what eats flatworms?

[adidas]

whats a good fish that eats flatworms?

[untamed]

I've never found one. 6 line wrasses get mentioned a lot, but the one I had never looked at them.

There's a nudibranch..forgotten the name...black with blue stripe...I can't find one anywhere.

[justinl]

the nudibranch you're referring to is called the velvet nudibranch. Although it chows down on flatworms like no tommorow, DO NOT get one!

They will quickly decimate the flatworm population then promptly starve or die off (they are fragile critters). When they go to nudi heaven, they take along your entire tank as they are quite toxic.

Why do you want a fish to eat them? Is there something in your tank that can't tolerate flatworm exit? or can you not find FE?

[Black Phantom]

I have an absolute ton of them in my refugium but none in the main tank. The only critter I see going after them is my Sergeant Major.
I'll even scoop them out of the fuge and throw them in the other tank. He goes nuts over them:p
Maybe thats just him?

[untamed]

I don't mean hijack Adidas thread...but I won't add flatworm exit to my tank out of concern for the myriad of critters that I have in there.

This is the first I've heard of a Sergeant Major doing that job. Nice!

[adidas]

i've done 2 doses in a row of Exit and it didn't get rid of them, nor did it harm anything...in fact the worms came back with a vengeance

[Dragonsteeth]

I bought a velvet nudi to eat flatworm at J&L as a flatworm eater. It ate no flatworms and was quickly devoured by hermit crabs. I was not warned of this or toxicity. My $15 lasted less than one day.
Anyway, the flatworms have all of a sudden died off! Maybe due to the changes i have made recently - phosban reactor and activated carbon : wHO KNOWS?

[Neil]

I faced this issue a while ago, didnt want to dose with FE as i dont want to drop anything in there i dont have to. Read mixed reviews between, didnt work, worked fine and nuked everything. People on RC kept on mentioning a Melanarus wrasse- I found them to be quite nice looking fish and they supposedly have great personalities. I couldnt find one around town for the life of me- no one would ship as well. Finally i came across on in ocean city a week ago and snatched it up. It is still in qt but will let you know what it thinks of flatowrms.

[KrazyKuch]

I heard 6 line wrasses are good at eating them!!

[EmilyB]

I'm looking for a leopard wrasse, j&l pretty much said they don't see them around much


http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/Editorial.htm

[marie]

I had an unidentified damsel that ate them, unfortunately I lost him to a marine velvet out break

[Black Phantom]

The other thing you can do is to vacuum them into a micro filter bag. This works really well if you have a sump or when you do a water change. Just get a smaller diameter hose and suck away.
After a while it seems to collapse the colony and they all vanish:grab:

[adidas]

I'm looking for a leopard wrasse, j&l pretty much said they don't see them around much


http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/Editorial.htm

a friend suggested a leopard wrasse to me..i'm also looking.

[AndyL]

leopard wrasses are pretty common actually.. there have been a bunch at the stores over the last few months... No idea on their flatworm eating capabilities though.

I picked up a nasty flatworm problem in my qt tank - following the proper dosing as dictated on the FWE packaging; had no effect... Finally got it sorted - here's the catch, you totally ignore the salifert instructions...

Do your w/c first - get out all the flatworms you can get (turkey baster and a bbs net works pretty good). Then do a 4x dose of FWE, then let it stew for 24 hours... (This is the reason for getting ALL the FW's you can out). Then turn on carbon. Repeat 5-6 days later.

Use at your own risk, this worked for me - but I take no responsibility for any deaths / meltdowns from this this method. We seem to have a nasty resistant strain of flatworms that have been going around calgary.

[adidas]

update: I got a Red Coris wrasse about 2 weeks ago and he won't touch the flatworms!!! :(

The flatworm colony is now massive, litterally every rock is infested..

[Neil]

I faced this issue a while ago, didnt want to dose with FE as i dont want to drop anything in there i dont have to. Read mixed reviews between, didnt work, worked fine and nuked everything. People on RC kept on mentioning a Melanarus wrasse- I found them to be quite nice looking fish and they supposedly have great personalities. I couldnt find one around town for the life of me- no one would ship as well. Finally i came across on in ocean city a week ago and snatched it up. It is still in qt but will let you know what it thinks of flatowrms.
My wrasse seems to do a good job- rarely see any flatworms in my tank now.

[adidas]

My wrasse seems to do a good job- rarely see any flatworms in my tank now.
wanna rent him to me sometime? :P

[Rippin]

What type of flatworm problem do you have? Beyond smothering your corals, I've read that the common red planeria is no real threat.
I had a small break out of flat worms but it took care of itself with more diligent tank housekeeping. It seems that the 'fix' to these types of common problems are the same thing - reduce phosphates and excess nutrients. Supposedly every aquarium has flatworms, but they are only noticeable during a break out.

Have you tried increasing your skimming, water changes, flow, and less food at feeding time?

[adidas]

just increased my flow today and we are going to start syphoning everyday

[Neil]

wanna rent him to me sometime? :P

frequent oceans and perhaps you may find one there. They are pretty cool fish and reasonably priced