Flatworm Exit effect copepods / amphipods

S

Squanto804

New member
I really hate to do it but need to dose my tank with Flatworm Exit to get rid of a bad flatworm problem. I've tried Spotted Mandarin and also a couple Blue velvet nudibranches with no success.

Does anyone now if Flatworm Exit will hurt my copepods and/or amphipods?

Any other ideas would be appreciated.


Thanks,

Scott
 
I've dosed it and I didn't see any visible effects on the populations of small animals, but I was very careful to follow the instructions.
 
I've dosed FWE at 3X the recommended dose and it didn't seem to bother any pod populations. Didn't seem to bother any corals, fish, or any other animals at that dose either. I was really tired of battling these odd little FW's so I bombed the tank and it seemed to be relatively safe. It didn't completely kill off my odd little FW's either so I ended up using a strong dose of prazipro through a 14 day treatment and I have yet to see any FW's since (that was 4 months ago).

Good luck!

Jeremy
 
Well, I've dosed it three times now in six weeks to the same tank and have seen no reduction in pod life. Unfortunately, there has only been a reduction and not eradication of the flatworms.
First time I dosed as per instructions. Second time I dosed with 1 1/2 dosage as per rated TANK size, not actual volume. Third time I double dosed as per rated tank size and left it for five hours before using the carbon, and I still have them.
I even tried a double dose of Prazi Pro.
How safe is it to go even more in the dosage?
 
Flatworm populations follow the nutrients in your system. If you reduce your nutrients, you will reduce the flatworms. Flatworms also do not do well with a lot of flow, so maybe rearranging your PHs will help. Wrasses are hit or miss; I bought a yellow wrasse which did help me.

I'm surprised the velvet nudis had little effect. I have read where they are supposed to be one of the better methods for flatworm removal.
 
rayjay said:
Well, I've dosed it three times now in six weeks to the same tank and have seen no reduction in pod life. Unfortunately, there has only been a reduction and not eradication of the flatworms.
First time I dosed as per instructions. Second time I dosed with 1 1/2 dosage as per rated TANK size, not actual volume. Third time I double dosed as per rated tank size and left it for five hours before using the carbon, and I still have them.
I even tried a double dose of Prazi Pro.
How safe is it to go even more in the dosage?
Click to expand...

I've read that FWE is not effective against all species of flatworms - especially acropora eating flatworms. If your dealing with AEFW's then stop using the FWE and go another route. Prazipro is a second option in treating a tank with FW's but there are no guarantees. I had a strain of FW's that I couldn't get an exact ID on and FWE wasn't effective at entirely eradicating them. I ran a vigorous dosing regimen of prazipro and haven't seen them since. Prazipro does have a warning that it may kill beneficial worms like bristle worms and feather dusters, but it really had no negative effects on my duster clusters or other little dusters thorughout the tank (that was at regular strength with the first dose, 2X with second dose, and 3X recommendation with the third dose - all in a 14 day period).

Prazipro is another option for treating FW's, but with this also I don't believe it will be effective in eradicating AEFW's. Before you dose anything more be sure you don't have AEFW's. If you do have AEFW's we can help you with a treatment plan.

Jeremy
 
It'll knock your brittle stars for a loop, both the reg sized and the mini. Not sure if it's completely fatal but I fish out the ones I see and let them recover separately until I do a post treatment water change.
 
I have a very large serpent star in there and it has not suffered through the flatworm exit or the prazipro.
I'll have to try prazipro at 3 times the dose then as I don't know what kind of flat worm they are.
They look red to me, but on checking posts about red bugs/worms for acro, they don't look quite the same.
While these look red on my glass, when I put them in a container of water under daylight, they look beige.
It would be nice to know more about the reproductive stages as perhaps I'm getting all but certain stages that show up very soon after when they progress to the final stage.
On my first treatment, even after siphoning all I could find, there were masses of stringy mess with thousands of fw's in the messes.
Now, when I add, the flatworms appear to be unaffected and no stringy masses. That was with both the prazipro and the last dose of fwexit.
 
If they're Convolutriloba retrogemma, FWE worked for me, although I did have to use two doses a few days apart. My theory was that the treatment doesn't kill eggs.
 
Prazipro and FWE never bothered any of my three large brittle stars or any of the tiny little ones.

When tyring to ID my FW's I posted some pics in the invert forum. Although I was unable to get an exact ID. I was able to rule out my FW's as not being AEFW's. It may be worth your time to post some pics and info on that forum.

Jeremy
 
rayjay said:
Unfortunately I don't have a camera that will take a picture of something small and up close.
Click to expand...

Me either so I used a simple point and shoot I have and took pics through a magnifiying glass. It was a little tricky, but once I got the hang of it I thought it worked pretty well. I also went to wal-mart and got a kids microscope (very cheap but magnifies 10X, 50X ,and 100X - pretty good for $20). I was also able to take pics through the microscope with my crappy camera.

Jeremy
 
I've dozed fwe and never had a problem with pods, but stars definitely didn't like it. They acted goofy and curled all up. Well, I still have fw, but a heck of a lot less. Next time ill start with recommended dose and just wait a couple hours for carbon, and maybe go without wc. It killed like 95%. Maybe it doesn't get the eggs like someone else mentioned?
 
The first time I dosed FWE for flatworms I didn't notice any other casualties. Yesterday I did a 2 1/2 times dose to try and take out some zooanthid eating nudis I've been fighting and it did knock the poor little brittle stars for a loop but everything else seems fine. I don't think it bothers pods. FYI... I waited a few hours to add carbon and four nudis did come out of the polyps and drop their spines and kill over. Sweeet.
 
jlinzmaier said:
I've dosed FWE at 3X the recommended dose and it didn't seem to bother any pod populations. Didn't seem to bother any corals, fish, or any other animals at that dose either. I was really tired of battling these odd little FW's so I bombed the tank and it seemed to be relatively safe. It didn't completely kill off my odd little FW's either so I ended up using a strong dose of prazipro through a 14 day treatment and I have yet to see any FW's since (that was 4 months ago).

Good luck!

Jeremy
Click to expand...

strong dose of prazipro? Can you please explain the dosage and your method please? I am insterested in giving it a try. TIA
 
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