Flatworms

I got little brown fw's a while back. I got all spooked thinking that they were going to take over the tank. I got the FW exit, and tried that. Killed a lot of them, but didn't take them all out.

So I relaxed a little, not wanting to put the tank through that again, and kept an eye on the fw's. Now the population fluctuates, there were more, not so many anymore, so I'm just not going to worry about them.

If you have the acoel variety, then it is a bit more of a worry, otherwise just keep an eye on them and treat them only if they get really bad.

If you do get too many, I found that if my lights were off during the day, and only the indirect light from the window was on it, that they'd all climb up on the glass looking for light. Then suck them right out.

Rick

Added: you might want to rethink the velvet nudi...once most of the fw's are gone (probably only a few weeks) the poor thing will starve, then the few flatworms hiding will be free to come back out and repopulate.

 

So they look for light? Thats interesting then I must hardly have any cause I turn the lights off at night and dturn then on around 10 11 and I never see them only when i move stuf around or clean .

 

I had a similar issue many years ago and at that time no internet and thus no knowledge of flatworm exit

I used a technique similar to above in that I used airline syphon into a large glass jar
the flatworms want to adhere to the glass surface so once jar was full of water, I let it settle and the poured the water back into the tank leaving the worms in the jar, which I rinsed out prior to repeating the excercise
I did it several times per week, and eventually got them under control
at that point added a six line, which LFS had suggested eats them

Steve

 

after debating on using chemicals, sea slugs, fish, or weekly cleaning with a custom vacum device. I chatted with the only LFS guy i trust and went with this fellow since my population for now is small....