Reefs.org Forums

[russellie]

Hi All
Returning to reefs after 2 years of keeping wild Discus. The last time I bought live cured rock I had an infestation of flatworms. and they were so bad they smotherd the Goniapora preventing the head opening resuling in death.. I know you can use flatworm exit but this is fatal to fish. Is there a safe way to treat the live rock to remove any flatworm withouth destroying beneficial life in the live rock
Regards
Russ

[PSLive]

Russ, I know your posting was done back on February 11th but I noticed nobody responded to it. Did you come up with an answer to your question? If not I may have some suggestions for you I can put up here.

[Saltlick]

I have something I do, I make a hospital tank of sorts that is pitch-a$$ dark, and I point a spotlight at one spot
on the tank wall. This invariably draws all the flatworms to a small area where they can be vacuumed off the
glass. IF IT WORKS, you can do all your rock in a day or so. You might want to just do one rock per day like
this.

OR you could leave a light pointed at your main tank near the very top at night, maybe scrim it down to just a
baseball size beam with a cardboard screen. I'd keep the light in a cardboard box to control the light. MAYBE cut a
hole in the back side to allow the light to cool somewhat, you don't want to start a fire. But you need to give
the flatworms a reason to gather in ONE spot. Then suck em out.