something killing zoos

[Ross]

Yeah they kinda do look like pacman ghosts now that u say that.

[scuba_steveo]

it is flatworms. can you take the rock out? if you can take it out and dip it in fresh RO water. Put a bowl of RO next to a bowl of saltwater from the tank. Dip it and shake it in the RO for 15 seconds and the put it in the saltwater bowl for a few minutes. Do this 3 times. Then put the rock back in the tank and do not put the rock on the bottom. Try to put the rock in a decent flow area where flatworms will not go. In the future if/when your flatworms get bad you will need to dose flatworm exit.

[Ross]

These are the red flatworms..i thought they didnt do anything bad. I went over the rock very closely w/ a magnifying glass and found 1 tiny snail....smaller than a pod. Maybe its these??

[Nano_Steve]

these are the infamous zoo eaters. these guys no matter what size can take out some hefty colonies and domajor damage to zoos.

hth, steve

[scuba_steveo]

unless your snail looks like that, it is the red flatworms

[Ross]

Ok my zoos are getting worse. I keep getting a few dead ones coming in the middle. I have other colonies from other ppl that are doing fine...its just this one colony. If theres something on it, would it be possibel to fw dip the whole rock of zoos?? would that kill the zoos?

[GaryP]

Steve,

I have never heard of red flatworms (aoecels) eating zoos, or anything else for that matter. Where are you getting this info? They are typically detritivores and are photosynthetic. Larry and I are going to be doing a talk on flatworms at the Oct. meeting, so if there is any info on this I would like to get my hands on it.

Gary

[scuba_steveo]

Larry is the one who treated my zoo colony with FW dips to rid them of the red flatworms

[GaryP]

Steve,

Yea, I remember. He called me about it when he was at your house. I was referring to the info about FW's eating zoos. I'd never heard that before.

One of the things that Larry and I have agreed on is that we need to down play some of the hysteria about FW's. Yes, they can be a nuisance and can may be unsightly, but, they are not aquarium equivalent of AIDS. I have FW's in my tanks and I dip everything in fresh water with Lugol's before I do any trades to prevent spreading them. My point, and I know Larry agrees, is that a lot of hobbyists do more damage to their tanks trying to kill them than they do to the tanks themselves.

I'll save the rest of my thunder for the Oct. meeting. I plan on handing out a bibliography with a couple of good references on FW's as part of the talk.

Gary