how to get rid of red planaria flatworms

[saltwatersig]

my sons 14 gal nano w/softies has a bunch of these on the glass and rocks , i did'nt notice them before yesterday and wanted to know what can be done to get rid of them. he has two fish in it and live rock with shrooms/blastos/brain/clam and other softies. everthing coral & fish wise seem normal at this point.
thanks in advance.

 

[Apon]

siphon them out and then use flat worm exit on the the tank for the ones you missed.

 

[Gomer]

and use a lot of carbon as dying flatworms release a lot of bad toxins. Plan on doing a WC after the recommended dosing time (probably 24hrs)

 

[Paradox]

I was going to recommend a magnifying glass and the sun..but I guess your solution is better.. =)

Joking aside, I have had crazy amounts grow in my tank and then they just dissapeared. Theres still a few, but no where near the amount I had a while back. Perhaps this is related to nutrient levels. Ive added GFO, carbon and a sulfur denitrator to my tank so my water may be too clean for them to be sustained in large numbers.

 

[saltwatersig]

i was actually thinking of trying rich's method of squirting them so that the fish eat them , so hopefully the fish will eat it....if not then i suppose flatworm exit it will be. thanks all for info everyone.

 

[Gomer]

I HAD flatworms. My 6 line eats them and i have yet to SEE one since added him. He is forever on the hunt.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

For such a small tank, it's easy just to do a bunch of water changes and the squirt method. No need to use Flatworm Exit.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

[quote author=Paradox link=topic=3912.msg45880#msg45880 date=1213641225]Perhaps this is related to nutrient levels. Ive added GFO, carbon and a sulfur denitrator to my tank so my water may be too clean for them to be sustained in large numbers.[/quote]

Yup!

 

[saltwatersig]

but what causes them to all of a sudden bloom

 

[Gomer]

same thing that causes any population of critters to bloom. Ideal conditions The limiting factor is almost always food. The flatworms are eating uneaten food from coral/fish feeding.

 

[saltwatersig]

yeah ....i thought maybe that might be the cause ....i will also try less feeding amounts.

 

[Phillips]

I found water changes removed what they were living off of and they disappeared. I had a lot of them in my old skimmerless 75 gallon reef. I was actually kinda sad when they were gone since they didn't do any harm.

I rather like finding new worms in my tank, and got all excited last night when I discovered a bunch of new peanut worms in the sand of my main tank. I couldn't understand why the wife wasn't just as excited.