chippwalters Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Accidently left the powerhead off last night and this morning awoke to about 30-40 of these pests on my glass. What to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Flatworm Exit aka FWE, follow the directions on the box. Dip any coral that has them, I found an iodine-based dip was the most sure way to kill them off as both I and Mitch have had the experience of a few surviving and becoming resistent to the FWE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Springers damsel will eat several types. How large are these ones? Unless they are on the coral, or you're seeing symptoms that they are eating or bothering the coral, I would probably just wait them out. Most are benign and their levels will control themselves based on food supply. As long as they're not a coral eating variety they probably eat algae or detritus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 my coris wrasse keeps my frag tank free and clear of flatworms.(didnt see pic) I've used FWE before, and it works well, just not on certain types of planaria. But a coris wrasse will take care of the problem. IME.The white ones will generally die off quickly with a few treatments of FWE. So you'll want to prep for some water changes and carbon changes. It does seem to shock some invert's though so research your livestock compatibility carefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I should add, the good thing about FWE dips and FWE dosing, is it also works against nudi's! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+boognish Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I started seeing some of the small red ones that are said to be harmless to coral other than choking it out if their numbers get too great. Once I started seeing several in some spots (20 - 30 in a few inch area under rocks), I added a Malanurus Wrass and a Target Mandarin. Not sure which did it, but I have not seen one since about a month after adding both fish. If there is a pretty large population, you'll want to syphon as many out as possible before using Flatworm Exit. Melev discusses the process here: http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html. Killing too many at one time will be toxic to your tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 I would not do anything unless you see damage to your corals. If they are in your tank, dipping individual rock accomplishes nothing. I have used Flatworm Exit once in 44 years of reefkeeping. It works. I had Red Planaria. They stained the glass red when smashed. Even with just one smashed, the red stain on my thumb smelled strongly of iodine. Go figure. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 you could explore some biological options, chip. a small 6-line wrasse might do the job for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chippwalters Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 Wow. Thanks everyone for so much advice! Great thing about this community. So far, I only can find them on the glass, not on any coral. I'll keep my eyes out. My tank is just under 20 gallons and I don't think a 6-line wrasse will fit here with the 2 firefish gobies. I'm afraid he'd kill 'em in a few days. I think I'll wait and see if things get worse. All the corals are looking healthy right now..but who knows? Unless someone tells me to ACT NOW before things get really bad, I'll wait and see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 If they are just the common brown one then I wouldn't worry too much. The red planaria is the one the reproduces like crazy and starts covering up your corals and killing things off. At least that is my experience with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chippwalters Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 Hmmm. Don't know the species. Here's a better picture I found online: What do you think? HMMM. Found this > http://aquariumcoraldiseases.weebly.com/rust-brown-flatworms.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 6 line or springers damsel would probably be the best shot at naturally controlling them. Springers is surprisingly a very peaceful fish, probably the only peaceful damsel if that's a concern. I've never liked the idea of using flatworm exit on a DT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 Ugh I hate flatworms (which Ty can attest to.) I don't care if they're directly harmful to corals or not, they're still ugly and hunt pods and have been documented to compete for food with corals. No direct benefit to the tank so I like to keep my tank free of them. I used FWE and works well, you will probably lose some bristles stars though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 I'm going to sneak a giant flatworm pillow into your house Gig'em. Rid you of your fears! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ct67stang Posted October 6, 2013 Share Posted October 6, 2013 6 line or springers damsel would probably be the best shot at naturally controlling them. Springers is surprisingly a very peaceful fish, probably the only peaceful damsel if that's a concern. I've never liked the idea of using flatworm exit on a DT. 6 line wrasse is a great hunter of these. it eradicated them right out of my tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SourDatx Posted October 6, 2013 Share Posted October 6, 2013 My six line wrasse was amazing, from them completely covering my front glass to very few to none of them left in a few weeks. Then my six line jumped ship to try out land, he didn't get that to work so well for him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ct67stang Posted October 6, 2013 Share Posted October 6, 2013 My six line wrasse was amazing, from them completely covering my front glass to very few to none of them left in a few weeks. Then my six line jumped ship to try out land, he didn't get that to work so well for him yours was an overachiever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SourDatx Posted October 6, 2013 Share Posted October 6, 2013 My six line wrasse was amazing, from them completely covering my front glass to very few to none of them left in a few weeks. Then my six line jumped ship to try out land, he didn't get that to work so well for himyours was an overachiever. Maybe he was... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted October 6, 2013 Share Posted October 6, 2013 Just about to run fwe in my multi tank system. Got the fresh sw ready, and gac ready. Has anyone ran chemiclean and fwe at the same time? I'd like to run the chemiclean and then the fwe an hour before the WC for chemiclean Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 I would just siphon them out. That it's on the glass tells me it's just scavenging detritus or eating algae and not parasitic. Like a lot of other things they are one of the things that go boom and then bust if you are patient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 Just about to run fwe in my multi tank system. Got the fresh sw ready, and gac ready. Has anyone ran chemiclean and fwe at the same time? I'd like to run the chemiclean and then the fwe an hour before the WC for chemiclean Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4 I ran both at the same time once... I lost a few snails, but that could be from the water changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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