Flatworm and Snails

[Dave]

Trying to get confirmation - Appears to be flatworms on the head of my frogspawn. This is at night, head is usually puffed out during the day.

Also - looks like possible olive snails on branch?

 

[panmanmatt]

Definitely flatworms, not sure about the snails. I'd take a piece of airline tubing and siphon out any flatworms you can see.

 

[curt]

Some wrasses can help rid the tank of the flatworms.Not sure on the snail either.

 

[9supratt4]

+1 on the flatworms!! Siphon them out...I've heard mixed reviews on sixline wrasses...The Blue Velvet Nudi will rid your tank of them too, but that's all they eat.

 

[shipwrecked]

Ive tried the wrasses not much luck,blue black nudies work for sure if theres an infestation,but for a few siphoning would work.

 

[magic]

Try Flatworm Exit. I used it several times with no negative effects just have the carbon ready after you treat the tank.

Bob

 

[Dave]

Ok so have a question on flatworm exit.

Most of the flatworms appear to be on my frogspawn.

I was considering taking my frogspawn out of the tank and not dosing my DT first. Minimizing risks of toxin release.

One frogspawn was dosed and back in tank, dose the DT maybe a couple of days later, as I am sure there will still be some in the DT.

Any thoughts on this approach?

 

[ds4x4]

you can but i have noticed that flatworms usually hide in low flow areas in the DT. now in my fuge they hang out on the glass since the flow is low. My Mandarins eat the flatworms in the display. if you do dose the tank be sure to run carbon afterwords and i would Re-dose after a few days to kill off any stragglers/eggs that may be left.

edit- I dosed my 400gal system with fish/coral/nems/ snails with no problems except i didnt have enough Flatworm Exit to kill them all.

 

[mr_X]

if all the flatworms are the ones we see there, there isn't enough of them yet to nuke the tank.

 

[dnov99]

If they are only on the frogspawn, do a FW dip, it kills the flatworms instantly, and does no harm to the LPS. Get a bucket of FW at tank temp and shake the frogspawn in the FW for about a minute. Just make sure the heads are closed up as much as possible. I have done this many times.

 

[Dave]

Well I guess I may try the FW dip - I was concerned the lps would not like this.

I do have a mandarin, but he is not eating the ones on the frogspawn, and unknown if he is eating any others.

I had thought there was a concern of dosing a tank that had too many flatworms which is why I thought now would be a good time.

I do not consider this a plague yet, but wanted to spare my frogspawn from the nuisance, and prevent an outbreak.

Thanks for all of the input.

 

[mr_X]

mandarins don't eat flatworms, they eat pods...the same food flatworms eat. by introducing a creature that competes with the flatworms for food, you can starve them off safely. i've had great success with this, but some folks haven't.

 

[Dave]

Ok that makes sense. I knew mandarin's ate pods, but I did not realize the flatworms were also competing for pods.

 

[ds4x4]

my mandarins eat them off the rocks and the clowns/chromis eat them in the water column