Flatworm exit ?'s

[droinablunt]

I am going to do a flatworm exit on my tank asap.

Where can I buy it localy?

I plan on first sucking out as many from the face of the rockwork as I can.

Then I just need to do 2 water changes right?
Also how much water should I change (250 total gallons 200 lbs lr 3 displays 1sump)?

[Redwinger]

That is alot of death any way you look at it. I would recommend a sixline wrasse or a mandarin to decimate the population vs using a chemical on the tank.

[David Grigor]

The instructions that come with the flatworm exit are very thorough and explain everything in great detail.

[droinablunt]

That is alot of death any way you look at it. I would recommend a sixline wrasse or a mandarin to decimate the population vs using a chemical on the tank.

A target or green mandarin?

[droinablunt]

Has anyone in the club had a crash or loose coral after a flatworm exit treatment?

[mtfatwork]

I am wayyy to scared to even try flatworm exit. It is not the flatworm exit itself that is toxic, it is the flatworms that are toxic when they die. I would much rather control them with a natural predator as opposed to chemicals, JMO though.

you going to the speaker thingy? can you bring my book p-p-p-please :)

[droinablunt]

will do if i make it
if not call me on your way home and i will bring it over

[David Grigor]

I used it on my frag tank where the risk was pretty low since everything in there was a duplicate of something I already had except the breeding bangaiis. I was able to take each rock out and swish in a seperate bucket to reduce the population significantly. I would feel pretty confident if you didn't have tons of them. If you do then extra care would need to be taken. When I did my frag tank, about 3 weeks later I spotted some so if may take more than 1 treatment.

[redlion4]

We used it with pefect success in our 55 gallon mixed reef. Followed the packaged instructions, including siphoning them out first, then carbon and water changes following the treatment (again, sucking out the dead ones). Did have to do two treatments, but have yet to see another flatworm since - nearly two years now.

[reeftanktime]

I had success a few years back with the stuff. I did not lose any corals, but that was before I had any SPS. Run carbon and do water changes. All should be ok.

[Hydroman]

The directions are pretty good and plan on watching your tank closely for a couple of days. Also expect that you'll have to use it 2 or 3 times to get all of them.

When I used it the first time I lost a monti cap and my softies looked horrid for about three weeks. However, I had an incredible population of flatworms before I treated. Before treatment, I had multiple flatworms per square inch. I tried to remove as many as I could but there was no way I was going to get the thousands that were still hiding in the rock. The second and third time I used it, my corals didn't even notice but the flatworm population was much lower.

The moral of the story? Make sure you get a positive ID on those pests before they reach epic proportions and treat early.

[droinablunt]

I got a yellow target manderin today and I have allready seen him eat a flatworm within 20min of puting him in the tank!

[John_Salmon]

I got a yellow target manderin today and I have allready seen him eat a flatworm within 20min of puting him in the tank!

Your reference to a target manderin is in reference to the species Synchiropus picturatus correct? Are they know to eat flatworms better than Pterosynchiropus splendidus?

[mattb]

I have one in stock and am close to you...

I've used it many times. It all depends on how dense a population of flatworms you have. I had some come in on a Bali shipment and have used it ever since. It works and is pretty simple. The gotcha is that if you have a lot of them, their juices are toxic and may kill off your fish....

Let me know, I may be able to run it over tonight (later).

[droinablunt]

Your reference to a target manderin is in reference to the species Synchiropus picturatus correct? Are they know to eat flatworms better than Pterosynchiropus splendidus?

I should have posted a update

the manderin has not even put a dent in my flatworms, but is fat and happy!

I saved a yellow coris wrass from petco monday and I am hopeing he will do a little bit better .

[mtfatwork]

I am really surprised he has not made a dent. I put a mandarin and a xmas wrasse in my 65 and within 2 weeks I had trouble spotting a single flatworm in my tank. Hopefully the coris wrasse will help :)

[mattb]

I suppose it depends on how hungry the flatworm eating fish are, and what your flatworm population is....

[Ly]

I had a worm problem a couple of weeks ago. Flatworm exit worked great. Easy to use. Just follow the directions, filter with carbon (in my case I just filtered the output from my tank to my sump using a custom made sock). And I did a 35-40% water change after most of worms were gone. You might have to go through a couple of treatments depending on your infestion. The only things that felt the effects of the worm exit were my trumpets, everything else was ok, even the trumpets are recovering.

Nam

[David Grigor]

I've used exit a number of times on BJ's 29g and never gets rid of them 100% within a few months the numbers start increasing again..... Thankfully, I don't have any in the show tank or possibly the neon wrasse it eating them.

[mattb]

Yeah, it doesn't work on the eggs.... so if you're not manually getting the eggs out, you'll need to continually re-treat....

[Ly]

Yeah I forgot mention I have a sixline. Will that get rid of the eggs?

Nam

[David Grigor]

Sixlines ( as well as just about any fish ) are hit or miss when it comes to flatworms.

[droinablunt]

does anyone remember the guy at the speaker event talking about how he trained his wrasses to eat flatworms?

[John_Salmon]

Has anyone else ever noticed that after using this stuff their bristle worms and crabs getting kinda shocked?

first time i used it i just thought that it had to be toxins from the flatworms, but now after the third time and barely any flatworms in the tank the crabs and worms did the same thing. Esp the bristle worms. They just crawl out in the open and ly there like there dead but they are not. If i leave them in there they rebound in a day.. Fish have all been doing great during the treatment.

[Dirk Griffin]

Paletta had a few in training when we went to visit during Macna. He basically keeps them in a mesh cage in the tank. Most of the feeding the new fish gets is only flat worms. So when he lets them loose they pretty much hopefully look for FW only.

[morty]

Thing is, Paletta was training them to eat AEFW. (At least this was what he talked about at the speaker event. Maybe he expanded his wrasse training program leading up to macna. :)) He woud put the wrasse in the cage, starve it, and put in a piece of infested acro in the cage with the wrasse, to train it to find and eat them.

So if you wanted to train the wrasse to eat red flatworms I guess you would want to siphon a bunch of them up and put them in the cage. Or better yet get a small piece of LR covered in them and put it in the cage, so the wrasse learns where to look for them.

[John_Salmon]

:confused: See the thing is, I was asking about the effects that Saifert flatworm exit had on inverts..... Droningablunt posted that back in Jan....

[morty]

I guess Dirk and I were answering a post by droinablunt made on 9/4 (the post before yours). Thread drifted a little.

Sorry, I don't have experience with FW Exit. Looks like a few people who posted earlier in this thread may be able to help.

[Adam G]

I used flatworm exit about a month ago and it went well. I followed the instructions and ran carbon as well as doing a 25% water change on my 260 gallon system. Everything did really well, and I didn't notice any ill effects.

I have a feeling that they are starting to come back. I have a sixline wrasse, and am thinking of adding a manderin soon.

Inverts were fine as well.

[bunglito]

Yeah, it doesn't work on the eggs.... so if you're not manually getting the eggs out, you'll need to continually re-treat....

Are the eggs in little groupings of 3-5 clear bubbles with little white things in the middle. Usually under my return nozzle or high in the corner of the glass.

I've been trying to get rid of these in my quarantine prior to moving to the display. Most die during treatment, but then I always find 2-4 worms, which means there are certainly more, that don't seem to be affected. This then turns to more and more. I was thinking of using FE as a dip but I would need to confirm what the eggs look like so that I don't mistakenly move them along with something to the display.

[John_Salmon]

I have noticed that through four treatments all within a day each, that there are still very small flatworms that remain. bunglito, thanks for saying something about the eggs. It didn't even cross my mind that that would be why they keep coming back.

I have been telling myself that after i finish with this treatment that i will be doing a livestock order, with that i will be getting a madarin too to help out with keeping this FW population in line.

I am now certain that the paticualar bristleworms that i have in my tank are specifically affected by the FW exit treatment. Which is not that big of a deal but it will add some concern for water quality during FW exit treatments in the future.