Help with flatworm removel

[whitasm]

Hi all, just recently found flatworms in my large frogspawn colony. Dipped it and about 7-8 small flatworms popped off. Inspected after it was back into the tank and nothing. I wake up this morning to check and now I see them on my green octospawn. Was curious how others approached this fix and whether or not they are super harmful to my eyuphellia. The tank is full of just hammers, torches and frogspawn. For reference it is a 22 gallon display with a 12 gallon sump and two aggressive clownfish. Pictures below for reference.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

They might die out on their own if they run out of food source, or they might increase to plague like proportions lol. It sounds like you are seeing them increase. They can carpet and smother corals if the population gets too high.

Some fishes will eat them, but I'm not sure if your tank size will accommodate them. The best solution is flatworm exit, but follow the directions very carefully.

Flatworms release a toxin when they die, so its better to use FE now while the population is still low so the toxins don't affect your livestock (there are stories of huge population die offs that kill everything in the tank). Run activated carbon to help with the toxins, and air stone will probably help too.

 

[whitasm]

They might die out on their own if they run out of food source, or they might increase to plague like proportions lol. It sounds like you are seeing them increase. They can carpet and smother corals if the population gets too high.

Some fishes will eat them, but I'm not sure if your tank size will accommodate them. The best solution is flatworm exit, but follow the directions very carefully.

Flatworms release a toxin when they die, so its better to use FE now while the population is still low so the toxins don't affect your livestock (there are stories of huge population die offs that kill everything in the tank). Run activated carbon to help with the toxins, and air stone will probably help too.

Perfect, thank you! I was worried about using FE since I haven't used any chemicals in the tank up to this point. What is their food source? I would like to try and starve them out if possible but it seems like they are just jumping from coral to coral after I dip one.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Perfect, thank you! I was worried about using FE since I haven't used any chemicals in the tank up to this point. What is their food source? I would like to try and starve them out if possible but it seems like they are just jumping from coral to coral after I dip one.

They eat plankton, so at the hobby level, I have no idea what they eat in our tanks.

 

[whitasm]

They eat plankton, so at the hobby level, I have no idea what they eat in our tanks.

Maybe that explains the population boom after I started dosing live phyto...

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

probably lol

And FE is very safe, I know lots who have used it, I've never heard of any thing bad, except when they unaware of the toxins. If you accommodate for the toxins it will be fine

 

[whitasm]

probably lol

And FE is very safe, I know lots who have used it, I've never heard of any thing bad, except when they unaware of the toxins. If you accommodate for the toxins it will be fine

Okay perfect, I will probably try it out then since I have only seen a few. So little chemipure blue bags would work well in say the two overflows or in the sump drop so that water runs through it? Just scared of carbon since the last time I ran it I got dinos from trying to take out some toxic green palys haha

 

[whitasm]

probably lol

And FE is very safe, I know lots who have used it, I've never heard of any thing bad, except when they unaware of the toxins. If you accommodate for the toxins it will be fine

Do they look like coral eating flatworms or are they more just common flatworms. They are like brown and small but I can see them moving around on the flesh of my frogspawns.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I've never used chemipure so I'm not sure. I think it is carbon mixed with other stuff? Correct, drop it somewhere where the flow passes through it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Do they look like coral eating flatworms or are they more just common flatworms. They are like brown and small but I can see them moving around on the flesh of my frogspawns.

That I don't know, I don't think the red ones don't eat coral, but I can't say for sure. @ISpeakForTheSeas might know....

 

[UMALUM]

Fresh water RO dip is just as effective with Flatworms and less stressful on the euphyllia. I would dip as many as possible before treating as mentioned the toxicity is no joke and can wreak havoc on your system.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Do they look like coral eating flatworms or are they more just common flatworms. They are like brown and small but I can see them moving around on the flesh of my frogspawns.

That I don't know, I don't think the red ones don't eat coral, but I can't say for sure. @ISpeakForTheSeas might know....

These aren't coral-eating flatworms (Acropora-eating Flatworms look relatively similar, but not the same as these; Euphyllia-eating Flatworms have a pretty drastically different body shape) - these are some kind of Acoel flatworm, possibly a Waminoa species.

Waminoa flatworms are photosynthetic (much like corals, they have symbiotic dinoflagellates living in them) and reportedly feed on coral mucus (not the corals themselves), so they tend to live on our corals - they're essentially harmless, but in mass numbers can basically smother the coral by blocking the light from getting to them.

Looks like it may be a Waminoa sp. - they are known to feed on the coral mucus rather than the coral itself of corals in the family Euphylliidae, as well as mushroom corals. Theoretically, in large numbers these guys could cause problems for corals like stated in the quote* below:
"Apparently, acoels can harm corals by smothering them, which may hinder their respiration, feeding and sediment shedding capacities."

*The link the quote was taken from:

Tissue loss in corals infested by acoelomorph flatworms (Waminoa sp.) - Coral Reefs

link.springer.com

Edit: Also, I have no idea why I didn't get the notification from Erin1971Texas' tag - sorry for the delay.

The only confirmed effective method of removal that I'm aware of is a repeated dip and cleaning method (pull any infected corals from the tank, dip them, scrape off any worms/eggs that stay on through the dip, repeat as needed). It may be more effective if you can to dip, scrape, and then put the corals in a different, uninfected tank to wait out the starvation of any eggs/worms in the infected tank, but this may not be possible. The link below has some other ideas you can explore if you'd prefer, but I have no idea if they're effective or not:

EEFW infestation (euphyllia eating flatworms)

Dip them using coral revive. They peel off in seconds using it. I’ve tried other stuff but nothing works even close as good as revive. They spaz right out in seconds and come off the torches Flatworm exit doesn’t work on these at all...

www.reef2reef.com

Edit: Also, here's a link that shows some more known host corals (I would assume these will host on just about any coral they can get too to be honest).

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Photographs-of-Waminoa-specimens-and-their-hosts-a-Specimen-18-host-Echinophyllia-sp_fig2_324516348

 

[whitasm]

These aren't coral-eating flatworms (Acropora-eating Flatworms look relatively similar, but not the same as these; Euphyllia-eating Flatworms have a pretty drastically different body shape) - these are some kind of Acoel flatworm, possibly a Waminoa species.

Waminoa flatworms are photosynthetic (much like corals, they have symbiotic dinoflagellates living in them) and reportedly feed on coral mucus (not the corals themselves), so they tend to live on our corals - they're essentially harmless, but in mass numbers can basically smother the coral by blocking the light from getting to them.

Well that's good news! do they reproduce like other flatworms and are they as toxic when killed off? They kind of look like they're just crawling around on the flesh then make their way out to the tenantacle. I usually see them on the flesh early morning then they will make their way to the tentacles as the day goes on do this seems to be pretty accurate.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Well that's good news! do they reproduce like other flatworms and are they as toxic when killed off? They kind of look like they're just crawling around on the flesh then make their way out to the tenantacle. I usually see them on the flesh early morning then they will make their way to the tentacles as the day goes on do this seems to be pretty accurate.

They do reproduce like other flatworms in our tanks, yes - I'm honestly not sure on the toxicity part, but I'd suggest assuming so to be safe.

 

[Jimbo327]

Personally, I would do Flatworm Exit (FWE). But you need to know how infested your system is before starting treatment. The Flatworm toxins can be problematic if your tank is heavily invested. If it is heavily invested, you will need to do more prep work.

Prep work: If you can easily remove the corals, I would dip everything in a coral dip. I would recommend a melafix dip, but that's up to you...most coral dips are effective. Turkey baste it and get most of the FW off, and see how infested it is. And syphon out as many of the flatworms as you can. Also need to prepare about 25% fresh saltwater for water change after treatment. Also need to have 1 lbs of carbon per 50 gal tank volume.

Once you feel like you've done your best to manually remove the flatworms, then it's time for FWE. Add per direction.

If you are heavily infested, then you will need to act fast after FWE treatment to add carbon and run the skimmer when you see flatworms dying. Then do water change. This will help get rid of toxins and not effect your other livestock in the tank.

If you are lightly infested, you can leave the FWE treatment in much longer, run less carbon, etc. You don't have to worry about the flatworm toxins as much.

I would repeat another FWE about 1-2 weeks after initial treatment to kill off any newly hatched flatworms. But you should already be lightly infested or none, and it would be much easier.

 

[whitasm]

Personally, I would do Flatworm Exit (FWE). But you need to know how infested your system is before starting treatment. The Flatworm toxins can be problematic if your tank is heavily invested. If it is heavily invested, you will need to do more prep work.

Prep work: If you can easily remove the corals, I would dip everything in a coral dip. I would recommend a melafix dip, but that's up to you...most coral dips are effective. Turkey baste it and get most of the FW off, and see how infested it is. And syphon out as many of the flatworms as you can. Also need to prepare about 25% fresh saltwater for water change after treatment. Also need to have 1 lbs of carbon per 50 gal tank volume.

Once you feel like you've done your best to manually remove the flatworms, then it's time for FWE. Add per direction.

If you are heavily infested, then you will need to act fast after FWE treatment to add carbon and run the skimmer when you see flatworms dying. Then do water change. This will help get rid of toxins and not effect your other livestock in the tank.

If you are lightly infested, you can leave the FWE treatment in much longer, run less carbon, etc. You don't have to worry about the flatworm toxins as much.

I would repeat another FWE about 1-2 weeks after initial treatment to kill off any newly hatched flatworms. But you should already be lightly infested or none, and it would be much easier.

Thank you much! This is super helpful! So far I’ve seen flatworms on my large 12 head frogspawn. Took it out and dipped it and had about 5-6 flatworms fall off. That is by far the largest coral in my tank. Since dipping I haven’t seen any flatworms on that frogspawn anymore. I new see one or two hanging out on my octo spawn and that was after I dipped the frog so I think they somehow floated over. Other than that I have not seen another flatworm on anything and I have a magnifying glass that I look closely at everything. I just received flatworm exit and have been scared to use it since but as of now I just see two hanging out in that octospawn that will see in the flesh at night and in the early morning before the lights turn on. The plan is to use FWE asap but I need to find a time when u have a whole day to dedicate to watching it and doing wanted changes just incase the worst to happen.