Experiences with using Lanthanum Chloride to kill rust flatworms / red planaria, or AEFW?

[tribbitt]

According to a Coral Magazine article from 2020, there is potential with using hobby-grade LaCl to kill flatworms. They quote a university coral biology researcher who uses Tropic Marin's Elimi-Phos Rapid to kill flatworms. He suggests it may mess with 'ion channels' in the flatworms. The article claims it's able to make flatworms of of the genera Waminoa and Convolutriloba "disappear completely at the dosage of 1.0 ml/100 L of aquarium water recommended by the manufacturer" (emphasis mine).

The researcher then goes on to mention that while he has no experience with using it against AEFW, he assumes it should also work on them as well (!!!)

Flatworm EXit does not work on AEFW, so I don't know of an in-tank treatment that has any efficacy for those cases. If this has been explored further, it might significantly reduce the severity of future infestations by making it far less labor-intensive to suppress or even eradicate AEFW. There's still lots of missing info. I only found a few mentions of people actually trying and the results are mixed. They don't go super in-depth about how to dose it either, I assume you just pour it into the display?

One clever idea I saw during the searching was to drain the tank 80% to expose all acros and mist them with potassium chloride solution. Wonder if anyone else has done this either?

If anyone has insights I'd be curious to hear them

The Lanthanum Solution: Combating Flatworms in the Reef Aquarium - CORAL Magazine

Daniel Knop examines the many methods that reef aquarists employ in an effort to eliminate problematic flatworm pests in reef tanks, including one option that may well be the ultimate weapon to eliminate flatworms once and for all!

www.coralmagazine.com

 

[Alexander1312]

According to a Coral Magazine article from 2020, there is potential with using hobby-grade LaCl to kill flatworms. They quote a university coral biology researcher who uses Tropic Marin's Elimi-Phos Rapid to kill flatworms. He suggests it may mess with 'ion channels' in the flatworms. The article claims it's able to make flatworms of of the genera Waminoa and Convolutriloba "disappear completely at the dosage of 1.0 ml/100 L of aquarium water recommended by the manufacturer" (emphasis mine).

The researcher then goes on to mention that while he has no experience with using it against AEFW, he assumes it should also work on them as well (!!!)

Flatworm EXit does not work on AEFW, so I don't know of an in-tank treatment that has any efficacy for those cases. If this has been explored further, it might significantly reduce the severity of future infestations by making it far less labor-intensive to suppress or even eradicate AEFW. There's still lots of missing info. I only found a few mentions of people actually trying and the results are mixed. They don't go super in-depth about how to dose it either, I assume you just pour it into the display?

One clever idea I saw during the searching was to drain the tank 80% to expose all acros and mist them with potassium chloride solution. Wonder if anyone else has done this either?

If anyone has insights I'd be curious to hear them

The Lanthanum Solution: Combating Flatworms in the Reef Aquarium - CORAL Magazine

Daniel Knop examines the many methods that reef aquarists employ in an effort to eliminate problematic flatworm pests in reef tanks, including one option that may well be the ultimate weapon to eliminate flatworms once and for all!

www.coralmagazine.com

Daniel Knop is one of the OGs in the Reef scene in Germany, and has been doing research for the past 30 years on these topics. The Lanthanum method is also in one of his recent books (Trojaner im Meerwasseraquarium, 2020), which specializes in the treatment of various Reef pests. It looks like this method works for both regular flatworms but also for AEFW. The latter seem to require a weekly repeated treatment though due to the eggs.

I did not read the article yet, thanks for sharing though, but in his book he points out the risks with using LC, how to apply it (Tropic Marin product), and using GAC for the toxins the flatworms relaese when they die.

There seems to be also a NAEFW species and refers to Yan Li (some researcher in China) method of killing this new (type) of AEFW with Beta - Cyfluthrin.