Red planeria infestation

[crazyleo]

Hi guys. So, I've had a flatworm problem that's been getting worse as the weeks go by. My mandarin was eating them so it wasn't so bad, but after he died(my urchin decided to use the intake screen from the uv pump as a hat while I was at work and little Ping Pong found out what happens when fish meets blender) it's been getting worse. I got some flatworm exit, but didn't want to put it in the display because there were so many(my sand is red at this point). Over the past week, I've been siphoning them off the sandbed and rocks and have pulled out thousands of the little jerks, but after 2 or 3 hours, my sand is so covered its red again. Are they coming up to the surface from inside the sandbed, or do they come down from the rocks to hang out on the sand?

 

[Subsea]

Both

 

[crazyleo]

Both

Awesome! So then just keep siphoning till they stop showing up?

 

[StradicCi4]

Get a wrasse - they much them pretty good

 

[Subsea]

I have had Red Planaria in 3 systems. Flatworms exit never eradicated all of them, but it did control numbers. In my two oldest systems (75G at 25 years & 120G at 10 years) the flatworms disappeared.

I now have a 55G grow out tank covered in Red Planaria.. These flatworms are now immune to flatworms exit and my plan of action is to individual treat desirables and transfer to another frag tank for isolation/observation. Treatment consist of adding 2 tablespoons of potassium chloride to each gallon of water for 10 minutes.

In this batch I treated orange elephant ear sponges, yellow ball sponges, deep water NPS Gorgonian and a mushroom.