Red Flatworms problem

J

Jaguar

Okay, which wrasse can I add with my pair of fang blennies to eat them all up? Or should I go with that blue lined nudibranch maybe? I guess I could always flatworm exit. . Honestly I'd rather just add something biological then use chemical means if possible. Thanks for the advice!

Jag
 
you know i would look up iamwrasseman on rc and pm him
he is probably the best wrasse guy out there
plus dave is the nicest reefer you will meet

having said that as long as you siphon out the dead along with the other maintenance i cant see anything wrong with fwe
happy holidays

oh yeah rodney has some steals on wrasses right now
 
Flatworm Exit is your best bet. Be sure to read the article on my site prior to treating to avoid any casualties.
 
A Sixline Wrasse is good for eating them along with a Yellow Wrasse. The Yellow's are jumpers so you will want to make sure you have a screen or canopy. If you use Flatworm Exit be sure to follow the directions and get as many as possible out before treating.
 
By far the best wrasse at eating flatworms are Melanurus Wrasse. I did my research on this one. Other wrasse may eat them also but Melanurus Wrasse won't let you down. I have a Male/Female pair and any time I put a new coral in the tank their own it! checking it out, looking for any worms or bugs. The big plus for me is the males have beautiful coloration and very peaceful. I live in Euless and Mid-Cities Aquariums usually keep them in stock (usually female).
 
cryptic sixline wrasse....not territorial as reg sixline wrasse.
 
i'm on my second six line (first one was a casualty of a tank move... he hid in a rock and fell out and got stepped on). both of them i got for the expressed purpose of eating the flatworms i have (not a bad outbreak, just a few visible on the green mushrooms). neither sixline has touched them from what i can tell.
 
The first thing I try here at the store to get rid of those red flat worms are yellow tailed blue damsels. That alone seems to work about 3/4 of the time.

If the yellow tailed blue damsels don't do the job then I add a six-line wrasse.

If both the YTB damsel and the six-line wrasse doesn't take care of the red flatworms I then add a melanurus wrasse.

There's another fish that seems to eat the flatworms half the time but I don't like mentioning it because this particular specie tends to starve to death in most people's tanks and I don't wish to contribute to that happening.

Experimenting around I have tried changing up the order of specie introduction yet haven't noticed much of a difference. My usual order of YTB damsel --> six-line wrasse --> melanurus wrasse is simply because that's the cheapest order and the damsels alone usually take care of the problem.

Almost every coral sale tank in the store has YTB damsels in them. Maybe half of those have a six-line wrasse as well. A few of the these tanks also include a melanurus wrasse.

There's only one tank in the store where I haven't been successful in eradicating the flatworms. It's one of the mushroom tanks which not many people buy from for obvious reasons. It has a couple of YTB damsels in it but they've never taken care of the problem. Not sure what all's going on with this particular tank but I gave up trying to add other fish a while back because they simply do not survive in there. Yes, the YTB damsels in there have grown to become very aggressive but I've never seen them attack the multiple six-line wrasses I've added over the years. Even though there's plenty of copepods and amphipods, mandarin gobbies don't last long at all in this tank either. Seriously doubt this is because of the YTB damsels. They're not dumb enough to attack a fish as poisonous as the mandarin. This tank has remained a mystery to me. Maybe I should try the flatworm exit one of these days, though I've always been stubborn when it comes to adding poisons to an aquarium.
 
In your particular case, Jaguar, I'd go with the advice of hitillidie and try the melanurus wrasse first because they tend to be quite peaceful. As you probably already know, YTB damsels and six-line wrasses can become pretty mean sometimes. Yellow coris wrasses usually are peaceful. Don't see the yellow coris wrasse being any sort of problem if the tank only contains a pair of fang blennies. Probably wouldn't ever add a yellow coris wrasse to a tank containing jawfish, though, because of the wrasses constant sand surfing.
 
@kuyatwo wrote:
cryptic sixline wrasse....not territorial as reg sixline wrasse. said:
probably would be an excellent choice, if the tank is safe enough for them. These fish are so small that they could easily get sucked into the inlet of a pump or overflow. I also would be very wary of adding them into a tank containing nassarius snails, particularly super tongans.
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Well if I hadn't found out I was going to move to Australia in a month I'd have gone with trying a melanurus wrasse. [smilie=hi.gif] Since I am I have to just sell the rock. I did mention the rock had a small amount of flat worms though. I guess we'll see if nothing else it'll get dried out and put in storage as dead rock for when I come back.
 
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