Strategy to combat flatworms

[Rennan Serrano]

Hello Fellow Reefers!

I'm a new reefer and now my reef has been running for 05 months.

Since the beginning i came across amyloodinium ocellatum (killed all my fish), valonia algae (under control so far with mitraculus crab) and flatworm (normal ones, GOD i hope to not comme across AEFW onde day lol).

Regarding flatworms i've tried to get rid of them using salifert flatworm exit but it is just impossible to erradicate all of them and they always come back (flatworms are real highlanders!)

Therefore i've tried a different approach. Now that the reef passed the 74 fallow days, i've introduced a melanurus wrasse and a yellow coris wrasse.

So far they are in the reef for 5 days but i havent see they eating any flatworms (tought the colony of flatworm seems to stop growing).

Since there is only these two fishes in my tank, i'm thinking about not feed at all to force them to go after the flatworms. Do you guys think that this is a good strategy to train them to catch flatworms? (i have a nice colony of pods so i think they wont starve).

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Rennan

 

[solor]

My melanurus wrasse would only eat the red planarian when it was small, like 2-3.5". Once it hit about 4-5" it wasn't as actively persuing them, but, admittingly I feed heavy.

I caution this, but I was able to get flatworm exit to work on my 180 gl, sps tank. It took 6 X's the dosage with 3 consecutive treatments 7-10 days apart. I also left the 2nd and 3rd dose stay for about 4 hrs before running carbon. It may have been pointless, but, I ran the skimmer half the time, turned off everything for 2 hrs and let it soak so to speak, stirred the sand multiple times, and blasted everything with a power head. If it didn't work I was starting over so it was worth the risk to me.

The only affected inhabitants was my cleaner shrimp and some of my micro brittle stars. My Naso Tang had me nervous as well as the Hippo and PBT but they came out of it without any issues. My other 14 fish were fine also.

 

[Charlesbrooks]

Try to siphon as many as you can when doing water changes. Also introduce a few
Casella atromarginata
to your tank. I would stay away for any chemical treatment

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I would like to know what flat worms they are and do you have a picture of them.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

If they're the tiny little clear ones, they start to disappear after your tank finishes its "soft cyle". However, I also bombed the heck out of my tank with fwe too. I didn't have much of a stock in my tank so I didn't worry much. Still had to them after bottles of exit later. Then I told my wife I was getting a wrasse, and they must have overheard because the worms packed up and left. I wouldn't stop feeding. My wrasse is always looking for something to eat, they're little pigs. I'm sure you worm problem will sort itself just by having a wrasse.

 

[Rennan Serrano]

Here is a photo.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

Here is a photo.

View attachment 542460

He looks kinda big. If let your wrasse eat them but feed them too.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Crazy the fwe didn't kill a plain brown flatworm.

Yea feed normally and see where it goes.
IMO your CUC directly competes with these guys so that's a thought too.

 

[Rennan Serrano]

Thx for the tips guys.

@saltyfilmfolks when you mention that my CUC competes with these flatworms, you mean that the CUC eat the flatworm food source as well or by being the food for wrasses too?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Oh sorry. Clean Up Crew.
Snails and crabs.

 

[Rennan Serrano]

Try to siphon as many as you can when doing water changes. Also introduce a few
Casella atromarginata
to your tank. I would stay away for any chemical treatment

I would love to place one of those, however in Brazil we dont have this kind of guys available to sell

 

[CoralReefer1019]

yellow coris, six line, melanrus, maybe a springer damsel. Wrasse will be the best bet naturally unless you want to use flatworm exit

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Or scooter blenny.