flatworm invasion

[Frenchie2]

Got a 90G reef set up since August, LR, corals & fish. Everything was peachy keen until my tank guy cleaner noticed a few little brown critters on the front glass very close to the sand. He told me he thought it my be flat worms. I checked it out on the net, with J&L and sure enough, flatworms are present in my tank. After taking a real close look at the LR, with a magnifying glass, what I thought was brown algye growing was actually an infestation of flat worms - holy doodle - a million of them!!!! Mostly on 1/2 side of the tank where the circulation is weaker. There's lots of flow in the tank. I was advised to get 6-line wrasse (but in my experience, this fish becomes very belligerent towards other mates & shrimps once they become adults, and to syphon the most worms I could, which I did but they seem to come back as fast as they're gone. I was also advised to get the Melafix Marine medication which is safe for fish & corals which would kill the worms, but after the worms die, they release a toxin. So I am in a dilemma here. I'd like to get some advice from you, other reefers. Please help!!!!! Thanks!

[Leah]

I may or may not have them as well but I am getting a yellow coris wrasse, so we will see.
Of the four reefers who have seen them 2 say flatworms, 2 say they don't know for sure.

[whatcaneyedo]

The six line wrasse never worked for me but a yellow coris wrasse did a great job. I think my mandarin dragonet also eats them but I'm just speculating.

[Marlin65]

I have them as well like that and have had them for a while now....
I got a Nudie to eliminate them.
Unfortunately he did not get all of them so I still have them.
And in taking this picture I also noticed that I had Zoe eating nudies seen in brown on the right side top.

Leah got a pic of them?

Bill

[Frenchie2]

Thanks guys. I'm going to try the yellow wrasse with a dragonet - I did hear that they eat flatworms too. I'll keep you posted.

[chandigz]

Our local fish store had a bad case of them in thier coral tank and they added a couple of mandarins. They went to work right away slurping them up. The flat worms are now under control (though not completely erdicated but you can hardly find one) and they have the fattest mandarins you have ever seen. They also had good luck with the blue velvet nudibranchs(flatworm eating nudibranch) in their display tank(again not completely gone but under control. I think the best bet to completely get rid of them is to get them under control with natural preditors then treat with flatworm exit or levemisol to completely eradicate them.

[mseepman]

I have had them in the past and just noticed that they have returned to me recently.

In my experience, flatworm exit works very well as long as you follow the directions carefully. I usually have bumped the dosage but that's my only change.

I did make up a small siphone pipe with 1/4" line and then a small piece of ridged pipe at the end that lets me siphone up the little critters as much as I can while not draining too much water as it takes a long time to get them. Once I've done that, I treat with Flatwork Exit (FWE) and then get ready to siphon the ones that float free before they fully die and release their toxin. During the treatment you should have no charcoal running but once they really start to die and you are sucking them up, turning the charcoal back on (ie a reactor) is a good idea to help clean the water. Also make sure you have good aeration in the water when you use FWE.

[Leah]

Originally Posted by bvlester

Leah got a pic of them?

Bill

Bill,

I will try and get one they are on my red shrooms so really hard to see

Leah

[Eyford01]

I don't know whether to attribute this to the mandarins or not but I've had flat worms in the sump/fuge for a long time but have never seen one in the DT, also have a hectors goby that picks at the rock, I've never actually seen anything eat them, they're just not there...