Flatworms?

[gotfish]

I get home today and all of a sudden notice these things sitting on the sand.

I'm assuming it's some kind of flatworm and it kind of makes me wonder where the hell they came from? Anyway, that's neither here nor there. I'm looking at getting a mandarin as it goes and I've read they will eat these. Anyway, I'll start qt'ing the mandarin tonight and hopefully the flatworm problem doesn't get too bad in the next week. Hopefully that will be long enough for me to acclimate the mandarin to prepared food.

Any comments on whether these are indeed flatworms and whether the mandarin will work?

 

[mfinn]

Does look like flat worms.
I used a six-line wrasse to get rid of the ones that appeared in my tank.

 

[luke33]

Or flatworm exit. Those can multiply really quick if you don't take action.

 

[returnofsid]

If you treat them with Flatworm Exit, it is effective, but make sure to study up on it first. Flatworms become very toxic when they die. It's important to remove as many as possible before treatment and then to remove as many dead ones as you can after treatment.

 

[dailydriven911]

Yep flatworms! Invest in a six line wrasse and it should control the population. I can assure you they did not come from my rock because I did not have fw in my system. Luckily they will not harm your sessile inverts and are rather east to control or eradicate.

 

[luisse25]

i saw one just one on my frogspawn..does that means im infested????????:shock:

 

[returnofsid]

If you see one, you have many more. They aren't the end of the world. They don't eat corals or anything harmful. They just populate so fast that they can build up such a population that they cover all your corals, blocking out light. There are a few fish that are known to eat them. If you just have a small population, depending on the other fish in your tank, you might look into a 6 lined wrasse. Also think about increasing flow. They don't like high flow much.

 

[gotfish]

I just got back from getting a mandarin. I didn't really want to get a six line just cause of the stuff I've read about them. I'm gonna try sucking a couple up and putting them in the qt tank with the mandarin to see if he eats them. If not, then a six line will be in the works.

The reason for the mandarin by the way is two fold. First is because the girlfriend wanted one as it was. This is all just more the reason now though. I did a lot of searching in the hour between the time I first saw these things and when I posted for a definite ID and quite a few people have had luck with the mandarins eating them.

Jayson, I didn't think the rock I got from you had it cause the tank has been running for a month now, I hadn't seen them til today and neither of us had them. I don't know how all of a sudden they showed up unless they were on the rock I got for the little 5.5g and in having the net going back and forth between the 2 tanks one got in there. That's the only thing I can think of. The 5.5g doesn't have any in there though that I can see.

 

[Dr. Dee]

I used flatworm exit before and it worked just fine like over night. But you must keep your skimmer running and
also after 24hrs do a water change and make sure that you
also run some good carbon.

 

[mfinn]

I guess this is a fairly new tank?
Looks as if the sand is really new.
FWIW,
This really isn't a good situation to put a mandarin into.
It may go after the flatworms and it may not. It's main source of food is copepods and they need a good established tank to have a large supply of the copepods to survive long term.

 

[ajnweb]

Yellow candy hogfish are also supposed to eat them.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+35+1157&pcatid=1157

 

[gotfish]

I guess this is a fairly new tank?
Looks as if the sand is really new.
FWIW,
This really isn't a good situation to put a mandarin into.
It may go after the flatworms and it may not. It's main source of food is copepods and they need a good established tank to have a large supply of the copepods to survive long term.

The tank is a month and a half old, but the live rock is over a year. I also transferred my sand from my 29g into the fuge. I'd bet the tank has thousands of pods. I can count a couple hundred along the bottom of the glass when the lights go out. The mandarin is in a 10g right now. He'll be trained to eat marine mysis as well as flake and pellets before he goes in the tank. I'm also gonna be transferring over some of the flatworms over to make sure he'll eat them. If it takes a week or 2, I'm not worried.

 

[Chichas01]

I got rid of them 2 ways:

1. smaller frequent water changes to remove their food source
2. increase flow in the areas where they seem to be thriving

Once I did this, they disappeared.
Also, I'd agree with Finn on the placement of the Mandarin. Get the biggest possible fuge you can for your system and it may work out fine.

 

[gotfish]

Also, I'd agree with Finn on the placement of the Mandarin. Get the biggest possible fuge you can for your system and it may work out fine.

Can you explain why when if I can get it to eat prepared foods, it'll have plenty of food just like every other kind of fish you put in a glass box.

 

[mfinn]

Mandarins cannot survive on prepared foods. They need copepods.

I should have said they usually don't survive very long.
With the newer foods that have better nutrition, they will survive longer than they use to but they do need copepods.

 

[mfinn]

Can you explain why when if I can get it to eat prepared foods, it'll have plenty of food just like every other kind of fish you put in a glass box.

If you can train it to eat the right foods it has a chance, but not all will learn to eat prepared foods.

 

[Chichas01]

Mandarins cannot survive on prepared foods. They need copepods.

I should have said they usually don't survive very long.
With the newer foods that have better nutrition, they will survive longer than they use to but they do need copepods.

Ditto what Finn said.
You need a good continuous source of pods. This is probably not possible in a 29 gallon aquarium if I understand that this is the size of your display tank. However, if you supplement pods on a regular basis, have only the Mandarin in the tank and no other fish that prey on pods (Many fish do. I watch my clowns hunt them all day off the rocks in my tank) and add a huge refugium for your system, say a dedicated 30 gallons, then it may work out fine.
Your other option is to purchase a larger display tank to stock up with plenty of LR and use your 29 gallon as your fuge. You can do this for a reasonable price by purchasing a larger used tank. I would say it's better to invest in a sustainable habitat up front than risk losing your favorite fish to starvation over a period of time. Just my 2 cents worth

 

[gotfish]

It's a 75g tank with 20g sump. The sand in the fuge is from my 29g. Like I said, there is several hundred pods on the front side of the glass. If there are that many on the front side of the glass alone, I'm sure there are a couple thousand in the tank total. Like I said, if I can get it to eat prepared foods I'm sure it will live a long productive life just as Lee's has as well as many others I'm sure. If I can't get him to eat prepared foods for some reason, I'm sure my 75g tank will be able to sustain him. If for some reason it can't, I'll find someone on here who can. Thanks for all the concern over my new fish, it's much appreciated.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

There is nothing in this hobby that is assured, and one is the survivability of a mandarin with a small rock system. In spite of Lee's observations of success, I have seen many dozen die of starvation in the best of conditions. Hope yours is the exception.

 

[mfinn]

Like I said, if I can get it to eat prepared foods I'm sure it will live a long productive life just as Lee's has as well as many others I'm sure.

Hey,, if you could keep a log of some sort with dates, and foods, successful and non, maybe it will help others keep this fish, which I think is one of the coolest available.