2 months in and first pest.

bristleworm · 2026-10-24T13:53:37-0400

About an hour into a red planaria treatment.
It was a fairly minor outbreak at the moment.
I figures hit it now before the numbers really grow and pose more of a threat with the toxins.
So far I see no ill effects to anything but the flatworms. They definitely did not like the juice!(selifert flatworm exit).
I'm going to do a water change and button it up and observe.

KrisReef · 2026-10-24T14:22:19-0400

I have wondered about these flat pests, especially why sometimes they grow in populations like a biblical Egyptian plague, while at other times they remain fairly low in number and just naturally disappear without any extra effort by the aquarium keeper?

I have experienced both situations, a plague most recently that I attacked 3 or more times with a small siphon hose and a few large water changes that exported hundreds of thousands of them, but not enough so that I felt safe to use flatworm stop (the bottle is still on the shelf).

I had to go look, and I still have areas where they are gathering (they seem to gather together in clusters) but they are not everywhere and covering the entire bottom of the tank like they were.

You were right to nip them in the bud before they had a chance to multiply like the Hebrew slaves did.

Shalom, I think you gave me a reason to go out and do a water change and try to make progress on my plague of worms.

bristleworm · 2026-10-24T14:54:47-0400

KrisReef said:
I have wondered about these flat pests, especially why sometimes they grow in populations like a biblical Egyptian plague, while at other times they remain fairly low in number and just naturally disappear without any extra effort by the aquarium keeper?

I have experienced both situations, a plague most recently that I attacked 3 or more times with a small siphon hose and a few large water changes that exported hundreds of thousands of them, but not enough so that I felt safe to use flatworm stop (the bottle is still on the shelf).

I had to go look, and I still have areas where they are gathering (they seem to gather together in clusters) but they are not everywhere and covering the entire bottom of the tank like they were.

You were right to nip them in the bud before they had a chance to multiply like the Hebrew slaves did.

Shalom, I think you gave me a reason to go out and do a water change and try to make progress on my plague of worms.

I'm pretty sure I got it from an undipped toad stool I put in a couple weeks ago. The store even told me AFTER THE FACT that they get them in the tank the frag came out of.

Your mileage may vary, but it seems the whole tank has benefited from adding carbon to the filter, doing a water change and other general maintenance I did along with the treatment.
I'm tempted to do it again in 7 days to get the hatching.

Fyi, my tank is 25 gals so I started with 20 drops per the directions. After about 20 minutes I could tell they were agitated but they were headed towards the substrate. So i added 5 more drops and they started detaching after a couple minutes.