Flatworm Predators

F

fejus

Membership Expired
Ok, so I have an infestation of the rust colored flatworms on a mushroom in my tank. I don't see them anywhere else (yet). I have been searching the forums and found a great deal of info regarding the Flatworm Exit but I am wanting a more natural remedy for the issue. Rather then add chemicals to my tank, I really want to get a fish or a shrimp to take care of them now and forever. :)

I recently bought a Peppermint Shrimp, because I read that they can be predators. Apparently though, the Peppermint was making nasty faces at my Porcelain Crab, and the Crab thought it better to just go ahead and end the little shrimps life. :sad:

I have also read that Arrow crabs can kill the worms. However they can also kill shrimp and fish too. Not an option for me . I don't want to loose my one fish I have as well as my Fire shrimp and Cleaner shrimp.

The Yellow Wrasse is another viable option as well, but I already have a Flasher Wrasse in the tank. I think this may be a viable option, but I really don't want 2 of the same species of fish in my 36G tank :wink:

The Scooter Blenny I have read will eat them. I am worried though if I will be able to keep him alive, since he is a dragonette and feasts mostly on Pods and Flatworms.

The Blue Damsels I hear will eat them ... Don't want a damsel, my tank is going to be a "nice peaceful happy tank" :wink:

Anyone hear of any other predators of the flatworm?
If I do go with the blenny, are they apt to eat smaller foods easier then the mandarins? I really don't want to starve the poor little guy. :sad:

Thanks in advance for any info anyone has! :)
-Paul
 
Like Matt said siphoning is a good way to remove them.

The last time I encountered the problem I fixed it with an eightline wrasse, six yellowtail damsels and a target mandarin. They didn't last a week.

I can't give more credit to one fish or the other because I witnessed them all eating them. They haven't come back since.

Most of the fish that eat them with success can be somewhat aggressive so it just depends on how willing you are to house one of those species.

They all worked in my case.
 
The numbers right now seem like they are manageable .. Since I only see them on one mushroom and they were harassing my Yumas.

I totally agree that adding another Wrasse to the tank is not what I want to do even though they are both "peaceful" according to the books I read :)

Since I don't see them on any other corals, could I do a couple of "Target Dips" of just those 2 corals and hope that it will take care of the issue? Will my Yumas survive that dip? :p

Thanks for the quick responses! :)

-Paul
 
Alright guys thanks a ton! I will have to do some recon tonight and make sure the flatworms are in manageable numbers, and then come up with a number I think the pop is at.

So noone has any info on how hard the Scooter Blenny is to take care of? :)

Thanks again folks!
Paul
 
Velvet nudibranch is also supposed to be a predator, plus they look pretty cool. Once he ran out of food you would probably need to sell/lease to someone else.
 
@greatwit wrote:
Velvet nudibranch is also supposed to be a predator said:
True! They will enjoy eating the FW's. However, I wouldn't recommend this creature either. They are very delicate. They will find your power head intakes or your overflow teeth and will be dead. This was my experience :sad:
I added a blue damsel. He is actually picked on in my tank by everyone else. He was also the last guy added. So far there has been zero problems out of him. BTW one day my FW's just disappeared. I siphoned them many times and treated with FWE. I lost count how many times I did the treatment. I had a heavy population of them though.
If you need some FWE I have some that's never been used that I'll sell you.

Good luck
Click to expand...
 
I have done multiple treatments of FWE. The second teatment I did it 2 days after the first and up the treatment by 50%. I also have a 6 line wrasse. They keep coming back. I can't recomend anything. But if you find the solution, please let me know.

Yuki
 
I found that using flatworm exit even in triple dose is completely harmless to your livestock. There's no true predator that will be able to go into your sump and anywhere else these things can reside and eat them. Eventually they will just re-spawn, the only way to truly get rid of them is to continuously do multiple treatments of the medication. And if you follow Marc's instructions from his site, you can't fail.
 
Chomis will knock out flat worms but maybe something that will be a headach if you don't want it after it cleans your setup. Local fish stores here use chromis on most of thier reef set ups to knock out the flatworms. I had some in my 29 gallon a yr ago and I bought a baby chromis that knock out all of them in 1 week. On the eighth day I would flip the rocks so the chromi can attack flatworms. They do work good, he's now in my main tank.

-Joseph
 
Be careful if you have any sand sifting fish and then at some point treat with FWE. A friend of mine has a twin spot goby that filters the sand through his gills all day long. He got flatworms in his tank, treated with FWE, and the goby basically went into paralysis. All of the other fish in the tank were fine. We think that the goby siphoned out some of the dieing FWs. He lived for a few hours and was still able to breath, but eventually died.

Also, if you don't eliminate the FWs quickly you will have too many and you will not be able to treat with FWE because the amount of toxin released would be too great for your fish. I would recommend using FWE as soon as possible. Use a turkey baster, etc to flow water all around your rocks to dislodge any hiding worms inorder to get an estimate of how many you have before you treat.

Hope this helps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top