Reef Discussion

[MichelleShocked]

So i scored some really nice shrooms and rhods yesterday (I'm not going AAAAALLL the way across town to buy Aiptasia Rx and NOT buy coral lol) :)
BUT: this morning i was looking at the blue rhodactis with my trusty magnifying glass (I'm going to invest in a loupè soon) and spotted a couple of tiny brown globs that looked like blobs of goo. Pin head small.
As i watched, i realized they were moving in an intentional manner and were sliding over the rhod's surface. You know that Stephen King short story that was made into a Tales From The Crypt movie called The Lake? You know the blob of stuff that swarms over the lake surface and eats the teenagers on the pontoon?? Well it was EXACTLY like that o_O
Anyway apart from recalling the movie, i also recalled the ID for flatworms. So. What do i do now? The blue rhods don't appear to have been chewed or damaged. They're not releasing goo or closed up and the worm moving over it didn't appear to bother it.
But I'm worried now. I tried sucking it off with a syringe but it's now disappeared into the blue (literally). It's not in the syringe - i checked.
So now i guess i wait and see.
What's people's experience with flatworms and what am i up against/to expect?
I saw a post on a FB reef group advising that Bayer pesticide is a good coral dip o_O and kills hitch hiker pests. Not sure i want to try that for a variety of reasons but mostly because i scored some brittle stars as well and i don't want to kill them as well :(
So: suggestions/experiences/ideas?
GO!

 

[MichelleShocked]

Ok - discovered a thread on here about flatworms and @MagicJ said he'd had good results with Salifert Flatworm Exit. A quick google revealed some online supply stores have it and that there's a Flatworm Rx version as well. Found a seller on eBay selling the Salifert FWE for $22 a bottle with free post. Pretty good, i thought, since everywhere else was priced around the $35 mark PLUS postage. The obvious question was: is it out of date??? And no, it's not. Should have it in a couple of days, before the horrid little beasts get out of hand. I've only spotted 2 but they move around a lot. And there's probably 10 i CAN'T see.
It's smeared itself onto this green morph, atm.

 

[MagicJ]

From my experience your will be surprised just how many there actually are...

After you dose the product, be ready to syphon out the dying ones as they float around the tank.

 

[ReeferRob]

Fiji is the worst for damn flat worms. :mad: I have to dose FWE every damn time I get stuff from there. I dip EVERYTHING with a rock in an iodine based dip, if I see anything else it gets the Bayer treatment. I've yet to see a flat worm from Indo or Vietnam.

 

[slin1977]

I have heaps of planaria in my tank. They are harmless.
Not all flatworms are bad you know. I would watch out for the ones that eat sps though

 

[MichelleShocked]

I don't have SPS in my tank - just zoas and morphs. The coral skeleton the morphs that the flatworms are attached to, are SPS though, so I'm guessing they've been hanging about on them a while. They don't appear to be eating my morphs - luckily - but they are smearing themselves over the morph faces and i don't approve >:(

 

[slin1977]

In freshwater I used to get some big Planaria , fed them some betel nuts/ plant product and they got wiped out.
In my tank 9 weeks old I've had a huge population explosion but it's since gone down on its own.
Acropora Eating Flatworms in my tank and I would be in panic mode.

 

[MichelleShocked]

Could they be eating the zooanthelle off the morphs?

 

[ReeferRob]

Could they be eating the zooanthelle off the morphs?

If they are, you have a big problem as the zooxanthelle is inside the animal. They could just be using them as protection, there are quite a few wrasses that eat flatworms.

 

[MichelleShocked]

If they are, you have a big problem as the zooxanthelle is inside the animal. They could just be using them as protection, there are quite a few wrasses that eat flatworms.

Yeah im wondering because they seem to be losing their green :-/

On the plus side, i just found this in my travels :D
Am on my way to the lfs to buy some NOW!!

 

[MichelleShocked]

Well!!
I mixed up some RO water with a good squirt of Melafix and dipped my worst affected morphs in. A heap of small brown "bits" fell off and turned to goo and i can't see any brown flatworms on my morphs any more so i believe it's:
Melafix - 1
Flatworms - 0

I'll watch and dip any others i think need it in future.
Good stuff! The melafix on the corals will help heal up my Bangaii's fin too - win-win!!

 

[ReeferRob]

If there's a pigment loss, try turning your lights down some or moving it deeper in the tank and keep an eye on that rock.