Getting rid of flatworms.

[Lalaallieu]

I have flatworms. I have no idea what to do. I’m going to buy flatworm exit. I currently only have CUC and corals. I have a hair algae issue and just started dosing vibrant. Came home tonight and my tank has flatworms. Is my tank ruined? I added a coral recently, the blue ricordia. Please help.

 

[Auquanut]

Not all flatworms are bad guys. Lets get some expert eyes on this. #reefsquad?

 

[ZoWhat]

This Wrasse destroys flatworms. I had an outbreak once with prob 500+. This Wrasse ate them all in 2 days then started eating my frozen food

 

[CrayHawk]

Start with a wrasse and use flatworm exit with caution. I lost a whole tank using that a few years ago.

 

[Lalaallieu]

My tank is only 13.5 gallons. Will a wrasse fit in there okay?

 

[ca1ore]

Not a big fan of FW exit in an established reef tank; much prefer the biological solution. Melanarus shown earlier is an excellent way to go. Brown worms are not as bad as them red ones, but you want to avoid letting them reach plague proportions.

 

[ZoWhat]

My tank is only 13.5 gallons. Will a wrasse fit in there okay?

Use your womanly smile to see if a LFS will let you buy one... do the job.... then they buy it back 75cents on the dollar after a month. Especially InStore Credit

This Wrasse is a JUMPER. anything sudden to startle it...it will carpet surf

 

[rahger]

Some damsels can do the job too, which are a bit smaller. I think the springers/springeri damsel is a good flatworm eater. Not quite sure how the efficiency between the two compare though.

 

[Scott Campbell]

A six line wrasse will eat them and is much smaller than a melanurus. The melanurus is the best but they get some size on them rather quickly. A dotyback might be an option as well.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Lunare or melanurus wrasse OR Flatworm exit - Best choices

 

[andrewkw]

This is a 13.5 gallon tank. You could dose flatworm exit at 5x dose and then do a 90-100% water change. Even 10x dose would probably be fine. Adding a fish that is only going to stay short term is likely to only cure the problem short term. It's very difficult both for the wrasse and you to determine every single one is gone.

I really like flatworm exit and have used it in many tanks several times and never had any issues except that it typically needs to be dosed at a higher dosage and more then once. The biggest problem with flatworm exit is not the product itself, it's that many people under estimate how many flatworms they have and the die off can cause real problems, but in a nano reef it's much easier to just kill them all and change out all the water then it is in say a 100 gallon tank.

 

[Scott Campbell]

Lunare or melanurus wrasse OR Flatworm exit - Best choices

A lunare for a 13 gallon tank?? That wrasse is twice the size of the melanurus. The 6 line only gets to be about 2 or 3 inches. But it can be very aggressive if you want to add a second fish to a tank that size.

 

[Wolf89]

Get a springeri damsel.. they eat flatworms, peaceful, small and look great

 

[Mattyice572]

Remove all rock and corals and Revive dip everything, should knock out most of them and a 6 line wrasse i believe will do the trick and stays nice and small and pretty cheap.

 

[Wolf89]

Removing all rocks and coral and dipping would be a massive overreaction. Those look like acoel flatworms. They eat pods and nothing else. Another good alternative would be a blue velvet nudibranch. They are cheap and eat flatworms ONLY. Like berghia for aiptasia but for flatworms

 

[Fishingandreefing]

That’s a small tank, I would just dip them piece of piece with flatworm exit. Make sure you put a powerhead in the container so that you can blow off the worms.

inspect them carefully under the light before going to the rinse bucket.

 

[IKD]

There are mixed reviews on flat worm exit, but I’ve had good luck with it on my 32 bio cube that is mostly LPS and shrooms. I followed the instructions for dosing. I did have to do it a few times as I believe you have to treat any eggs that hatched after initial dose. I would try that first over adding fish that you can’t keep long term. Trying to fish out a wrasse is not simple.

Definitely not a ruined tank!!

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

Do to my tank size, I’d strongly caution against flat worm exit. Yes it works and has been done, however all tanks are different. If you have small rocks or not many corals, (in a 13 gallon tank), it may take you an hour to clean them. For your rocks that do not have any coral on them, just dip them in fresh rodi water. That will knock them off and keep them out of the tank. The corals I would dip in revive using new saltwater that is the same temp. Rinse them off and place back in the tank. If you have a 240 gallon tank, ahh this would be a nightmare way to do it, even a 60 would be a nightmare.

my tank is sensitive so adding flatworm exit knowing I could lose everything is too risky. Doing a six line wrasse or melanurus wrasse is much safer. With the size of tank six line would be first choice, and they would clean them up.

Even if you take items off and shake them in revive weekly it will cut the population way down, and they love nitrates, so I would run lower nutrients also. Always have carbon in your system if your going to do this. The carbon will remove the toxins from the flat worms. I was told (not sure how correct it is,) to use twice the carbon you need for the tank, to make it safe. Doing water changes that large is not ideal because it also depletes good bacteria that you need. Where your at a tuff spot is, you also have some gha, and doing water change would help reduce that as well.
I would suggest that since your treating the gha already, if you do a massive water change your throwing the medication out. So if it’s possible since your tank is 13 gallons I’d dip the rocks in fresh rodi and corals in revive. If the math is correct, it’s 1 pound per gallon, so 12-15 pounds of rock. I was able to keep mine under control just by dipping certain corals I saw them on. When I have dipped them again I get none to very few. I will say though when I dipped in rivive the first time, a lot came off and I only noticed them in a small section. I can’t see them now but when I dip corals nothing comes off which is good.

 

[vetteguy53081]

A lunare for a 13 gallon tank?? That wrasse is twice the size of the melanurus. The 6 line only gets to be about 2 or 3 inches. But it can be very aggressive if you want to add a second fish to a tank that size.

You can buy-a 2.5”- doesn’t have to be 5”. As long as it eats flatworms- it’s welcome in any of my tanks

 

[Butcher333]

I took a 2 year break from reefing because of these things. I was just feeling the itch again. Now I’m having second thoughts. They totally ruined my appreciation for the entire hobby. I was hoping something would have been developed to either rid tanks of these things or that they had faded from the suppliers tanks somehow. I tried every possible attack method from 6line to chemicals and wasn’t impressed with not one’s ability to do the job. These things were introduced to everybody’s tanks and I’ve never appreciated anybodies feedback on how to deal with them. They are a plague that has turned many people off reefing. When I was asking at the store here they made light of them and said they didn’t have them and then I walked around the store videoing them in all their tanks. Everywhere. All the SPS, softies were covered when you look real close. Very discouraging to find out that the place you’ve spent $10000 stocking your tank would pass this stuff knowingly. They’re a disease. Dipping to prevent contamination isn’t even affective. Just a way for suppliers to shirk the blame on the customer.