Possible flatworm cure??

[Katspaw]

Over the past summer many of my reef club members including myself have been infested with flatworms. With the number of tanks infected, several of us have tryed different methods to rid ourselfs of these ugly guys. One member with a very large tank tryed GreenX, one damsel went missing. His tank is acrylic and therefore was not effected with silicone turning green. His tank is now without flatworms and everything appears to be okay. I do not want to put chemicals into my tank and I surely don't want green silicone. Now others have try adding fish to eat them, but it doesn't aways work, and I do not want to add fish into my system that are not on my list. They may take food away from another fish that are already in my tank.
So I have continued my search for a natural method of ridding myself of these pests. I read that the tanks temperture can have an effect on flatworms, in slowing down the reproductive rate. Flatworms only survive for a week, and they need temperatures of 79 + degrees F to reproduce. Therefore, I am slowly lowering my temps to 76 degrees in hopes of decreases the flatworms. My tank temp today is 79.2. Because of Metal halides, I do use a chiller, I have lowered the heaters down to around 77.5. I will give the animals a few days to adjust, and then lower the temps more. I will keep everyone posted as to the effects it has on my tank.

Tracey

[schall4]

Tracey:

I too had a flatworm infestation early this summer (Convolutriloba retrogemma) and used a sixline wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia). It took about a month and the flatworm population was gone. This is the second time I have been successful using the sixline wrasse.

Tony

[Katspaw]

Tony,
I am glad that you had success with the 6 line wrasse, but I already have a wrasse in my tank that I have had for a number of years, and he doesn't eat flatworms. And I will not put a mandrin into this tank to fight with my wrasse over food. As I said:
I want a natural way of ridding myself of these pests without adding fish not on my list.

Tank temp is at 78.1 and everything is going as planned. I will be dropping in down to 77 in a day or two.

Tracey

[Katspaw]

Well I am lowering the tank temp again today. Down to 77 degrees, I have already noticed a decrease in flatworms, Not as many covering the sand. I will be vacuuming the tank and doing a water change this weekend. Computer problems have been taking a good portion of my time, and my tank maintainance got put on the back burner for the past weeks. Hopefully, everything will come together soon.

Tracey

[kevinpo]

Katspaw,
I had a large population of the brown flatworms in my 90 gal frag grow-out tank for about 1 year. Then I accidentally boosted the alkalinity to 5.7 meq/L . I haven't seen one since. Could be just a coincidence but maybe not.

FWIW,
Kevin
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~kpockell/flatworm-6-02.JPG