HELP!

[DeletedAccount]

I bought a very nicely priced hammer from a reputable company recently and it never did well, never opened up, then died. Well, now I have noticed that a few of my other wonderful corals have some sort of pest. I am guess that it is a pink / red flatworm. It looks as if my frogspawn and torch corals have pink tips that move. Have not seen these on anything else, or in the sand. One of my corals has a single head that has recently gotten "ill". Any way to keep these from killing my corals? How? Help!

[DeletedAccount]

I am a poor soul with no digicam....

[Richard]

Hard to say without knowing exactly what they are but you could try something like a sixline wrasse and hope that he munches on them. I've tried 3 hammers in the past but they have always melted away within a week so I've given up on them.

[matt]

Oh Misti, it sounds like you got some flatworms. Me too! I'm ordering some velvet nudibranches from Marine Depot live on Monday; supposedly their main diet is flatworms. PM me if you want in. i got a 6 line wrasse, but he/she isn't interested in the little buggers.

[Inno]

Many times these flatworms are not predatory, but rather congregate so much that their masses block light or just happen to rub off the coral the wrong way, either way they can be a nuisance. If the infestation is rather restricted to certain places on a couple pieces of coral, you can either cyphon them off with a small diameter hose or freshwater dip (I forget if this actually works, haven't messed with flats in a long, long time) the section of the coral and they should simply fall right off. There is a product called flatworm exit, by salifert, I believe, that will kill them instantly. Unfortunately flatworms do give off toxins when they die; however, you can run your skimmer while dosing I think, plus put lots of carbon in the filters after medicating the tank (snails will drop off glass, but will start moving again after use of carbon)

*best to always read directions if going that route :P
**The slug mentioned previously is Chelidonura varians (common flatworm eater) and if you go this route take careful measure in acclimating them well.

Hammers, in general, have had a bad rep lately for not acclimating well. Personally I believe it's all in the shipping/handling/acclimating :)

[DeletedAccount]

Thanks everyone!

[JimD]

Misty, before you do any kind of treatment, varify the animal in question. If in fact it is the dreaded Planaria, aka, red flatworms from hell, my initial advice is to syphon as many as you can before they become plague proportion. Please do a search at RC using "plnaria" as the key word, I just did and theres plenty of great info along with pictures for a positive ID. Better act soon or youll be joining the ranks of reefers who are paying the price for ignoring them when they first saw them.
HTH
Jim

[TexasState]

Hammer and Frogspawn can be hard for some reefer to keep. When I had several tanks b4, one of the tank would start to melt away the frogspwan. Good thing I had several tanks around, it does fine in one of my tank, but it melt if put into another. You might wants to start a smaller tank to quarantine your corals if you buy/trade corals often. I fresh water dip many of my corals, but I don't think I have ever try to freshwater dip frogspawn and hammer corals.

[matt]

After doing a bit of research on the nudibranch (actually a slug) Chelidonura varians, aka velvet nudibranch, I've decided not to buy any. They have a terrible record of survival in captivity, are not tank bred, and there are serious environmental consequences from their removal from the wild. Plus, as soon as the slug finsihes off those tasy flatworms, it'll starve and die in my tank. Sooooo...

I'll try this flatworm exit stuff. First I'll try to manually remove as many as possible, set up my monstro skimmer, and build a little canister to hold a pound of carbon. BTW, it looks like the 6 line may be picking on 'em, but I'm not convinced it will eradicate them.

Matt

[Inno]

Hey Matt, I don't see too many fish that will literally erdicate them from your aquarium. It's few and far bewteen when you see one rid you of the infestation, but if one or two are taken down by a 6line, that's 2 more you don't have to kill lol ;)

The slugs actually will acclimate pretty well, you just have to acclimate them slowly. The problem is that they get sucked into powerheads often and as you stated, will eventually die unless it can be passed on to another person with a planaria problem. I have seen these slugs offered as tank bred, but unfortunately I cannot remember where from :(

Good luck with the flatworm exit, I hear it works wonders. Just make sure your carbon is in full effect once you have medicated lolol :P