Flatworm eater for pico tank

[fishoholic]

My 2.5g tank has become over run with flatworms I had a barnacle blenny which I wonder if he was eating them because shortly after he died I noticed flatworms appearing. Thankfully they are just the plain ugly ones and haven't done any damage to the corals, they're just over taking the tank.

I tried adding a small scooter blenny to eat them, but he seemed depressed in such a small tank and wouldn't eat anything so I re-homed him in my big tank. Was thinking maybe I should add another barnacle blenny (however I can't seem to find one available) and see if it eats them or maybe try a geometric pygmy hawk. The only fish in the tank is a green clown goby and unfortunately he doesn't touch them.

The tank is to small to treat chemically (ie: flatworm exist) as that many flatworms dying all at once would crash the whole tank.

[Craigdillman]

flatworm exit would work well in that tank cause your able to get in there and suck them all out you could try a head shield nutibranch but they don't usually do well in small tanks

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Craigdillman

flatworm exit would work well in that tank cause your able to get in there and suck them all out you could try a head shield nutibranch but they don't usually do well in small tanks

Unfortunately there isn't much room to get in there to suck them out and I have around $2000 of high end corals in that tank that I'm not about to risk a tank crash with trying flatworm exit. I know people who have killed their 10-20g tanks because they couldn't siphon out all the dead flatworms quickly enough.

I did read that blue velvet nudibranch eat them, so hopefully I can find one of those. Might also try a geometric Pygmy hawk as I think one would eat them.

[Craigdillman]

Yea sounds good try I get then naturally just very hard to ever get rid of them, I used flatworm exit in my skimmer less 29 and worked fine just ran carbon after and did a 40% WC and sucked them all out a few days before to reduce the numbers

[fishoholic]

Well sadly the Pygmy hawk won't work they need a min. 30g tank and are aggressive to gobies and I have a green clown goby in there.

Hopefully I can get a nudibranch as I've read they're very effective. I had a filefish eat flatworms before but the tank is to small for one.

[corpusse]

Flatworm exit really is a great product.

I suggest you use it and do a 300-500% water change if you are that worried about crashing.

IE double dose 100% water change, wait a few minutes 100% water change, a few more minutes another 100% water change and repeat the process until you are satisfied you've gotten all the dead ones. Doing the water changes with a turkey baster and airline tube you should be able to get them all.

[Myka]

A tank that size I would just put everything into a 5-gal pail and do Flatworm Exit in the pail, then you can shake each piece of rock real good to get the worms off, and put back in the tank. If you get a Velvet Nudi and it dies, it could cause a lot of grief in 2.5 gallons.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Myka

A tank that size I would just put everything into a 5-gal pail and do Flatworm Exit in the pail, then you can shake each piece of rock real good to get the worms off, and put back in the tank. If you get a Velvet Nudi and it dies, it could cause a lot of grief in 2.5 gallons.

Hummmmm good point about the nudi.

The flatworms are all over the glass and sand too but I guess while the rock and coral are in a bucket with flat worm exit I can clean out the whole tank then put in new clean sand and new saltwater.....hummmm not sure how good that would be either though.....

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

Hummmmm good point about the nudi.

The flatworms are all over the glass and sand too but I guess while the rock and coral are in a bucket with flat worm exit I can clean out the whole tank then put in new clean sand and new saltwater.....hummmm not sure how good that would be either though.....

You could put the old saltwater through a 100 micron felt filter sock, and put it back in the tank when you're done. New sand isn't a bad idea.

[fishoholic]

Rats thought I had flatworm exit but I don't. Looked into flatworm solution (LFS had that but none have flatworm exit) but read that there was some bottles of it that killed the coral so don't want to risk using it.

Thought about dipping with reef dip but some of my corals are attached to the rock and while its only 2 small pieces that'd be dipped I'm not sure if that's a good idea. Plus the dip isn't always effective anyway.

Ended up finding flatworm exit on eBay, so I bought it and will treat the tank when I get it.

I'm actually going to treat the rock and corals in a separate bucket and take some rock from my big tank and set up my 5g tank. I'll put the fish and inverts in the new 5g tank and after the other rock and corals are treated I'll add them to the 5g.