Red Planaria possible eradication

[Triggreef]

So just sharing an experience here. If anyone tries this it's at your own risk. That said... I've had a system plagued with these worms for a long time and nothing would touch them. I recently thought i finally found a fish that would eat them after many misses at the usual fish.

Then I noticed there are also no Flatworms left in the sump. So obviously it is not the new fish that destroyed them over night.

The only thing I can think of is this. My lack of maintenance on this system lead to reaching a very high salinity of 0.1032 a few days prior to noticing the Flatworms disappeared.

That high salinity would be pretty stressful on fish and corals. I have no way of knowing how long the salinity was raised for but I would assume at least a few days. In this particular system there are only zoas, shrooms, a couple Blastos, leathers, and a couple encrusting varieties of lepto and cyphestrea. Nothing really seemed phased by the rise in salinity but some of the shrooms have shrank a little bit.

I've been looking and I haven't been able to find a single Flatworm. This is my only guess as to what happened to eradicate them.

As I said it would be a pretty good risk to try it on purpose. But possibly worth it. I would assume sps would not handle it at all. Keep in mind there could definitely be a margin of error regarding the salinity. I use a refractometer however it's a cheap one and probably 10 years old. I do also use several hydrometers and all of them are within range of what they always are when testing the same water with them so I feel my hydrometer is accurate still with last time it was calibrated.

Who knows, may have found a non chemical method to eradicate these buggers. Anyone else with a similar experience?

 

[KrisReef]

Please take a sample of your water to a lfs and get a proper measurement on your salinity. How long do you think the salinity was elevated?
What kind of fish? Maybe it scared them all to death.

Thanks for sharing. I'm thinking that other folks might try this if they are having RFW population explosions.

 

[moz71]

So just sharing an experience here. If anyone tries this it's at your own risk. That said... I've had a system plagued with these worms for a long time and nothing would touch them. I recently thought i finally found a fish that would eat them after many misses at the usual fish.

Then I noticed there are also no Flatworms left in the sump. So obviously it is not the new fish that destroyed them over night.

The only thing I can think of is this. My lack of maintenance on this system lead to reaching a very high salinity of 0.1032 a few days prior to noticing the Flatworms disappeared.

That high salinity would be pretty stressful on fish and corals. I have no way of knowing how long the salinity was raised for but I would assume at least a few days. In this particular system there are only zoas, shrooms, a couple Blastos, leathers, and a couple encrusting varieties of lepto and cyphestrea. Nothing really seemed phased by the rise in salinity but some of the shrooms have shrank a little bit.

I've been looking and I haven't been able to find a single Flatworm. This is my only guess as to what happened to eradicate them.

As I said it would be a pretty good risk to try it on purpose. But possibly worth it. I would assume sps would not handle it at all. Keep in mind there could definitely be a margin of error regarding the salinity. I use a refractometer however it's a cheap one and probably 10 years old. I do also use several hydrometers and all of them are within range of what they always are when testing the same water with them so I feel my hydrometer is accurate still with last time it was calibrated.

Who knows, may have found a non chemical method to eradicate these buggers. Anyone else with a similar experience?

Interesting and worth an experiment but I will say similar to you I had a red flatworm infestation and when I put in a malenarus and leapord wrasse they quickly eliminated the flatworms and like you they disappeared in my sump as well and they were worse in my sump. Didn’t question it but was perplexed on where they went. Now it was over several days so only thought that the complete population was brought down to a number where it eventually wiped out or they where always cycling though main tank and easy pickings for wrasse. But I never had a salinity spike. That has been about 2 years ago and haven’t seen one since. Just to add to your observation.

 

[ApoIsland]

Have you not added any other fish or inverts to the sump recently?

I had a massive infestation that a coris wrasse took care of in the main tank years ago. My sump continued to have the infestation until I dumped a mated pair of coral banded shrimp down there. Infestation in sump was quickly gone.

 

[moz71]

Have you not added any other fish or inverts to the sump recently?

I had a massive infestation that a coris wrasse took care of in the main tank years ago. My sump continued to have the infestation until I dumped a mated pair of coral banded shrimp down there. Infestation in sump was quickly gone.

That’s interesting as well.! The only thing I added to sump was a big red Mithras crab that started eating my clam in main tank so sump he went! Maybe we are onto something. Crabs maybe help since I never directly fed that crab but STILL. alive. Let’s see what OP had!

 

[Triggreef]

Please take a sample of your water to a lfs and get a proper measurement on your salinity. How long do you think the salinity was elevated?
What kind of fish? Maybe it scared them all to death.

Thanks for sharing. I'm thinking that other folks might try this if they are having RFW population explosions.

I'm very confident in my refractometer as it has not moved in many years when compared to the same water tested with my hydrometers. Local kids at fish shops use the same tools. That said it wouldn't hurt to order some known sample to make sure.

Anyway, for fish in that system there is only a cbb, yellow tang, a couple springeri damsels, an ornate leopard wrasse, six line wrasse, and a couple scooter Blennies. All of those have been added over the years for the purpose of controlling the Flatworms however none of them ever made a dent in well over a year. The new fish I referred to is a rosey scale fairy wrasse. Which I bought solely because it was hunting like crazy in the rocks at the store so I decided to give it a try, despite knowing they really aren't hunters.

There are also multiple tanks in the system including one that no new fish have been added to lately. And the Planaria are gone from there as well.

 

[Triggreef]

Interesting and worth an experiment but I will say similar to you I had a red flatworm infestation and when I put in a malenarus and leapord wrasse they quickly eliminated the flatworms and like you they disappeared in my sump as well and they were worse in my sump. Didn’t question it but was perplexed on where they went. Now it was over several days so only thought that the complete population was brought down to a number where it eventually wiped out or they where always cycling though main tank and easy pickings for wrasse. But I never had a salinity spike. That has been about 2 years ago and haven’t seen one since. Just to add to your observation.

In my main reef system i have a dusky wrasse, blue star leopard, several yellow coris. Those keep the reef clean. But the sump is still loaded.

 

[Triggreef]

Have you not added any other fish or inverts to the sump recently?

I had a massive infestation that a coris wrasse took care of in the main tank years ago. My sump continued to have the infestation until I dumped a mated pair of coral banded shrimp down there. Infestation in sump was quickly gone.

Nothing to the sump. That's very interesting about the shrimp.

 

[KrisReef]

I'm very confident in my refractometer as it has not moved in many years when compared to the same water tested with my hydrometers. Local kids at fish shops use the same tools. That said it wouldn't hurt to order some known sample to make sure.

Anyway, for fish in that system there is only a cbb, yellow tang, a couple springeri damsels, an ornate leopard wrasse, six line wrasse, and a couple scooter Blennies. All of those have been added over the years for the purpose of controlling the Flatworms however none of them ever made a dent in well over a year. The new fish I referred to is a rosey scale fairy wrasse. Which I bought solely because it was hunting like crazy in the rocks at the store so I decided to give it a try, despite knowing they really aren't hunters.

There are also multiple tanks in the system including one that no new fish have been added to lately. And the Planaria are gone from there as well.

Very nice. Next time someone askes how to eliminate planaria I'm gong to point them to this thread.
Thanks again for posting your observations and additional details about your system.

 

[Triggreef]

Very nice. Next time someone askes how to eliminate planaria I'm gong to point them to this thread.
Thanks again for posting your observations and additional details about your system.

Hey there, I just wanted to update. Since posting this I had a friend verify my refractometer with 2 of his own, one of which was brand new. I also checked with one of my local fish stores and checked it against their's.

Also the planaria has not come back at all in the system this occurred in.