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Flatworm Infestation – P365 Mar08
- At March 22, 2008
- By Neil Creek
- In Macro
5
[flickr]photo:2352050674[/flickr]
[flickr]photo:2352050490[/flickr]
They must have come in to our tank from a bought coral, and found the conditions to their liking. They are in huge numbers, and any exposed surface is about 30% covered by them. On three seperate occasions we've poisoned them and syphoned out all that we could see, but within a month they're back to the same population level. We hate them, they make the tank ugly and we have no idea how to get rid of them... :(
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AlaskaTeacher
Oh eeeeewwwww! The top picture looks like something from a creepy sci-fi monster movie. “Attack of the Killer Flatworms.”
Damien Franco
That could make a really strange and creepy wallpaper for your monitor.
You definetely have to get this situation under control.
Neil Creek
Strange and remarkable creatures aren’t they? I should mention that they’re only about 2-4mm long, so very small. We plan to get them under control, but I suspect it will involve some moderately intense and regular maintainence – sucking them out via syphon as a part of a more regular water change regimine.
nicole
six line wrasses are suppose to eat them … might wanna think about those??
Tom
I had this problem in my reef tank before. It was not a disaster because they didn’t attack my SPS, LPS or any corals in my tank. The awkward was they covered 30% of the surface in my tank and gave a bad look.
You should be careful in the treatment if you have a reef tank like me. These worms will release toxic when they die. With the high population of them, use Salifert’s Flatworm Exit. The trick is siphon the flatworm out of your tank as much as possible before treament, and do 25% water change 1-1.5 hours after the treatment. You must repeat this process 2 to 3 times on every 3 days to kill all the hatched eggs. After that you may have a 6-line warsse or a Red Scooter Blenny to control them.
Good luck.