Worm ID, regular harmless flatworm?

[rcharliesam]

Regarding siphoning them out, is there a good way to get them concentrated to one area, or is it a one by one kind of task?

 

[thirty5]

One by one. depends on how many you have. Some people have infestations so bad that they will collect so many of them it is not funny. But you can just use the siphon tube and suck them off the glass, but you cant "get them" to move anywhere.

 

[rcharliesam]

Ugh, I kind of figured that. Earlier I scrubbed them off of the glass to get them into the water column, and I put a net in front of my MP10 to catch them. It actually grabbed a good amount of them.

I have more than I think (I am sure), but i probably don't have as many as others might as the tank was set up two months ago and they likely came in off of transferred corals.

 

[thirty5]

You may not have that many. They can get so bad that they will almost cover the glass and the sandbed. Catch it early and get them out.

 

[motortrendz]

If your worried abt using FWE. Look into the zeovit flatworm remover. Its reef safe. I haven't used it but spoke to a few people thatbjave with good success.
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[BaaMNYC]

I heard a good way of getting them in one spot is to do it at night with the lights out and a flashlight. They will gravitate towards the light.

 

[thirty5]

I heard a good way of getting them in one spot is to do it at night with the lights out and a flashlight. They will gravitate towards the light.

Good Tip, Maybe I will give that a shot. But I don't have that many.

 

[BaaMNYC]

Best of luck

 

[rcharliesam]

So I put in the instructed amount of drops in around 9:30 pm tonight, set up my water for a WC, and waited.

Around a half an hour later I noticed less on the glass but a small amount remained, so I dropped another half dose in. Cranked up the mp10 and kept a net in front of it for a bit and caught a good amount of stuff in the net. I also netted a good portion of the top layer of sand. I then dropped in a new bag of chemi-pure and put some new filter floss in the overflow to catch some of the dying/dead flatworms.

I then performed a 20% water change. So far so good as I have not seen another one on the glass since I did all of this. The only thing that looked somewhat affected were my duncans which looked a bit stressed initially. They seem to be mostly back to normal now.

Hopefully everything will be fine in the morning. Thank you guys for your reassurance. I will post a follow up tomorrow to let you know if it was successful.

 

[garys reef]

i dont have flat worms THANK GOD but i saw a post that if u use fwe as a dip on new corals it will kill them is that true and will it kill aefw i use coral rx on anything that goes in my tank i am super paranoid about getting any kind of bugs in my tank how do you use this as a dip

 

[rcharliesam]

So far so good. Went home on lunch today and everything but the flatworms are still in there, I noticed a few things on my glass, but since they were tough to scrape off, I am assuming they are spiroid worms.

I have to dose my fluval edge for the FW's next. I am not sure it will go as well as that tank is a pain in the balls to do anything with.

And from now on I will definitely be dipping anything that goes into my tank.


*EDIT - After a second look. It appears that a few tiny ones stayed behind. I guess I will do a second treatment next weekend. Though, maybe a sixline will pick off the last few.

Second edit. I got annoyed at knowing that there were some left. I dosed the tank again (and the edge) to hopefully get the remaining ones out. I figured the chemi pure is still new and I would rather do it now than dose again next weekend. Hopefully tomorrow I will be flatworm free.

 

[rcharliesam]

Well, even after the second dose, I noticed one or two tiny ones (on the glass) today. Not sure if dosing three times in as many days is a good idea. I don't know if I am harming the other inhabitants of the tank, they don't seem to be stressed out.

What do you guys think?

 

[thirty5]

Wait about a week and do it again.

Make sure that you have fresh carbon and more WC.

I should be getting my BRS order today with my FWE so I can treat my tank.

 

[BaaMNYC]

I wonder if this due to the same reason they fear using too much antibiotics. maybe we are creating a super flatworm that is immune to fwe?

 

[rcharliesam]

I checked the tank this morning, no worms on the glass! Hopefully once the lights come on, there will still be no signs, perhaps the ones left were dying off?

 

[rcharliesam]

I need to stop celebrating until I really know they are gone.

 

[thirty5]

I need to stop celebrating until I really know they are gone.

Yes, do not celebrate until they are gone you are right.

Now if you can add a fish that will eat them, IMO now is the time, that if they do come back that the fish will basically keep the tank free of them

Remember to always dip your corals. FWE can be used as a dip! I am not sure of the ratio to SW though.

I am getting my BRS order today so I may treat my tank tonight. Not sure yet.

 

[rcharliesam]

Yeah, I may have to pick up a sixline in the next day or so. Two clowns and a neon goby currently in the tank, I don't think the wrasse will have too much of an impact on the bioload, either way, I will does some microbacter7 to offset, just in case. As for the worms, I picked them up in the new tank when I transferred over corals from my 6gallon. I am thinking of picking up the bayer advanced insect killer to use as a dip.


Good luck with your treatment, I hope it's more successful for you than it has been for me.

 

[thirty5]

I have never used the bayer. I thought that it was for sps only though....

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[rcharliesam]

You might be right. I see a few people mentioned a shorter dip time for lps, but it does seem to be used on sps whenever anyone mentions it.

I will look into other options.

I just noticed a lot of dead amphipods in my edge, I would imagine that there was a lot of flatworm die off in there for that to happen. Or maybe the FWE is too harsh in such a small tank?