Question for Kipass about Flatworms

[nas19320]

I just noticed that I now have flatworms in my tank and I am in the process of ordering Salifert's FW Exit to treat it. My question is how much time elapsed between the time you first saw signs of the FW and the treatment. I know that I got the FW from two new corals I purchased thursday and I am wondering if I treat the tank at the end of this week what kinda fallout I should expect. How fast do they multiply? Thanks.

 

[jonthefb]

i would have a good 20 percent of your water mixed up to do a ec, and also get soem chemi pure ready cause you wil need to run actrivated carbon to remove the flatworm toxins once they start to die!
good luck, hopefully kip will chime in with some info as well!
jon

 

[bigmac]

I wouldn't do anything except try to suck them out during water changes until you've decided their a problem. I took my sps tank down 6 months ago and only then did I find out I had flat worms. I didn't even know it.
That Exit stuff might do more harm then good.

 

[nas19320]

Bump

 

[timsedwards]

The exit stuff is really good and great at getting rid of FW, the danger is the fallout. As has been said, water change and carbon essential.
I have been told that for every one flatworm you can see, there are four you cannot.
Good luck,
Tim.

 

[nas19320]

Thanks guys. I think I am going to try to stop these flatworms before they get a foothold on my tank. How can I prevent flatworms from coming in on new corals?

 

[jonthefb]

the only real way to prevent them is to carefully inspect each peice before you purchase it.....some say doing FW dips of 2 or 3 seconds help to kill off any potential invaders, but i still beleive that careful selection will end up being the best preventative!
good luck
jon

 

[urchin]

I just did my 180gal. I had thousands of them, for at least 2 yrs.. I finally decided to nuke them, and believe me, that is what this stuff does. The 1st few days were questionable, even the apstasia closed up, pretty bad.. ran carbon, and did 25% water change, and sucked as many out as i could before dosing it.. lost 1 fish, but that was it, luckily.. did another 25% change the second day, and 2 weeks later things are back to normal, no worms... I think I was pretty lucky, if I had to do it again, I would, but have plenty of new water ready, these things are nasty... The stuff hits them within minutes, you'll see them start running around, crazy.. after awhile, they start floating, and over night, they seem to just disappear (the remining bodies)...good luck..

 

[jrpage]

i don't have any but would like to know what I'm looking for when making purchases at the LFS.
Thanks!

 

[jrpage]

TY KIP!!!!

 

[nas19320]

Thanks guys for the info. I treated my tank last weekend and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The tank never seemed to even notice the effects. I believe it was do to the small population of flatworms I had because I siphoned a bunch off before treatment and I caught the problem early. I still seem to have a few left which I will probably treat again this weekend. The only thing I noticed when treating was my nassarius snails began to act really strange, I'm not quite sure why but I didn't lose any.