Anyone know this flatworm?

[museumguy]

So this scared the snot outta me... I was removing some galaxea and palys from a big piece of liverock when a large chunk of the rock broke free. I was pretty surprised to see something move in the hole that was revealed by the break. After some more digging and prying I was able to break it out. This was hiding about 2.5 inches into the middle of a big piece of live rock. I'd say when spread out its 3-4 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.

Anybody know what it is exactly?

<img src="http://www.bjybjy.com/tank/flatworm1.jpg" width=800 height=600>


<img src="http://www.bjybjy.com/tank/flatworm2.jpg" width=800 height=600>

Thanks,
Tad

 

[museumguy]

Hmm might be this..?

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/lg_flatworm.html

 

[pagojoe]

Yes, but I can't give you a name because it apparently doesn't have one. It's one of the most common polyclads that hitchhike into reef tanks, though. They are amazingly effective at killing snails and clams, and may kill other things. You'll probably want to remove it, although it might be neat to keep in it's own nano.

Cheers,



Don

 

[vegita51]

Wow that would be interesting to raise in its own tank. I wonder how big it gets??

 

[pagojoe]

The biggest ones I've seen are 5 or 6 inches long. I doubt they get much larger than that.


Don

 

[lcashman]

I also have found the same flatworm in my tank. I was wondering why I had a graveyeard of snail shells around the liverock it lives in.

Any ideas of how to remove it without removing the liverock?

 

[chrisstie]

get rid of it! I had one around 8 inches long and my clams and quite a few snails went missing.

 

[lcashman]

I went hunting last night and removed the flat worm I spotted originally. Unknown to me, it had a friend that lived in the same rock.
So I was very fortunate since both of the worms were in the same rock. I then decided to give the rock a fresh water dip to cleanse the rock of any other flat worms.

Does anyone know who might want the flat worm?