Words of Advice....

[bulletsworld]

*ALWAYS - Dip your Chaeto, algae or other corals before putting in your tank(s). Don’t assume blind faith.

A few weeks back I picked Chaeto as a trade from a local reefer here. With out questioning it because it was a local reefer, I placed in my tank(s). A few days later...WHAM! Where the Chaeto laid I had red flatworms all over. I pulled the big ball of Cheato out, dropped in it freshwater bowl & ewwwwwie little red flatworm buggers where falling off, just tons of them. Now I'm battling this pesky bug with Exit product. In the three years I've been in this hobby I have never encountered any flatworms, especially not the red ones that eat corals. EEEEK! Thinking it could never happen to me… it did. I was just being naive. Such a shame I never dipped before hand. I could have saved myself the hassle, stress and money.

SO.. words of advice so this never happens to you. Don't assume blind faith. QT or Dip everything before entering into your tank. Don’t assume that ich, velvet, flatworms or other pesky hitchers won’t come in on a new coral, rock or algae. Because it’s a gamble and it’s only a matter of time before they do. Save your investment. Take the time to dip.


Hope this helps someone,


Lee

P.s In all fairness...Just to note, this fellow reefer didn't know he had red flatworms. Although he still thinks they will die on their own or won't get bad since he only found them in his sump. DOH! If you dont know what to look for you might not notice until its too populated. I was lucky enough to have put two pieces of Cheato in two tanks, one being a barebottom tank with nothing in it. After confirming I went to my main tank & sure enough flatworms crawling from that algae too. DOH!

[Chad]

Yup, always wise to dip / treat anything going into your tank.. Also, QT is a must as well..

Hard lessons learned...

I picked up a frag that had some macro algae on it, thinking it would disapear like all my other macro algae's, I put it in the tank. Needless to say I regret it daily. It was an invasive macro algae dictoyta (sp).. and I am paying the price for it now. never again!

[Jaws]

Do you happen to know a good link on the procedures for this so it causes the least stress on the coral?

[Ruth]

Great words of advise Lee. I am sure that I am not the only one that occassionally forgets or ignores this need. Particularly with something like chaeto - I am not sure I would have even thought about it with macro.

[TheReefGeek]

That Chaeto was from me, after Lee told me there were flatworms I checked my fuge, and indeed I did have some little red flatworms on the glass in my refugium. If I had known I had these, I would not have given the chaeto away. I won't trade anything more from my tank until they are gone. Sorry Lee!

They came into my fuge from either the chaeto I got from local reefers (Michca & Joe Reefer you might want to check your chaeto) or else on frags I bought and held in my fuge.

My flatworms are almost all gone, in a tank that is skimmed well they often die out on their own in a couple months. I don't like using chemicals like Exit, read to many horror stories about it. I will wait it out, they aren't doing any harm right now, and definately reducing in numbers and they haven't spread from my fuge yet.

But definately fresh water dipping seems to be the order of the day, I have been lucky the flatworms are dieing out on their own for me, but I should definately have dipped my chaeto & frags.

Are you sure these red flatworms eat corals? Red bugs eat acros, but these are not red bugs. The corals in my fuge are doing fine.

[OCDP]

Ahhhh geez Rory, way to go! hahah... just kidding.

Thanks for the friendly reminder Lee. I am one to talk, I never dip... I am sure one day it will come to kick me in the butt.

[reeferaddict]

This is just from my own humble experience -

I had flatworms a year or so back & had never seen them before so I never knew... I tried Flatworm Exit not once, but twice. Each time it seemed like they all died, only to come back with more determination than before... being that the treatment itself can be a stressful event, (siphoning rock before & after treatment, and having 50g+ water on the ready to do a 25% water change, I decided to let nature run it's course... I got a 6 Line Wrasse and a Copperband Butterfly and within a couple of months have never seen one again. (I never actually saw either one of these fish eat a single flatworm BTW.)

Interestingly, as I have 2 tanks plumbed to a common sump, I never saw ONE in my softy tank, and never observed any of my corals being consumed.

[Joe Reefer]

Originally Posted by TheReefGeek

They came into my fuge from either the chaeto I got from local reefers (Michca & Joe Reefer you might want to check your chaeto) or else on frags I bought and held in my fuge.

None here, I just took a close look.