Bad things happening all at once

[celticstarb]

So now my seahorse/softie tank is having several issues with pests. I have been very diligent, dipping every new coral. But, a little more than a month ago, I bought Jonathan a large Christmas tree rock. Obviously, I couldn't dip it since it would have killed the worms.

Now I have a bad flatworm infestation. I heard that green mandrin's will eat them, but they are hit and miss. I added a pair of sailfin mollies, and they have done a decent job lowering the flatworm population. As an added bonus, they are doing a great job mowing down the few patches of bryopsis that I haven't been able to erradicate.

The other issue is aipstasia. There aren't very many, but that can change quickly. I have covered a few with super glue, but I'm not sure if I can get to all of them. I've heard that peppermint shrimp will eat them, but will the shrimp bother my zoas or other corals?

[alton]

Flatworms I had a friend who got them added a Mandarin and they were gone. I would think any of the Dragonets would work? On Aptasia, Berghias are #1, I use Aptasia X to control two here at work, it knocks them back for a couple weeks before they return. Looking at my tank one is coming back but not the other this time. I used peppermint shrimp once, the Aptasia disappeared, they started munching on corals, I removed them, and the Aptasia came back.

[12_Egg_Omelette]

The shrimps should eat any left over food that's in the tank. Why not put a six kind in there instead of a mandarin.

[celticstarb]

The shrimps should eat any left over food that's in the tank. Why not put a six kind in there instead of a mandarin.

I have to be very careful what I put in the tank. I can't put anything in there that can out compete the seahorses for food, or may be aggressive.

[celticstarb]

I wanted to update everyone on what worked to get rid of my flatworm problem.

I tried Flatworm Exit at first, and all it did was irritate the flatworms, even at triple the dose. It only killed about 25% of the worms. So I decided to try a bit stronger method. I treated the tank last night with Panacur. Panacur is a pet and livestock dewormer. It is commonly used to treat hydroids in dwarf seahorse tanks and fry tanks.

The panacur didn't kill the worms, but irritated them enough to make them surface from the rocks and substrate. I had about half a dose of flatworm exit, so I decided to try both together. It was an instant success!

I'm thinking that the panacur helped destroy whatever protection the worms had against the Flatworm Exit. Once those protections were stripped away, the Flatworm Exit was able to do it's job.

I can't tell you guys how much a relief I feel finally killing the b***ards. I had already lost a few small SPS frags to the worms. I was beginning to despair that I would have to bleach the tank and start from scratch.

[12_Egg_Omelette]

Great success

[Zack]

Shrimp should be fine in the tank, also theirs aptasia X if you want to go that route. Also with the flatworms, make sure you remove the dead worms. I've seen many tank crashes when the dead worms weren't removed.

[leliataylor]

Glad to hear you got rid of them. Do keep a close eye on the tank in case a few survived. You might also want to run some activated carbon to help remove any toxins the flatworms released. Did you use the liquid or the powdered form of panacure? If you used the powered form it has a very long half life in a tank and you could have problems keeping inverts alive, such as snails (I think you already know this).

[celticstarb]

I used the liquid. The protein skimmer is working overtime, but removed all the cloudiness from the panacur. I started the carbon reactor as soon as I started seeing dead worms. So far all the coral is doing fine.