Flatworm eXit- Not making them exit.....

[java]

so i had a little flat worm probem, not too bad. vacuumed as many as i could and dosed the recomended 4drop/5gallons. left my carbon reactor off for 10 mins, fair bit of die off. sucked as many as i could out.

next mornign there are a few on the glass again. so i dosed again, with a higher concentration. again left carbon off for 10 mins. looked good yesterday.

now they are back AGAIN! not many but a couple on the galss and a few here and there. should i dose again wiht a higher conentration? leave the carbon off longer? little buggers are annoying.

[cubsFAN]

Yes. Dose again. Keep doing what you are doing each day till they all appear dead. When you are finally satisfied that they are all dead do it again one more time to make sure. I'd go double dose and carbon after whatever the directions say.

I believe the key to success is to keep at it. If you do a search on red planaria or red flat worms you can find other peoples experiences. This is just my opinion. My mistake was not doing it that one last time. My melanarus wrasse has since solved my problem, but I still have some in my sump. They are unsightly in large numbers, but I have found them to be pretty harmless.

[lordofthereef]

If you truly do have a light infestation (and it should be light at this point), I would dose the same but leave the carbon off longer. You are basically letting it kill what it can kill in ten minutes and then removing the product from your water column. Anything NOT dead in ten minutes has a much higher chance of survival.

[d0ughb0y]

The is more than one kind of flatworm. FE will only work with the kind specified in the box/instructions. Red planaria I think, and not AEFW.

[java]

They are definately red planaria. Ill dose again and leave the carbon off a bit longer

[java]

still not gone. did a double dose, left the carbon off for 3 hours. they showed up again. on the glass. small ones.

almost out of the eXit, supposed to treat 300 gals, i have a 20 gal tank. :(

[The Velvet Sea]

Red flatworms can be persistent. When I used FWE for infestations it required a massive dose to kill off the majority. Then I did a large 25-50% water change. After the water change I would redose and let it sit for a week. I wouldn't run carbon at all for that week. Sometimes that was enough to get rid of them. Sometimes it would take a couple of weeks doing that to completely kill them off.

[java]

ugh, ok. ill mix up some more string stuff and turkey baste the ones i can see. im alomst out. dont want to have to buy more

[SethTheWineGuy]

I bought a Lunar Wrasse thinking it would help me with my flat worm problem. He just ate all my inverts instead.

[java]

well i dosed again, used all of it now. supposed to treat 300 gallons. my tank and sumo is 35.... they are still there.....
ugh :(

[SDguy]

You are just acclimating them to it.

You are turning on your carbon way too quickly.

Take a known volume of water (ie 1 cup). Add a bunch of the live worms to the water. Add the FWE to the cup of water, and wait. keep adding FWE until they are all dead. Then calculate how much FWE per cup you used, and use this much on the tank.

[FormulatedFire]

I feel your pain Java. My first bottle of flatworm didn't kill all of them off. Second bottle I bought yesterday and the way I dosed was a little different than the recommended. I dosed a full dose into the display tank and then an extra half dose in the sump. (One drop per gallon instead of the recommend) I left all my carbon out over night. I dosed around 6pm. I siphoned out all the ones before and during the dosing. The next morning I put my carbon back in. When I got home from work all of the flatworms were gone except for 2. I plan to re-dose in about a week for anything that got missed or hadn't hatched yet.

[java]

yeah im not getting any die off from these last doeses. there isnt a bunch of floaters like the first time.

i can just see a few on the glass here and there. lights arent on yet this morning but carbon has been off since last dose.

hopefully they are gone today. if not ill wait a couple weeks and try again. there sure isnt an infestation like there used to be though.

[WestChesterReef]

following

[seapug]

I had to do two treatments on three consecutive Saturdays to finally get rid of them in my tank. Don't over dose, just be persistent for a few rounds, give the tank a break between dosings and you'll eventually win the war.

[Fishdisease]

I bought a 6 line wrasse. It ate all of my flatworms in a couple of weeks. It got real fat and happy. Then I returned to the LFS for credit.

[Reefahholic]

That sounds like it would work to me. I think you should go this route. Otherwise, you may be peeing in the wind.:headwally:


You are just acclimating them to it.

You are turning on your carbon way too quickly.

Take a known volume of water (ie 1 cup). Add a bunch of the live worms to the water. Add the FWE to the cup of water, and wait. keep adding FWE until they are all dead. Then calculate how much FWE per cup you used, and use this much on the tank.

[java]

just an update to this, I ended up using the whole bottle, but i dont have any more flatworms. :) Just took a while for them to all die off

[reefer1979]

just an update to this, I ended up using the whole bottle, but i dont have any more flatworms. :) Just took a while for them to all die off

NICE! yes you have to keep at it until you are beyond a doubt sure they are gone. If not they can come back more resistant just like any of the other pests.

[Sethjamto]

I'm going to treat my tank tomorrow....just finished starting a new thread about it. I'm glad I read this one, as I was going to start the carbon almost right away. So I should wait several HOURS before running carbon?

Also, should I turn off the skimmer while dosing? The instructions only mention turning off UV if you have it.