Will Brown Flatworm die in an empty tank? well i have two Snails & shrimp

[Briggz]

?

 

[jaa1456]

if it is empty just treat the tank.

 

[Briggz]

I think I'm just goin to put in an electric water boiler that i use to make tea that should to the trick!

 

[tosiek]

Im pretty sure they feed off things on the rocks/glass. So having an empty tank won't hurt the population really. You need to treat the tank but that should be easy without anything in there really. The snails and shrimp should be fine but i would still go through the carbon and water changes as you would normally do after dosing flatworm exit.

 

[tosiek]

why would you do that? your going to kill all the other beneficial bacteria and organisms. It would be like your starting fresh and you might add something in from the tea heater like copper or something.

 

[Briggz]

Sounds good.. :lol_large

 

[jaa1456]

Flatworms also from what I have read need light to live. They use photosynthesis just like corals and plants. So not feeding the tank will not affect them. Just treat the tank and follow the directions

 

[SevTT]

?

Short answer: No. They're photosynthetic and derive most of their energy from that.

More complicated answer: Maybe eventually, if you don't feed the tank at all, or do WCs, they'll run out of vital nutrients.

If it's an almost-empty tank then your course of action is both clear and simple: fish out the shrimp and the snails, put 'em in a heated, aerated bucket, and use Flatworm Exit (or a comparable product) per the instructions on the bottle. Run carbon in your system afterwards for a day or two or do a massive WC (like, 50-75%) and you should be fine. You might not even need to fish out the shrimp and snails, but it's a good idea. At worst you lose the shrimp and snails, but I'd say that that's moderately unlikely. Your live rock and invertebrate populations (well, other than other flatworms you may have living in your system) should be unaffected.

Once you kill the flatworms, I heartily recommend getting one of the large number of small wrasses, attractive, reef-safe wrasses which prey on them. While they won't clear a tank, they'll eat any they can find and prevent them from becoming reestablished in the tank. (Since you don't have any other fish yet, I don't recommend a six-line. They can turn nasty, particularly to newcomers, once they have become established.)