with tweezers
I imagine you will tire much sooner of plucking than they will of breeding.

 

[rmlevasseur]

Thought I'd update this. I guess it was a poor decision not to do a follow-up dose on the flatworm exit, because now they are back. These buggers suck. I am prepared to try again, but I am reading that some people are having luck with a pig dewormer that is much cheaper than flatworm exit. I HATE to dose this stuff only two weeks after a minor crash, but I don't want these things getting any worse

 

[yvr]

I've been lucky not to have had an outbreak in any of my tanks yet, but heard that Flatworm Exit can work quite well if the tank is treated before it becomes too heavily infested with Planaria.

I've always been a stickler for quarantining new fish and always tried to dip new corals in an iodine bath of some kind prior to introduction into my tank. There are many commercial brands of coral dip out there, which are essentially just a Lugol's iodine bath; I have used Kent, Brightwell and currently use TM Pro Coral-Cure.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

So I just got back from being in Europe for a hot minute and boy did the flatworms take over... big expletive... here is my issue... I'd love to use Flatworm Exit, but concerned about my nudi (not velvet/planaria eating)...he's actually chowing on this black sponge that regenerates pretty quickly, so he's doing ok...but will the flatworm exit take him out? OYYYYYYY

 

[Woodstock]

I am not sure Jeffrey. Can you remove it to a QT during the flatworm treatment? It seems removing it would be the safest way to go.

 

[reefmasta]

i used flatworm exit 2 times. one in a 300G system and one in a 180. the 300 was minor VERY minor and and 180 was INFESTED HORRIBLY. i used a power head, 3 doses of flatworm exit ( little less then recomended dose, one each day) and 100 micron filter and within 3 days all were gone and none to this day. the key is to dislodge them, and blow the exit alll in every crevise there is with forcefull flow. it says to do a waterchange because they are toxic in mass numbers BUT i never did. but i do advise you to do the change if you dont have MASSIVE clumps and clumps of matured caulerpa, grassilaria, ect. and to just be safe. alsoo, i think temp COULD do someething to them because in another system i had full of them one day they allllll disapeared and only thing that was really off was the temp, it was like 84 85. but dont take my word on that it was just an experience.

 

[miaskies]

I noticed that the flat worms liked to gather on the sandbed, so I used a cup and scooped out the majority of them, along with the gravel and rinsed the gravel in the cup with hot water, let the gravel dry for a day or two, then returned it to the tank. now they have seemed to disappear. Guess I knocked out the breeders. Good luck.

 

[landshark]

I seem to have the clear flat worm infestation, I just dose the refuge with flatworm exit and it appears that it killed a fair number of the pods and bristle worms, have anyone else experience this? cnfzd:

 

[slakker]

Just used FWE yesterday... syphoned first, single dose and then ran a pound of carbon in my 80 Gallon (total volume) tank. The suckers came out in streams, especially the ones hiding under the satr polypse and other softies. Also annoyed and killed some bristles worms and stars. No bad smell or off color and there were 1000s of dead flat worms! Over all, I would say it's a success...

 

[carmexx]

Well I had to battle the ever annoying flatties too. I syphoned as many out as i could and did a doubledose of Flatworm Exit. I did a 5 gallon wc (30 gal tank) after treating and ran carbon! To my amasement, No More Flatworms!! I gotta say that FE really kills em.