Salifert Flatworm Exit, Toxins, Cloudy Fish Eyes and me

Random title for a thread I know, but I had an issue this week that I wanted to share with the group, and I wanted to also put the right buzz words in the title so that if anyone has this issue in the future, they will be able to find this - I had to piece together multiple threads from multiple sites over the past few days to get the data I needed.

So, as you all may recall I had a bit of an issue with my 250. About 8 weeks ago, I had some crazy, unknown event occur that killed all of my snails, and my ACAN corals, and turned my water cloudy - but impacted nothing else. After that event, I pretty much let the tank rest and recover. I did normal water changes, added nitrifying bacteria, kept my parameters in check and all and all things have been great. BUT....I had some flatworms. Had them before the strange event I just described as well. I wanted to wait until the tank was stable before I treated with Salifert Flatworm Exit.

On Sunday, I decided it was time. I have used FWE before in another tank, and I had a great experience with it. I will say, it is a great product in that it kills flat worms really fast and really well. It is reef safe, and it works as advertised. So nothing but goodness sent to the folks at Salifert.

Based on past experience with the product, I siphoned off the flatworms I could see, I treated the tank (a whole bottle to do a 300 gallon total volume system), applied carbon as per instructions and did a 10% water change about an hour after application. Everything looked great!

Monday morning, I head down to my fish tank and I can see from across the room that things are not right. Corals are closed up, fish are no where to be seen....oh man.....

When I get up close, I see that all of my fish are hiding in the reef as if it is night time. and my corals are indeed closed up...all of them, SPS, LPS, Soft...you name it...okay...well not the GSP...but I dont think you can kill GSP!

I go around back and look at the skimmers and they are full with a blood red skimate....the exact color of the freaking flatworms....At that point I pretty much knew what was going on...flatworm toxin was in the water from the treatment.

Trying not to freak out, I immediatly tested the water for NO2, NO3, NH3, PH, ALK, CA, and MG. Everything tested out perfect. Further pointed me to flatworm toxin.

Next thing I did was attempt to feed the fish...and interestingly enough, they all came out and ate. BUT...several had cloudy eyes, and apparent issues with their slime coats - Fox face rabbit fish was the worst, sailfin tang was a close second. So I was encouraged that they were eating...but very discouraged by their appearance.

Now that I was pretty sure what was going on, and that the fish were definately under stress, I did the following over the last 2 days:

1. Cleaned my skimmers so that they would be at maximum cleaning power. I also let them run a little wetter then normal - a suggestion I got from a thread here on 3reef. I cleaned them every 12 hours for 2 days until the blood red nastyness went away (which it did after about 24 hours)

2. Added a ton more carbon (2 more pounds)

3. Did 3 seperate 15% water changes - at 300 gallons total volume it is hard to do big water changes all at once - cant make the water that fast. Figured better to do them frequently than wait a day and a half to get all the water I needed.

4. Added PRIME to the tank to help with the slime coat issues.

5. Turned down my lights - nice thing with LED's is I could ramp them down, without having to turn them off. They say this reduces the stress on the fish.

6. Tested all parameters daily to make sure there was no movement in water quality (other than the hopeful removal of the toxin).

End result, this morning, everything looks great. Fish have clear slime coats, eyes have cleared up (Except for the rabbit fish, but his eyes were never perfectly clear - an irridesence in the eyes is somewhat normal I am told in rabbitfish...also I am told that they are known for shedding slime coats when stressed...more so than other fish...so makes sense he looked the worst). My skimmer is skimming next to nothing (after over 100 gallons in water changes, that makes sense I think), and my corals are all open again. Lingering issue I see is some damage to the clear part of the pectoral fins on the fish, but my understanding is that is also normal when water quality is impacted, and should clear up in a few days with improved conditions and proper feeding (I hope)

I am not saying I am out of the woods by any means, but I am cautiously optomistic that I have rounded the corner..and am hopeful there will be no losses.

I hope this helps if anyone has this issue in the future. I am also VERY open to suggestion. If there is something else I should be doing, or perhaps should not have done above, I would love to hear it.

 

week +1 update - I am happy to report that my system appears to be back to normal. Skimmers are running normal, parameters check out great, life is good. I am most happy to report no losses as a result of this event. Fish slime coats appear to be back to normal and their tattered fins are about 95% recovered - 100% on all fish except one (yellow tang) that is about 90% and getting better each day.

Will also note that the flatworm exit did work...not one flatworm to be found....that being said, I need to find a better way to deal with any future flatworm events - this was way too stressful on the fish and me!

 

Nice to hear follow up status.

Sometimes I think people do not realize how many worms are lurking where they can not see them or manually remove them. The dying FWs releasing the toxins might cause more issues than the treatment it's self.

I have seen hermits, snails and starfish act pretty poorly during treatment and after for about a week but no significant loss in life.

Must be nice to have those FW gone. I hope it stays that way for you.

Thank you for the follow post.

 

so glad to hear your positive outcome from such a stressful event! glad you also included all components in your title to help others in the future!

 

Agreed on the hidden worms. I figured there were more than I could see, but I had no idea it was that bad....and would cause that much stress! Just happy it all worked out.