Creature ID??

55Reef

New member
Hello Dr. Ron,

I hoping that you can help ID this "thing" I found in my SW aquarium.
It seems to be some sort of sea slug???

It is VERY flat. It has no shell It measures approx. 5" long by 2 1/2" wide. It is mostly brown
with faint white spots. If you disturb it. It will form into a circle and ruffle up and look like a "flower", For lake of a better term.I've taken a pic of it. It's not the best picture, You do get an idea of what it looks like. If needed I can get a better picture of it since I do have it isolated in my aquarium. Feel free to ask any questions!

Thanks for any help!
 
Maybe this will work!
 

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Hi,

I would guess it is some kind of flatworm. Perhaps Mike Noren may be able to add more information, but I can't really. These animals are often quite difficult to identify.

The larger flatworms are almost always predatory and, generally, are not animals most aquarists want in their systems.

:mixed:
 
Thanks Dr. Ron!

I have an ID on this thing! It seems to be a Polyclad Flatworm.

No wonder my snails have been disappering!

So I assume this thing must go?!?!?
 

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Originally posted by 55Reef

Hi,

So I assume this thing must go?!?!?

Well, the picture is consistent with those published earlier of snail-eating flatworms. Unless you want to dedicate a "species" tank to the worm, and feed it snails periodically, it probably should be removed.

:D
 
I found one of these a long while back it was large and had leapord spots. I recently found another small one in my tank and am now concerned there might be more eating snails in my tank. Do the reproduce easily? Could I starve the little buggers out by taking out all the snails?
 
Starvation.... Well, first we'd need to id the polyclad and then hope that feeding information is known for the species. Some are very selective about what they eat while others will take multiple prey items. Then you could try removing the potential prey items. They are hermaphrodites so two adults are needed for reproduction.
 
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