[moonlitsomernite]

Okay, in my lil' 90 gallon reef, I have like 10's of thousands of flatworms. They aren't killing or harming my corals that I've noticed, but their little oval bodies definitely are an eye sore. I've heard that six-lined wrasses eat them, but is there anything else I can do to get rid of these ugly things?

 

[chi]

I once had flatworms as well. It first started off with just one here and there and I never really took much notice of it. But eventually they started multiplying like crazy and took over much of my tank. I don't think they really harmed anything but they were rather unsightly. Tried siphoning them out when I did my weekly water change but that didn't seem to make a difference. Finally, after much research on RC I took the plunge and dosed the tank with "flatworm exit" at triple the concentration of the instruction (this was based on other reefers experience on RC). The good news is I no longer have flatworms and there was no long term harm to any of my coral, hard or soft. Just make sure that you do a major water change after dosing your tank and then aggressively run carbon for a few days afterwards.

Good luck.

 

[John Brancheau]

Not too sure what you have in there for fish, but you might want t try a six-line wrasse, they are pretty good for eating those little buggers, I had a pretty good batch of them going until the wrasse wiped them out. And the best part was no extra chemicals to worry about.....

 

[jperry8]

My green spotted dragonet eliminated my infestation.

 

[shermlock]

Yup, I had worms too. Used flatworm exit...3 times. Finally took care of them the thrird time with about 3 times the dose too. The last time I dosed it, the snails didn't even curl up. I am not as sure as others that it is harmless to all other creatures.
Scott

 

[rscdragon]

I would read more into the FWE. The down fall to flat worm exit is that once it has killed all the flat worms their toxins get released into the tank and that is were the trouble begins. If it is a small infestation you should be fine, but if it is large and you use it prepare to do a few water changes and carbon changes.

 

[moonlitsomernite]

Perhaps I'll try an arrow crab or two, because they are cool looking anyway. I don't really want to get fish because I'm moving my tank into a new room within the next month, and I don't want to stress out more fish than needed, so maybe I'll just have to bear with it until then. I'm kind of scared of using the chemicals, because as rscdragon said, all of the toxins in the water, I don't want to shock any of my animals, because I'm not kidding, they coat the live rock and gravel.

 

[skylergirl]

I read somewhere that when flatworms die, they give off some sort of toxin that can kill fish and corals. Very nasty, especially if there are tons of them in your tank.

 

[rscdragon]

the Toxins that I am refering to (like sunny Said) are the ones that are released when the flat worms die. When you are moving the tank May be you could fresh water dip everything before putting it into the new tank. You could also do a flat worm exit dip as well as the fresh water dip.

 

[huggydoo]

If you do a freshwate dip, make sure the ph and temperature are the same to avoid schoking your corals! Also raising the ph temporary to 8.4-8.6 will kill alot of them.

 

[Sylock]

After the power outage this summer I had a HUGE outbreak of them. They were literally everywhere. Some of my rock was brown/red because it was covered with them. I would suck 50% of them out every few weeks. They started declining about October, and now they are still around, but there are not many at all. I think mine was due to an over abunance of nutrients because of the die off I had with the power outage. Be patient, and lower the feeding of your tank if you can possibly?

 

[capthowdy]

Can someone post a picture of these things. I have some worm like creatures in my live rock. When they fully extend their mouths look like the thing from alien. Yikes

Norm

 

[02redZ28]

If you can see their mouths.. then you have something else! These are like only an eighth of an inch long if that. They look like red plastic pellets only flat.

 

[Ammck]

I had a major flatworm problem as well. I was too scared to use flatworm exit because I read to many horror stories. I also read that flat worms thrive in high temp waters, and with certain types of reef foods. So I reduced my temp to 76 - 78 and reduced my feeding. I also in creased my water changes and vacuumed out as much as I could. I would also ran carbon more than usual. Thus far I have reduced hundreds within the last 4 months. hope this helps
Alex