Flatworm Exit not working

[R7-12]

Hey everybody,

Looking for advice.

I have a 48x20x18" tank that holds about 55-60 gallons (after rock, sand etc.) with a 75 gallon sump with about about 30 gallons. About a month ago I noticed a few flatworms on the front glass. I treated the tank as per instructions (based on 80-90 gallons total), after an hour I added another 50% dose, made sure I had high flow by adding an extra Tunze nanostream, and it appeared to work. Within a few days I noticed one or two flatworms on the glass again!

About ten days later there were a few more so I treated the tank for the second time just as I had the first time. Same result. Two weeks later I treated for a third time but used a bit more Exit than the instructions suggest, waited 2 hours before using carbon and doing a water change. Again it appeared to work until the next day when I noticed one or two survivors on the glass again!

Not sure what is going on or what I might be doing wrong (am I under-dosing), but its becoming more expensive to deal with, not to mention frustrating as well.

Has anyone had this happen to them before? Has anyone double-dosed successfully with Exit?

Any suggestions/help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
R7-12

[christyf5]

OK this is not any kind of advice, your results may vary, etc etc.

I used 7x the dosage on my tank. It was a nano tank, 7.5 gallons total. I started siphoning them out as I saw them floating around in the tank on little mucous strings, I think I let the treatment go for about 45-60 mins then did the appropriate water change, ran carbon. The normal dosage or even the 2x dosage didn't seem to kill them. I have no idea whether I had some new strain of flatworm that was immune to FW Exit or what. Anyway, they still appeared occasionally but not too many and I would just siphon them out as I saw them. Then one day I noticed they were gone. Beats the heck out of me :noidea:

[R7-12]

Hi Christy,

Wow! 7x recommended dosage is real gutsy. Did you have any other casualties?

I have never siphoned after dosing because there really weren't enough floating around to even try to remove.

I had a two or three flatworms (that I could see) in my 25 gallon, and removed them using tweezers, but haven't seen any others in a long time. Not sure what happened but they're nowhere to be seen.

Thanks for sharing your experience - I will keep it in mind as I decide what to do next time.

R7-12

[christyf5]

Well I swear some of them were getting resistant to the stuff. At the time I had no fish and it was just a bunch of zoos and ricordeas in there so I figured what the hell. No casualties, it was business as usual after the treatment.

[R7-12]

I know what you mean, some die while others survive. Maybe some are immune or just manage to avoid getting a full dose.

I do have a few critters that would likely not survive a 7x dose, so I think I'll have to keep it a bit lower.

[christyf5]

Well I started at the suggested dose and worked up to it. I think I went from about 4x straight to 7x though.

An alternative is to get something that eats them. Several types of wrasses will eat them, my tailspot (Halichoeres melanurus) did in my 90gal. The yellow coris wrasses are reported to eat them as well. Might be a better option.

[R7-12]

It's a frag tank so I don't want to introduce too many fish.

I may just dose them again at 2 or 3 x and see what happens.

[urbanhellfire]

I had to dose my 60gal 3x to get all the flat worms. They did all die but it did take a few doses.
Just dose the crap out of the tank and run some carbon, my corals never closed an inch after any of the treatments. softies, LPS only in the tank.

Not much advice but dont give up the fight. are they the red ones? oh... I hate the red ones :twised:.

[J.Lloy]

I had done 3 treatments to my tank. I used full bottle for each dose (230 gal plus sump) first time i had so many dead worms I was worried and did water change right away and ran carbon. Killed most, second dose left a little longer still had lots of dead worm floating. That left me with just a few visible worms so did a third treatment and left for a few hours then just started to run carbon, can't remember haw soon after I did a water change. After that I got two yellow coris wrasse for the display. That was back in the fall. I now have worms again in my sump but have not found a single one in display. Just have to take care of the ones left in the sump now.

[R7-12]

Yeah, they're sort of brown/red. I'm sure they're the most common type.

I noticed some Rics and Zoas closed up after each dose, all my snails tried to get out of the tank, and the bristle stars went into a coma for a day or two :sad:

I think I'll give the tank a bit of a rest before I hit it again with a bigger dose.