Crazy slimy HUGE flat worm...

[RockinSmall]

I have seen a couple of these in my little 29 gallon nano.. I thought it was a spanish dancer and thought nothing of it... i see this clip and believe it to be the exact same critter.. it is about the size of half the palm of my hand... and its lovely.. but this link says it is a clam eating flatworm... does anyone know if it feeds on specific clams, or ALL clams...??? what information does anyone know about these??? Next time i see if i will know weather or not i should flush it...

http://coralfarms.org/express.php?cat=6&mode=view&article=13

 

[seattleguy]

Do you have a picture or link showing this creature.

 

[RockinSmall]

oops.. edited post and added link

 

[SKremk]

It's probably a polyclad worm. You definitely want to get it out of the tank.

 

[Guygettnby]

that is a giant polyclad flatworm. take it out of your tank as soon as you can. they are not a good thing to have in your tank.

 

[RockinSmall]

what other harm can these guys do?

Boy, i sure am glad ive turned down the two maxima clams i wanted that were overpriced.. theyd be dead.. right???

 

[SKremk]

Many are predatory. They can eat snails and sessile invertebrates.

 

[RockinSmall]

danm it!!!!!!! i friggin knew it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i knew something was killing my snails... i honestly thought i had a mantis when i first set up my nano b/c my snails kept dying in the exact same spot of the tank... so i took a hammer and broke my rock into smaller pieces to find one.. instead i found these 3 awesome sluggs that nobody in my local club could identify... stupid flat worm from hell.... I have no intention of taking my nano apart ever again to dig them out... i will watch for it to come out at night and try to suck him up with the ol turkey baster...

 

[Guygettnby]

when i finally captured mine it was consuming one fof my snails. if you would have bought those clams they would probably be dead and you wouldnt have known until it was too late.

BTW the chance of you having more then 1 in your tank is pretty good. so keep your eye open even after you catch the big one. there are probably smaller ones chillin inside your live rock.

 

[RockinSmall]

i have a feeling i have three!

 

[Jcohen9999]

I guess I now know what happened to my clams in the past. And here I thought I still had some unseen pyrimad snails...

Here's my recent thread on this: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1654676

Anybody want to recommend some ideas on how to catch these guys without destroying the tank?

 

[Guygettnby]

with a flash light in the middle of the night is 1 way to go about it. but mine would come out during the day. so i got lucky. im not too sure of a really good way to get rid of them beacuse they like to hide in your live rock were you cant get to them without breaking the rock open.

 

[Jcohen9999]

I guess to catch a few polyclad flatworms I'm going to have to sacrifice some snails as bait.

 

[Guygettnby]

you may have to. i am not real sure of the best way to capture one of these as i got real lucky and mine was out and about during the day... i know they sell worm traps but im not too sure those would work on this type. they are cheap and possibly worth a try though. you could try askinf Leslie about this and she may be ale to help you out alot more then most.

 

[Jcohen9999]

So I wonder if a truck load of FWE would impact these monsters or better yet what size 6-line wrasse would I need

 

[RockinSmall]

the 6 line would have to be 20 inches long to gobble up this big critter!