dark spots

[johnl69]

Can anyone please help me three of my soft corals have these dark spots on them two of them seem fine but one of them has black rotten parts which i remove, these corals have been in this set up for over a year now all parameters good[

 

[russ49merc]

flat worms I think but need a closer pic.

 

[russ49merc]

do they move?

 

[johnl69]

I think they move they come of easily when rubbed
I cant get any closer pics but they are a brown oval shaped disc about 3mm long and have a white stripe from head to tail.

 

[johnl69]

these spot are only on the trunk of the coral not any where near the polyps

 

[Nano Nana]

I would guess flat worms also but a closer pic would help. Try Flatworm Exit.

 

[johnl69]

thanks for all your help i took some samples into my lfs and they confermed they where flatworm he supplied me with two scooter blennies that apparently eat them, he also suggested "flatworm Exit" however i am very causious about putting any chemicals into my tank (had a bad experiance when i first started out was told to put "metholine blue" in to get rid of white spot you can guess what happened!) Does anyone have and exerience with "Flatworm Exit" is it safe to use with a well established reef system

 

[Hormigaquatica]

Ive used FE a couple times in established systems, one of them fairly large and very heavily stocked. Some of the corals slimed up a bit, but as long as you get as close to all of the dead flatworms out of there after you dose, you should be OK. The dead worms are much more toxic than the FE is. Run heavy carbon and skimming... be ready to do a water change too.

Remember though... those scooters will starve to death if you erradicate the worms (in all likelihood, they are going to starve to death anyhow unless you have a large mature system), so you will need to figure out something for them.

 

[russ49merc]

use air line tubing ..... create a suction and siphon them all out