What is this stuff?

[Shrink]

75 gallon tank is doing well. But I have this funny, red, shuck/shell/pod-like stuff in the tank, which I am not sure about. Anyone know what s this? It has not hurt the fish or coral. (That's a hammer coral and Pavona from Rob! In between the baby hammer coral and mushroom is the red stuff. The second picture is a close-up). Also, I have since managed to get rid of all of the hair algae. Yahoo! Thanks for your help, Nick H.

[charlie]

Search forams Nick, I think that is what you have there?????

[Sarmo]

look up flatworms. salifert makes a product that will get rid of them called "flatworm exit". i don't know the whole treatment but you need the product, then run carbon and a water change after.

[Shrink]

I think you may be right about flatworms, Rob. I googled it and the pictures of flatworms on the internet look just like what I have in my tank. Some say that a mandarin goby or six-line wrasse will eat them up. Not sure if there is actual evidence of that. I'll be syphoning them out, one at a time to bring the count and then use salifert if I must. Tonight, it looked like they were dying off but hard to tell with the actinics.

[returnofsid]

I can attest to a 6 Lined Wrasse. I've had one that did eat them, and kept them under control. Salifert is safe to use, as long as you get as many of the worms out as possible, before treatment, and then as many of the dead ones out, after treatment. Also, after treatment, start filtering with carbon, within an hour. You'll actually see them start to fall off the glass and die, within minutes of treatment. The Salifert FWE is safe, it's the toxins put off by the dying flatworms that can cause problems. Huge problems if you don't remove as many as you can.

[Shrink]

Thank you for the detailed instructions. I'll try the conservative approach first with the fish (always wanted a six-lined wrasse anyway). Hopefully, I won't have to starve the thing to get it to eat the worms. I hear mixed reports - definitely much more mixed results with the mandarin dragonet.

[returnofsid]

Do keep in mind, if you ever intend to get a Mandarin in the future, the presence of the Wrasse will make that quite difficult, because of competition for the same food source.

[Shrink]

Thank you Michael. Yeah, I was not sure that the mandarin would eat the flatworms, but I know that they will both eat pods and what. I went with the sixline wrasse, which should arrive tomorrow through overnight FedEx. Went to the Fish Corral but there were only damsels.

[charlie]

Thank you Michael. Yeah, I was not sure that the mandarin would eat the flatworms, but I know that they will both eat pods and what. I went with the sixline wrasse, which should arrive tomorrow through overnight FedEx. Went to the Fish Corral but there were only damsels.

Did you ask why?????

[Shrink]

No, I did not ask why. I was hoping that they were doing well - that folks were buying up fish? There was one yellow tang, as I actually recall. WHY?

[charlie]

I just wondered what kind of stock they were keeping in there??? I haven't been in there for a couple of weeks.
It would just seem to me that they would try to keep certain fish in there, maybe I am wrong.

[Sarmo]

when i was there it looked a little bare

[Shrink]

Sixline wrasse shows up dead. One replacement should be coming. Anyone ever order from saltwaterfish.com? Where have you guys and gals gotten your fish, other than rescuing them from others?

[charlie]

I usually end up bringing mine home from Kevin's shop in Spokane Nick. This is a real tough time of the year for shipping with the heat and all. Sorry to hear about the casualty, hopefully the next one is OK!!!! At least they back their stuff, I have heard they have a real good reputation.

[scooter54]

I have ordered from Saltwaterfish.com. I have order fish and corals. The fish have come in looking good and out of the corals that I have gotten from them I only lost one and it was in their 15 day guarantee period & they credited me.

[returnofsid]

Everything I've read about Saltwaterfish.com has been very positive. However, as Charlie mentioned, this time of year is really hard on shipped livestock, with the intense heat waves some areas are experiencing.

Charlie also mentioned Kevin's shop, Aquatic Dreams, in Spokane. If I'm not mistaken, Kevin is coming over to pay all of you a visit in the next couple of weeks. Might see about the possibilities of him bringing one over. Another option, we're heading over there this Thursday or Friday. We could pick one up for you. You'd need to contact Kevin and make arrangements for payment and make sure he's okay with us bringing it over to you.

[Shrink]

That's great Mike, I may just take you up on that offer, if it can work out to meet up somewhere as you drive in. Thanks for offering.

[DevonM]

I've ordered lots of "value menu" items from Saltwaterfish.com. Great experience with everything I've ordered but did have one casualty in the middle of winter due to a storm that shut down the airport.

I need to have Kevin bring in a couple cool leopard wrasses for me one of these days...

Hope your tank is doing well!

[Shrink]

I'll post some pictures of my tank, Devon, when I get the time and "permission" to use my wife's new Canon T1i with the 18-200 mm zoom lens (that camera detail is for Charlie). Does anyone have Kevin's phone number so that I can call and see what wrasses he has in for Mike to pick up? You may pm me with that info. Unless, anyone has a wrasse or mandarin goby they are looking to get rid of.

I guess with saltwaterfish.com, one gets screwed by having to pay the shipping charge again for a fish that died on the first shipping charged deal.

[charlie]

He isn't open again until Wednesday, shoot him a PM, and see what he says.