The Battle with Red Planaria Flatworms

[Stan-Lee]

I had flatworms galore in my tank. My LFS said to get a Melanurus Wrasse, so I did. He went to work and a month later, no more flatworms. Better than using chemicals.

i have some small white ones that have seemed to have nuked my pod population, Six line or some other Wrasse has been suggested numerous times.

 

[TVo]

Really good information! I'm having a bit of the same problem. They're all in the sump so i can't put a wrasse in there. Flat worm Exit it is

 

[Rjukan]

Here is some red planaria eye candy for ya. Photo is from 2010 I think, it's been a while...

 

[CindyKz]

Has anyone tried a pink-streaked wrasse for this? I have brown, not red flatworms (the ones with the 2 pronged tail) in a small softie tank - too small for any of the other wrasses. I used some FWE the other day with no ill effects but I still see a few worms so I'm sure the numbers will climb back up quickly.

In my larger tank, my melanarus is boss. I rarely see FWs in there.

 

[Ubergroover]

Springer damsel...did the trick for me.

 

[AquaLifeStudio]

I've posted this elsewhere but Flatworm Exit, a total of 4 separate doses over a 2 month span, looks to have finally wiped them out. The trick is to catch it early!

 

[AquaLifeStudio]

I also wanted to add that when I first used Flatworm Exit, FWE, I only was able to siphon out a small number of the worms compared to the thousands that were in my 200 gallon system. Fortunately, my fish were not yet in this display tank; only a few lps coral, shrimp, snails and hermit crabs. The skimmer was able to pull this orange guck left from the worms upon their death.

My elephant ear mushroom was not happy for a few weeks following that initial treatment. I did change out about 80 gallons of water and also ran carbon through a reactor, as the FWE instructions suggest. I was also automatically changing out about 6 gallons of water a day thanks to my GHL doser Maxi.

 

[lapin]

I have a few in my separate 20gal fuge. Macro + pods and a few snails. Is there an invert besides the blue velvet nudi that eats them?

 

[Zuma]

Springer damsel...did the trick for me.

Yup, a springer and a leopard wrasse cleaned them out of my tank within a week.

 

[mrniceguy]

What wrasse would you recommend for these. And what about bristle worms???

 

[Jcald327]

So these are what I had.
They were in my 76, I peroxide treated every rock for hair algea, and then rinsed in a double dosed 5 gal bucket with FWE when I switched to my 240. I was flatworm free for about 6 months until my neglect gave them enough nutrients to grow again and quickly got back up to eyesore proportions. Tried blacking out the tank, cutting lights down to 10 percent (from 40-50 percent normal peaks) and my 6 line never touched them.

I quickly scanned this thread (reading first page and then the 5th and 6th) and so no mention of levamisole. Don't beat me up for posting a reef central link, but this is what I used.


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2027706

It is perfectly outline in the first post, and I will like what pig wormer I actually purchased.
Agrilabs Prohibit Soluble Drench Powder https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011ONQVJ0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_IcTdCbJDG7PEZ
I took my old algea barn phypoplankton bottle (the one you squeeze to push liquid up into a sort of dosing measuring cup on side) and added 5-7mg (my scale was acting hokey) of powder, and 300 ml of water (shooting for 1 ml per gallon, and a whole bottle for my entire tank.
I turned off my sump, skimmer, and carbon (figuring I'd start in the sump where the highest concentration was because I run a super bright set of regugium lights and I have some gsp down there to act like a canary if it gets too crazy). It's a 70 gallon sump, about 3/4 full so I added 50ml of my solution, and threw an old pump in my outlet chamber pumping back to my inlet side to keep circulation in sump without affecting display. Well they all started floating away and in all honestly almost melting within minutes. I gave the solution about 30 minutes and popped my skimmer back on, man was the res gunk it was making Gross. After about 2 hours, I turned my carbon back on (new batch of carbon, 4 cups spread 2 per reactor in brs dual reactor). I allowed that to run for almost 6 hours before turning my sump return pump back on. Apparently I didnt let it run long enough because they started floating off of my rock work in my display as well. I went ahead and threw a new filter sock on my return to catch what I could. The next day I did a 20 percent water change, and repeated my dose 3 days later, going up to 90ml this time and treating the entire system. I did it again 10 days later and saw no flatworms whatsoever, and have only done my routine 20 percent every 2 week water changes since and not seen one bug. This stuff was the same price as FWE but can treat about 3000 gallons all said and done, and if you read through the 31 pages on RC, the general consensus is this is the same active ingredient as FWE.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Dose only as much as you need to paralyze the worms, I saw only minor snail agitation with this, and no coral response whatsoever (vs my first FWE treatment which turned my xenia into a raisen for the better part or 3 weeks).

Fresh carbon, and a lot of it.

Treat again even if you don't see worms.
I think what was quoted in the other thread was it will only kill/paralyze live worms, their eggs are not affected. The numbers coming to mind are 7-10 days as eggs, and 3 weeks before they reach reproductive maturity. So a treatment followed by 2 weeks and another treatment should kill them all in 1 goal.

Hope this helps everyone like it did me, feel free to reach out with any questions.

 

[Mr James]

I've been battling these boogers for a long time. Tried the flatworm exit. They came back. Got a green coris wrasse and I still have them. Got a sixline wrasse and still have them. Added a melanarus wrasse and they are in fewer number, but I still have them. I may try the flatworm exit again.

This was back in 2014, where are you today with flatworms or even your tanks for that matter?

 

[fragguy]

Red planaria can easily be controlled and even eradicated with a small group of chromis. In a small tank one should be enough.

 

[Zuma]

I had a breakout with red planaria (probably introduced from a frag..) and added a springeri damsel and leopard wrasse; between those fish the planaria were gone in about 2 weeks and have never returned.

 

[sideofabarn]

I got them from macro algae purchase. Flatworm exit did the job. Still had some white ones after Flatworm exit-there population comes and goes but I'm not worried about them.

 

[AquaLifeStudio]

Mine have returned and I really dont want to have to use flatworm exit again as that will take out my berghia nudibranch population. I hate these things.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nice write up and awareness. They can be a nightmare and I know of a couple of persons who endured this and had to do complete tear downs

 

[jeffberens]

I have just discovered red planaria in my small refugium after having it running for 3 weeks. I have a leopard wrasse and mandarin in my DT and have never seen one. Should I just leave them to populate in the fuge because the fish in the DT will take care of them or should I use FWE. Is there a risk having them contained in a small area?

 

[HollidayReefer]

I had them once in a tank. Seems if you dont catch them early you will just continue to fight them but they are containable

 

[russell13]

I had them in my frag tank, they hitchhiked in on some zoas and spread like crazy. A friend of mine told me that a mandarin goby would take care of them. I had never heard of this before but gave it a try. Sure enough, it completely wiped them out in a month. I ended up pulling him out of the tank and give it to a friend with a well established 180 that has lots of pods.