Flatworms - Not a big deal... seriously.

On December 2nd, I visited the Japanese Gardens in Fort Worth. Click that link to see the pictures I took.

Two nights ago, I was looking in my angled tank and saw a number of fat & sassy Red Planaria - too many in fact. I stumbled across a tiny few (maybe 6) dots many months ago, and was really shocked to see them. I tried to kid myself into thinking they were figments of my imagination, and I willed myself to ignore them.

So over time, via fission they have increased their little population somewhat, and with my desires to feed my acans I noticed the flatworms were getting too healthy. Disgusted, I decided I was going to treat that tank now before they became a real problem.

The perk of the 20g is that it is plumbed into the main system's filtration. I turned off its return pump, isolating it from the main system, and went in search of Flatworm eXit. Checking my usual bin of medications, I was surprised to find none. Then in my test kit bin, I found a bottle that looked like it had been chewed up by a dog. The solution was yellow with age, and the label was almost unreadable. Still, it was half full. 

I dropped 20 drops in my angled tank, and waited 5 minutes. When I checked the tank, many of the planaria were floating in the current, caught on thin gossamer threads. Since some were still moving across the sand, I added 5 more drops to make sure they too got a good dose. I went out to the garage in search of an empty bucket, some airline tubing and some rigid tubing to I could siphon them out of the tank.

When I got back, I saw the female clownfish out of the anemone, gobbling up the flatworms! How cool is that? I let her eat between 60 and 80% of them, then siphoned out any I could find.

About 10 minutes later, I turned the return pump back on, and let the main system filter out what little bit of medication was in the water. Done!

Super easy, and somewhat fun to watch.