Would you worry about these?

[Sawdonkey]

I just noticed a bunch of flat worms on my glass in my sump. I've never seen them before, but now there are a bunch. They aren't red planaria, because they don't have three points.

Has anyone else had this variety of flat worm? Should I treat? Should I ignore? Should I get a wrasse?

View attachment 2349

 

[maidia]

Oh man...Flatworm Exist may work but I have no experience..Some wrasse like Radiant, Coris or Six Lines may kill them but hit and miss...

Kill them before they get on your SPS.

 

[adam87]

Use Flatworm Exist, wrasse never work for me.

 

[Sawdonkey]

I guess my question is, why should I care that they are in my tank? They aren't aefw.

 

[Venom]

Better to to eliminate them now before they multiply out of control flatworm exit work for me took 2 doses though

 

[Pufferpunk]

They will cover every inch of every surface in your tank. Flatworm Exit works best.

 

[cet98]

FWE is not a guaranteed solution....not by a long shot.
I had planaria a couple years ago and treated with FWE using triple the dosage as mentioned on Melevsreef and they came back. The problem is the sand bed. There is no way to saturate the sandbed with FWE, nor can you get FWE in all the portions of your LR...both places are where the planaria lay their eggs and the eggs are not affected by the FWE. Even with the recommended follow-up dosages to get the new borns did not work. I also read that as you dose the tank with FWE, the planaria offspring can become less affected by FWE thereby making FWE less and less effective...

the ONLY solution that worked for me was the introduction of two specific wrasses: Yellow Coris and/or Potters Leopard Wrasse...

I have been planaria free ever since.

 

[Gilbert]

Christmas wrass worked for me.

 

[Siebo]

My melanurus wrasse destroyed the flatworms in my old tank

 

[Sawdonkey]

So I've been doing a bunch of reading on these. They are not the red planaria that typically explode in population. They have a forked tail while the red planaria have a trident tails.


I've read that most people that have had these say that flatworm exit did nothing. It is also suspected that they are photosynthetic. This makes sense to me since I only see them high up on the glass in my sump. My sump light is on nearly 24 hours per day.

I've already ordered the flatworm exit, but I'm going to turn off my sump light for a few days and see if they disappear or if I can at least interrupt their life cycle.

If I can keep the population down, I'll skip the FWE until absolutely necessary.

 

[SkullV]

These things have a self controlled population based on food, if you only feed what your fish need they'll die off on their own. You do have a huge tank though so a natural control like a yellow/green coris, Christmas wrasse, etc. isn't a bad idea. I've also seen mystery wrasse go after them if you don't have ornamental shrimp you're worried about losing (although mine never ate my cleaner shrimp). Not something I would treat with chemicals or even worry about unless things start to really bother you.

 

[Sawdonkey]

I thought I'd update this a few weeks later. These flatworms are still present but have probably subsided a little. I don't see as many of them. I have done nothing to address the issue (if it even is one). At this point, I'm not going to worry about these since they aren't causing problems and their population seems to be subsiding.

 

[coral reeftank]

I think you should have some wrasses in your tank before they are out of control...if you donot do it now ...all your sps will be trouble later on....

 

[Pufferpunk]

I thought I'd update this a few weeks later. These flatworms are still present but have probably subsided a little. I don't see as many of them. I have done nothing to address the issue (if it even is one). At this point, I'm not going to worry about these since they aren't causing problems and their population seems to be subsiding.

As long as you don't plan to ever sell anything from that tank...

 

[SkullV]

Normal rust flatworms are not a problem for selling at all, especially with good reefers like Gunner who discloses potential pest problems in their system. Simple coralRX gets these guys no problem.

 

[tinman]

Normal rust flatworms are not a problem for selling at all, especially with good reefers like Gunner who discloses potential pest problems in their system. Simple coralRX gets these guys no problem.

+1

Ppl like Gunner are fine as they disclose their pests before hand and they can be taken care of using coralrx or better yet bayers dip.

The problem is with ppl who doesn't (even about more potential problems) and then lazy reefers put them in their system with out dipping them.

 

[tinman]

Added a small sixline today to see if it helps with this problem ill know in a few days

 

[ThePorkchopExpress]

i think i have these now in my frag tank...they are tiny, rust colored with forked tails and are very noticeable because i use very white frag plugs for all my frags so they appear black under aquarium lighting...but once i get them under regular lighting they are dark brown...i just started noticing them last night and this morning...there aren't too many yet but i'd obviously like to treat them before they get out of hand, unless, as stated above they control their population based on available food and i have been feeding the frag tank a lot lately because i'm trying to heal up a scoly and a goniopora frag

i may have to go the flatworm exit route since it is just a small, uncovered 10g frag tank and any wrasse will just jump out.. [MENTION=1455]Sawdonkey[/MENTION] did you ever get rid of these things? you ever use the flatworm exit you bought and if so, any tips? i hear planaria release toxins when killed

 

[Paulip]

Seems like a good article.

http://melevsreef.com/flatworms.html

 

[fredfish13]

had flatworms when i started out a few years back and used Exit on a 20long. it worked great. make sure to siphon out dead ones, WC and run carbon after.