Black flatworm looking hitchhiker ID

[kenny b]

This morning I saw this black frilly flatworm looking thing crawling on the live rock. Does anyone know what it is or if it is harmful? It's about a quarter to half an inch long.

 

[sellersmd]

Can't tell a thing from the photo, unfortunately. Based on your description, I would consider looking into (1) limpets and frilly limpets, (2) stomatella snails, and (3) nudibranchs.

 

[smtank]

Could be Scutus as well or even a Chiton

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml

 

[pagojoe]

It's not a chiton. It could be a Scutus, although it's pretty rare to find one that small. Same goes for polyclad flatworms, although from your pic, I can't rule that out either. My guess is that it's a black Stomatella, which is harmless. If you can get a pic of the whole animal, I'll be able to tell which it is for sure.

Cheers,



Don

 

[kenny b]

When I first noticed it I thought nudibranch but when I looked closer, I saw it had no gills and looked much more like a polyclad flat worm. Here are a few more photos I took this morning but couldn't get uploaded until now. It definitely doesn't look like the Scutus pictured at http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/scutus since the antenna are also frilly like a flatworm and the edges are also more frilly. http://www.nudipixel.net/photo/00030569/flatworms/ is the closes thing I've seen so far but the antenna still looked a little different.







Thanks!

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Next time you see it, take it out and put it into a clear or white container with some tank water and get a few images of it from different angles. It's really difficult to see what it is in your pics.