Flatworms

[melosu58]

Well it looks like I have some flatworms in my tank. They are all over my mushrooms. I read this article. Anyone else have any advice. I did a PWC and could not get them off the mushrooms.

Melevsreef.com - Flatworms | How to eliminate them!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I had them several years back, but luckily they were mostly on my rock work so they were easy to suck off with a siphon hose. The thing shown on that melevsreef article is what I ended up doing so I could just dump the siphoned water back into my tank.

Seems to me (and just thinking out loud) that if you just run a "gentle" siphon you'd be able to suck the buggers off the mushroom without harming the mushrooms too much. And even if the mushroom retracts on you, then it seems like the flatworms would be ejected off the 'shroom since they're not going to shrink in size like the mushroom would.

I remember when I was dealing with it, they seemed like they were never going to go away. But eventually I got the population down to a certain level that they disappeared within a few days. But it took about a month of constant battle to get to that point...

 

[melosu58]

Thanks Kurt. I`ll keep that in mind.

 

[hackteck]

I had them several years back, but luckily they were mostly on my rock work so they were easy to suck off with a siphon hose. The thing shown on that melevsreef article is what I ended up doing so I could just dump the siphoned water back into my tank.

Seems to me (and just thinking out loud) that if you just run a "gentle" siphon you'd be able to suck the buggers off the mushroom without harming the mushrooms too much. And even if the mushroom retracts on you, then it seems like the flatworms would be ejected off the 'shroom since they're not going to shrink in size like the mushroom would.

I remember when I was dealing with it, they seemed like they were never going to go away. But eventually I got the population down to a certain level that they disappeared within a few days. But it took about a month of constant battle to get to that point...

yea when i had my 180 a couple years back i had a problem with flatworms i just got a vinyl tube and started a siphon and sucked them out of the tank

 

[thincat]

Mike, did you add something new to your tank? How did you end up with flatworms?

 

[melosu58]

Around Christmas time my daughter got me a orange sea star. It had to come from that.

 

[melosu58]

So does the flatworm exit work?

 

[thincat]

It does work but you have to try and suck out as many as you can so as not to pollute your water.

 

[ccCapt]

It works, but you will need to treat the tank at least twice. The 1st treatment will kill them, but not their eggs. When you see them about 4-5 days later, treat the tank again. It took me 3 treatments to totally remove them when I had them.
You also do want to suck out as many as you can before you do the treatments. It literally takes like 2 mins for the stuff to work. As soon as it hits the water you will see them start to die and float around. I also used a fine net to scoop out the dead 1's floating around.

 

[joy13]

So one treatment doesn't work. I was wondering why I was treating my one tank every 6 months. I just treated it on Sunday again. I better start mixing up water now for my next round of it.

 

[melosu58]

Well tomorrow is the day. Making enough water to do a PWC afterwards. Let you know how it goes. It`s really strange that I dont see any on the glass or rocks. It`s only on my mushrooms. I also have some carbon to run afterwards.

 

[neilanh]

Definitly do several flatworm exit treatments if that's the route you're taking. If you see worms, then chances are there are eggs and worms you can't see within your rocks somewhere.

 

[melosu58]

Will do. This is the first time I have ever added a chemical to my tank in 13 yrs since I have had the tank. Kind of worried.