Flatworm Question

[sandi]

Well this has been quite a long process. First finding out exactly what these critters were and with some research learning how to get rid of them. I have Flatworm Exit that we are using tonight. We have made enough water to do a 75% water change if needed. I expect we will have to do quite a significant one because there are quite a few flatworms. I am planning on quarantining my fish, cleaner shrimp and starfish because I don't want to chance losing any of them. Here is my question - would it be ok to take out most of the rock and dip it in RO water to get as many off as possible before using the Exit or would this hurt the rock? The turkey baster thing just isn't getting enough of them out. They are just everywhere and I know I won't be able to get enough of them out before using the exit - that is why I am going to quarantine the fish.
Any advise on this is most appreciated.

 

[grzy]

I just used flatworm ext on my tank and had a bunch in there as well. What I did was try to syphon as many as I could before I dosed the tank. Then after I dosed, the flatworms die and float in the water. I then tried to syphon as many as I could while they were floating. This got rid of a lot of them.
I would also recommend running some carbon after you dose the tank.
With this method I killed, hopefully, all/most of the flatworms in my tank and did not have any loss of fish or corals.
Good luck!

 

[sandi]

Thanks for the response. This makes me feel better about it anyway. Just don't want to lose my fish. Lost all my fish in my tank about 9 months ago due to a boxfish mishap. Was horrible experience. People thought I was crazy getting so upset over fish but when you put so much time, effort and energy into them as you do with saltwater fish, you just can't help but become very attached. Thanks again!

 

[azreefgirl]

I treated my tank with Flatworm Exit on Saturday. It works wonderfully! I brought a mushroom rock into the tank that was just infested with those things, and it was about a week before I figured out what they were. Fortunately they pretty much stayed confined to that one rock. I used the turkey baster and just vacuumed up all the worms I could see then I added the drops. Within a few minutes there were worms crawling up from underneath the shrooms (still alive) and I vacuumed up those. That got most of them. Then when I started seeing worms floating I added the carbon back into the tank and siphoned out the dead worms. About an hour later I did a 25% water change. My fish and my corals were happy and unaffected by the treatment.

I probably siphoned out about 200 of those boogers from my tank!