Well we got some flatworms in our tank. I am not sure how, but they are there and I cant seem to kill them. For three weeks I did Flatworm Solution once a week followed by a 16 gallon WC on our DT and ran new carbon (actual volume is in the neighborhood of 65 gallons). The FWS makes them crawl around and come out which makes them very easy to siphon out into a filter sock in the sump, but even letting the medication sit for a few hours it still does not kill them. It is almost like it makes them very uncomfortable, but does not actually make them curl up, die and float into the water column. The first time I did it a lot of them came out and I got quite a few of them, but again it did not kill them just made them uncomfortable and come out to be easily siphoned. I did this again last Thursday and there were far fewer but only the ones I could see on the glass or rocks I can siphon up. I have been using the exact dosage recommendations for the FWS as recommended by the LFS, they said to not overdose like you do with Flat Worm Exit. Yesterday I tried to use FWE to see if that would work. I initially tried a dosage for 75 gallons, then 30 minutes later another 50% of 75 gallons, then again 50% more thirty minutes later and finally another 50% for a total of 2.5 times the recommended dosage (probably close to 3 times for my actual volume). I kept dosing because it did not seem to do anything to them. I siphoned out maybe 2 dozen at the most and that was all I could find. They seemed less irritated than with the FWS. I left in the FWE without running carbon for almost 4 hours then let the carbon run for a little bit then did a 16 gallon WC.
I did siphon out one into a cup of water to see what it would take to kill them with both the FWE and FWS, I used water that had 2.5 to 3 times the normal FWE in it and added a total of 5 drops of FWS to the cup (one at a time stirring and waiting in between) and it did not have any effect on them. I then tried one drop of FWE in the cup to see if it had any effect and it did not. I also tried a few drops of Prazipro to see if that might do it as a last resort, but it did nothing.
I dont really want to disassemble the whole tank to fresh water dip everything, but I am not sure what else to do. I dont think that will even kill them all as they might be in the sand etc. I would almost have to do a full fresh water fill to kill everything and hope that works. We currently only have three fish in the tank, a small CUC and a few zoas, but still that would set us back a few more months and we have 4 fish in QT right now. A wrasse is on our list of fish but he will be the last one we add based on everyone's recommendation. It also seems that the Wrasse can be hit or miss with eating them.
I was able to snap a few pictures of him with my phone so you can kind of see what they look like, but they are brown/black with three or so whitish stripes. View attachment 21472 View attachment 21473
Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.
Paul
I did siphon out one into a cup of water to see what it would take to kill them with both the FWE and FWS, I used water that had 2.5 to 3 times the normal FWE in it and added a total of 5 drops of FWS to the cup (one at a time stirring and waiting in between) and it did not have any effect on them. I then tried one drop of FWE in the cup to see if it had any effect and it did not. I also tried a few drops of Prazipro to see if that might do it as a last resort, but it did nothing.
I dont really want to disassemble the whole tank to fresh water dip everything, but I am not sure what else to do. I dont think that will even kill them all as they might be in the sand etc. I would almost have to do a full fresh water fill to kill everything and hope that works. We currently only have three fish in the tank, a small CUC and a few zoas, but still that would set us back a few more months and we have 4 fish in QT right now. A wrasse is on our list of fish but he will be the last one we add based on everyone's recommendation. It also seems that the Wrasse can be hit or miss with eating them.
I was able to snap a few pictures of him with my phone so you can kind of see what they look like, but they are brown/black with three or so whitish stripes. View attachment 21472 View attachment 21473
Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.
Paul