I am sorry to hear about your flatworm problem. I have them in my tank as well. Almost nothing eats them, you can try to luck out with a mandarine or a six-line. One will eat them another won't, my six-line won't. It looks like they are still small in number in your tank, I would try to eliminate them by hand. The prognosis is somehwhat grim I'm afraid. Good luck, if you have any success getting rid of these things please let me know how you did it.
Here are a few of the replies that I got to this problem:
Originally posted by Tang_man_Montreal
fishhooked,
You, (like me), are outta luck.
All the searching I've done regarding these darn pests points to it not being controllable.
Some people say Six-line Wrasses and/or Mandarins work. Some say they don't.
There's a species of Nudibranch that might work, but doesn't last long enough in a tank, especially since it needs a tank with NO water movement.
Some say they tried an additive called Oomed, with varied side-effects. But Oomed is no longer available on the market.
Hyposalinity, No.. don't work.
High alk, maybe, but for the most part, no.
There's research pointing to a Sargassium shrimp that eats these damn Red flatworms, but these shrimp are seasonal (spring), and hand harvested in the gulf of mexico, and not commercially available.
So what do you do? You tell me. Apparently these things come and go, like tides. They appear where's there's low water circulation, and high light. You could try the wrasse or mandarin route, and if you're lucky, maybe, just maybe, you'll get one that eats these suckers.
Other than that, you could fresh water dip your rock for 30 secs. It will kill the flatworms, but also kill the coraline algae on the rock. BUT, you'll still have worms appear back on the rock since they are also in the SAND...
so basically, there's no answer that I've found. I personally am going to try the wrasse and maybe a mandarin. Other than that, you can sit back and "enjoy" your new tank inhabitants, cause like me and many other people, you're stuck with them.
Originally posted by sammystingray
Copper will kill them, but many good things with them........might be worth it.......add a couple good rocks later to repopulate the rocks.......nothing, and I mean NOTHING will eat them into non-existence. hypo perhaps??? I personally would try to completely rid the tank and get it over with.........everything must be treated aside from fish if they can be removed.........the entire tank.........you can't leave even a few to rid the tank oif them entirely obviously. It started from a few right??????? so you can't leave a few to do it again later. I hate to hear these stories.........you don't have to do anything I advise......it's just opinions. It really depends on how bad they are, and how bad you want them gone.
!!! If I clean them off they look like a worm in the water. I have a 75 gal reef tank many coral. 30 gal sump, wet dry, classic berlin skimmer, 2500 rio return pump and 2 250 MH 2 110 vhos for light lights are on 10hrsMH 14 vho everything is good but the little green things. What do I need to get to eat them. Have over fifty red and bule crabs two coral banded shrimp two camel shrimp. one pistol shrimp. Over 40 snails of all kinds. 150lbs LR. 150lbs. LS 2 tangs, gobie, 2 clowns, 2 chromis, need help to get rid of them.
