Flatworm problem

I've discovered a growing population of flatworms in my 12 gallon seahorse
nano tank. Anyone know how to get rid of these little pest?

Thanks,
Susan

Use a turkey baster, and a brine shrimp net. Hang or position the
brine shrimp net (extrememly fine mesh) so the net bag is over the
tank, anduse a turkey baster to suck up all the lfat worms yuu can
possibly get before they haul butt and hide. Squirt water in turkey
baster into net and it wil catch the flat worms and allow water to
drain back into tank. Do this a few times to eliminate as many flat
worms as possible. The add a product called Flat Worm Exit. The stuff
works just fine, and does a bang up job. Thje main reason yuy want to
syphon or suck out as many flat worms as possibnle prior to using
flatworm exit is once it attacks the worms and they start dying the
tank will suffer from a lack of oxygen content and toxic junk from the
dead flatworms being introduced to the tank. Thats why is best to
remove as many as yu can be fore treatement. Also have on hand
activated carbon as its needed in most cases after the treatment, and
a change of water owuld laso be beneficial to have on hand. It may
sound dangerous but its relatively straight forward and easy to do and
quite effective, thatb is until you buy another coral etc and
introduce it to the tank and if that coral had flatworms your on the
road to more again. IIRC the dosage rate is one drop per gal, and
someitmes a second dose is needed but its rare to need 2, so odds are
depending on your tank size yu may have some left over. Its not really
cheap and costs in the USA between $14 and 20 a container but it
works.

I love my LFS they give free flat worms with every Coral purchase and
free parasites with every fish purchase....

On Thu, 25 May 2006 15:56:30 GMT, "Susan"
wrote:
I've discovered a growing population of flatworms in my 12 gallon seahorse
nano tank. Anyone know how to get rid of these little pest?

Thanks,
Susan

Susan wrote:
I've discovered a growing population of flatworms in my 12 gallon seahorse
nano tank. Anyone know how to get rid of these little pest?

What makes them pests? I've got tons of these guys crawling around my 125. They
don't seem to hurt anything.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Thanks for the help Roy I've heard that these guys can grow in super
large portions and can smother corals. I have several soft corals in the
tank and didn't want to loose them. I noticed today that I had a bunch of
baby flatworms on the glass of the tank that wasn't there yesterday so I am
concerned that they could indeed take over a tank. Anyone else have
problems with them? Yep, I believe you all are right I think I got them on
one of the corals. I wish the fish stores wouldn't give you extras )

Thanks again,
Susan

"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:Emldg.8255$Ar6.3800@trnddc02...
Susan wrote:
I've discovered a growing population of flatworms in my 12 gallon
seahorse nano tank. Anyone know how to get rid of these little pest?

What makes them pests? I've got tons of these guys crawling around my 125.
They don't seem to hurt anything.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

They can become a problem in really large numbers, but in
a balanced tank they usually won't reach such numbers to
cause a problem.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Susan wrote on 5/25/2006 1:05 PM:
Thanks for the help Roy I've heard that these guys can grow in super
large portions and can smother corals. I have several soft corals in the
tank and didn't want to loose them. I noticed today that I had a bunch of
baby flatworms on the glass of the tank that wasn't there yesterday so I am
concerned that they could indeed take over a tank. Anyone else have
problems with them? Yep, I believe you all are right I think I got them on
one of the corals. I wish the fish stores wouldn't give you extras )

Thanks again,
Susan

"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:Emldg.8255$Ar6.3800@trnddc02...
Susan wrote:
I've discovered a growing population of flatworms in my 12 gallon
seahorse nano tank. Anyone know how to get rid of these little pest?
What makes them pests? I've got tons of these guys crawling around my 125.
They don't seem to hurt anything.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

That is true, but once they start toi lay all over a prized coral and
kill it off due to lack of sufficient light or they start nibbling in
great numbers you will wishe dto have gotten rid of them earlier.
For the most parvt I just suck up what I can periodically and let them
bounce. Sometimes I declare war on them other times I let em go..
On Thu, 25 May 2006 16:58:12 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:
Susan wrote:
I've discovered a growing population of flatworms in my 12 gallon seahorse
nano tank. Anyone know how to get rid of these little pest?

What makes them pests? I've got tons of these guys crawling around my 125. They
don't seem to hurt anything.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Susan wrote:
Thanks for the help Roy I've heard that these guys can grow in super
large portions and can smother corals. I have several soft corals in the
tank and didn't want to loose them. I noticed today that I had a bunch of
baby flatworms on the glass of the tank that wasn't there yesterday so I am
concerned that they could indeed take over a tank. Anyone else have
problems with them? Yep, I believe you all are right I think I got them on
one of the corals. I wish the fish stores wouldn't give you extras )

Thanks again,
Susan



I don't think I have ever saw them kill anything in a tank, but they do
not look very good in large numbers. I used to have a bunch in my
tanks, but they just went away once the tanks got back into balance. I
have a friend though that has had lots of lots of them. We ended up
killing them off with Saliferts Flatworm exit. It works pretty well.

Unless they get really bad I would not worry about them, unlike some of
the other pests (aiptasia) they are not to bad, normally if you have a
bunch of them it means you have excess food in the tank for them to live on.

Kim

Anyone got a pic or 2 of these flatoworms....

~m

"Roy" wrote in message
...


That is true, but once they start toi lay all over a prized coral and
kill it off due to lack of sufficient light or they start nibbling in
great numbers you will wishe dto have gotten rid of them earlier.
For the most parvt I just suck up what I can periodically and let them
bounce. Sometimes I declare war on them other times I let em go..
On Thu, 25 May 2006 16:58:12 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:
Susan wrote:
I've discovered a growing population of flatworms in my 12 gallon
seahorse
nano tank. Anyone know how to get rid of these little pest?

What makes them pests? I've got tons of these guys crawling around my
125. They
don't seem to hurt anything.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights
belong to
your slightly older self.

Thanks for the info Unfortunatly the tank probably does have a fair
amount of extra food for them. Being a seahorse tank it's hard to keep all
the excessive mysis scraped up once the seahorses eat and with the corals I
have in there I feed zooplankton and phytoplankton. Anyone know of
something that would get along with seahorses and would eat on the leftover
mysis in the tank?

Thanks,
Susan
"kim gross" wrote in message
...
Susan wrote:
Thanks for the help Roy I've heard that these guys can grow in super
large portions and can smother corals. I have several soft corals in the
tank and didn't want to loose them. I noticed today that I had a bunch
of baby flatworms on the glass of the tank that wasn't there yesterday so
I am concerned that they could indeed take over a tank. Anyone else have
problems with them? Yep, I believe you all are right I think I got them
on one of the corals. I wish the fish stores wouldn't give you extras
)

Thanks again,
Susan



I don't think I have ever saw them kill anything in a tank, but they do
not look very good in large numbers. I used to have a bunch in my tanks,
but they just went away once the tanks got back into balance. I have a
friend though that has had lots of lots of them. We ended up killing them
off with Saliferts Flatworm exit. It works pretty well.

Unless they get really bad I would not worry about them, unlike some of
the other pests (aiptasia) they are not to bad, normally if you have a
bunch of them it means you have excess food in the tank for them to live
on.

Kim

Some things to consider a
Flat worms like high intense lighting.
Seahorses don't need high intense lighting.
High intense lighting tends to increase water temp.
Seahorses are more sensitive to higher water temps.

One thing you could consider putting in there is mollies.
They will scavenge for the mysis shrimp, eat hair algae,
and give birth to seahorse food.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets




Susan wrote on 5/26/2006 11:25 AM:
Thanks for the info Unfortunatly the tank probably does have a fair
amount of extra food for them. Being a seahorse tank it's hard to keep all
the excessive mysis scraped up once the seahorses eat and with the corals I
have in there I feed zooplankton and phytoplankton. Anyone know of
something that would get along with seahorses and would eat on the leftover
mysis in the tank?

Thanks,
Susan
"kim gross" wrote in message
...
Susan wrote:
Thanks for the help Roy I've heard that these guys can grow in super
large portions and can smother corals. I have several soft corals in the
tank and didn't want to loose them. I noticed today that I had a bunch
of baby flatworms on the glass of the tank that wasn't there yesterday so
I am concerned that they could indeed take over a tank. Anyone else have
problems with them? Yep, I believe you all are right I think I got them
on one of the corals. I wish the fish stores wouldn't give you extras
)

Thanks again,
Susan


I don't think I have ever saw them kill anything in a tank, but they do
not look very good in large numbers. I used to have a bunch in my tanks,
but they just went away once the tanks got back into balance. I have a
friend though that has had lots of lots of them. We ended up killing them
off with Saliferts Flatworm exit. It works pretty well.

Unless they get really bad I would not worry about them, unlike some of
the other pests (aiptasia) they are not to bad, normally if you have a
bunch of them it means you have excess food in the tank for them to live
on.

Kim