vonjankmon
Reefing newb
I have a bunch of these on the side of my tank with my live rock (other side is filled with seagrass) and I really have no idea what they are. Pictures below:
Odd little orange things...
- Thread starter vonjankmon
- Start date
ErinCahir
Sausage Wrangler
Oh no! Flatworms! Flatworms Exit works wonderfully. Try to siphon out as many as you can before and after you add it, and be ready to do a water change. Flatworms release toxins when they die.
AmberSunrise
Reef enthusiast
Yep flatworms, man that sucks good luck.
vonjankmon
Reefing newb
Ah figured. Makes sense I fell behind on my tank maintenance recently. I'll suck them out and get some water changes going. They're not really taking over or anything so not to worried yet and they've been there a couple of weeks now.
14 gallon nanocube
Reefing newb
The problem with flat worms is that for everyone you see there are potentially hundreds you don't see they multiply very quickly.If you go with flat worm exit it can be real stressful on your clean up crew especially stars.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
I wouldn't let it go... You should treat ASAP. If you can see them on your glass, they are EVERYWHERE, and they are toxic.
vonjankmon
Reefing newb
I only have live rock in a little less than half my tank and it's fairly open. If I had a ton of them I would be able to tell as the rest of the tank is just seagrass. I think something may be eating them as they tend to disappear for a day and then slowly come back but I dunno. Will be doing a water change and sucking them out and will keep the parameters crystal clear for a couple of weeks. Generally I hate dosing anything that could potentially hurt my tank, I can be patient and take care of the problem by keep the parameters solid.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Many fish will eat them -- I had a leopard wrasse for several years in my 240 and never saw any flatworms. When the leopard wrasse died, I experienced a flatworm explosion almost immediately after his death, and I hadn't added anything new in a long time. I am pretty sure the leopard wrasse (which is a natural predator of flatworms) was keeping the population in check 24/7, and when he was gone, there was nothing keeping them from reproducing like mad.
pheasant29
Reefing newb
I was seeing them in my tank as well. Small little ones on the glass. I added a sixline and have not seen one since. Plus the little guy stays as fat as he can!!! I swear he is as big around as he is long!:D we love him.
vonjankmon
Reefing newb
Well did a good cleaning and probably about 1/3 water change on my tank yesterday and man there are more of those things than I thought. Not much to my rock work and I needed to brush off some macro that was growing to large so I took out all of the rock work and cleaned it off. Tons of those little buggers fell out.
So I'm going to try Flatworm exit I think to finish off any that are remaining. Need to get some more replacement water made so I'll give it a try in a couple days.
And I think I figured out the reason for the outbreak. I've been feeding the tank rotifers for a couple of weeks now since I have a culture for my baby seahorses and figured I'd use some of it in my DT. Read online that the flatworms actually feed on rotifers and such, so yeah my bad. I'll just stick to target feeding my pipe organ coral with cyclopezee.
So I'm going to try Flatworm exit I think to finish off any that are remaining. Need to get some more replacement water made so I'll give it a try in a couple days.
And I think I figured out the reason for the outbreak. I've been feeding the tank rotifers for a couple of weeks now since I have a culture for my baby seahorses and figured I'd use some of it in my DT. Read online that the flatworms actually feed on rotifers and such, so yeah my bad. I'll just stick to target feeding my pipe organ coral with cyclopezee.
little_fish
Moderator
When do dose with flatworm exit, you see tons more jumping into the water column as they die. I would sit there with a hose and suck them out as you see them jumping around.
