Flatworms

Pickupman66

Pickupman66

New member
OK,

so while i was staring at the tank, I noticed that my snails had babies. tons of tine blue and white specs on teh glass. they sorta waver in the current so I think they are baby cerinths.

Now, I also notice a flat worm of sorts on teh glass. there are a bunch of them, not venturing too far from the sand. they are a very light cream white and sorta remind me of casper the ghost.

this is the closest photo I can match to them and its from Wet Web Media. they are said to be harmless from that site.

Either way, looks like its time to actually get that wrasse. now will it be a run of the mill 6 line or something a bit more exotic.

Edit: you think a Mandarin would eat them? I have plenty of pods otherwise.

AmphiscolopsFlatWmMikeG.jpg
 
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Does not look like a flat worm to me mine were a rust color about 2 years ago when i got infested. The wrasse is a crap shoot i would either suck them out with a hose or get some stuff from the critter or fins of franklin to kill them. If you have a lot you will need to suck a lot of them out before you try to kill them because they excrete iodine and if you have lot of them it can be detrimental to your system.
 
not really sure how many I have. Tank is a 180 and they are on the glass around the tank as best as I can tell. not looking forward to that kind of treatment as that would be a massive water change and a massive ammt of medication. they dont look anything like the AEFW and all my acro look great and show no signs of stress.
 
Flatworms

Pickupman66 said:
OK,

so while i was staring at the tank, I noticed that my snails had babies. tons of tine blue and white specs on teh glass. they sorta waver in the current so I think they are baby cerinths.

Now, I also notice a flat worm of sorts on teh glass. there are a bunch of them, not venturing too far from the sand. they are a very light cream white and sorta remind me of casper the ghost.

this is the closest photo I can match to them and its from Wet Web Media. they are said to be harmless from that site.

Either way, looks like its time to actually get that wrasse. now will it be a run of the mill 6 line or something a bit more exotic.

Hope your right on the Harmless guess? Those ones on the glass are the first ones i spotted in my last tank and i did the Flatworm Exit treatment on them.
Then i actually emptied my frag tank and cleaned it out and wiped it down so there was no trace of them. Then i dipped all my coral before adding them back to the tank filled with new saltwater.
Needless to say i am still battling flatworms and the thousands of eggs left behind from them. I would be real sure they are harmless before you take them lightly as now while you have very little coral is when to deal with this plague not down the road.
Since you got frags from me i urge you to take a better look at them under a magnifying glass or better yet a microscope if you can to ID what you have for sure. I hope your right but too many people that thought they didn't, Did.
Bill:hammer:
















AmphiscolopsFlatWmMikeG.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Yea man, I hit them with the magnifying glass tonight. I dont have a microscope. just so I know, they only eat Acro and not other sps? I will pull out what I can tomorrow evening and hit them with the magnifying glass.

Every photo I could find of the AEFW looked nothing like these. they had a lot more color to them and it was sort of a blotchy pattern.

I know I dipped the ones I got from Mel really well. almost too well as the frag bleached out and is just now getting color back.
 
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until ya can really figure out what they are ya best bet is to keep sucking them out....do ya know where they might of come from?
 
My vote would be canary wrasse. :) Those things eat so much bad stuff, I've known several reefers just to keep them as an anti-eatyourcoralotic.

Brandon
 
I had a ton of the red flat worms in my 20. I mean, the front glass, you would see all the red specs. They look just like the pic you posted, but with a reddish/orange color.

The funny thing has happened in the last few weeks. All of my razor caulerpa is GONE!!! And it seems all the flatworms has vanished as well. I credit the caulerpa to the emerald crabs anf possibly the hermits and snails as well maybe? I got them all on Aug. 7th. I pulled all I could out and noticed the 2 crabs chompin' down on it.

Now do snails eat flatworms? Cause mine has went somewhere.....haha.

Steve
 
I had peppermint shrimp eat all of the flatworms I had a few years ago. That was a pleasant surprise. :)

Not sure on snails, though. I could see nassarius eating them possibly (since they're meat eaters).

Brandon
 
Ill have to look into them as well. I will check all the acro's very good tonight to make sure they have no signs of infestation. as of now, all are expanding very well and look great.
 
That is an acoel flatworm. Harmless. just an eyesore. won't eat any corals. They will run out of food eventually. They are on the glass because they are eating the microalgae near the sand.
 
Curious

Curious

NeveSSL said:
I had peppermint shrimp eat all of the flatworms I had a few years ago. That was a pleasant surprise. :)

Not sure on snails, though. I could see nassarius eating them possibly (since they're meat eaters).

Brandon
Click to expand...

When was it that you had Flatworms, As i have gotten Frags from you back then and thought they were safe? Not that it matters where they came from at this point.
I honestly think that there are more people that have them and just don't know how to spot them and their eggs! I'll be the first to admit i didn't know that i had them until a few weeks ago, And i mean BAD BAD BAD....:thumbdown Happy hunting
Bill
 
NO clue Mario. I have only gotten frags from Mel, Bill, andywe, bart, smyrnareefer, jennie, and a local here. I know they didnt come from Mel b/c I dipped the crap out of those. either way, Ill get some of my acro's out and check them out tonight to look for eggs. as of today, I have not seen any retardation of growth of any of my corals except the Stylopora but I feel that was due to excess current. it has been moved and also examined and I didnt see anything that stuck out.

Bill, did they do anything on a Millipora?
 
I,m not knowledgeable about this stuff yet. You got me thinking I,m gonna have to pay closer attention to my tank, I,m thinking of getting a magnifier now , Good luck with your tank and I you hunt them to extinction !!!!!!
 
Getting flatworms in our tanks seems like an inevitability these days as pests are EVERYWHERE. You can nuke it with flatworm exit. I did that on my RSM. I overdosed by 10x, leaving it overnight, then water changed 50% and added a ton of carbon. It worked like a charm. But you have to do it once more a few weeks later. After that you should be good to go.

Of course in such a large system, a 50% water change is a much bigger effort than in my RSM...a lot less manageable.
 
Milli

Milli

Pickupman66 said:
NO clue Mario. I have only gotten frags from Mel, Bill, andywe, bart, smyrnareefer, jennie, and a local here. I know they didnt come from Mel b/c I dipped the crap out of those. either way, Ill get some of my acro's out and check them out tonight to look for eggs. as of today, I have not seen any retardation of growth of any of my corals except the Stylopora but I feel that was due to excess current. it has been moved and also examined and I didnt see anything that stuck out.

Bill, did they do anything on a Millipora?
Click to expand...

I found them on everything but my Caps, And like you thought that was not supposed to happen. I already used FExit but unless you do like mel said and up the dose by as much as 30x it will not work. Pig dewormer can be used as a whole tank treatment once you find the correct dosage that will kill them.I have added Blue Velvet Nudibranchs and will see how they do along with Wrasse's and Green spotted Mandarins. Plus Dipping and cutting any colonies i find eggs on, I will dip my whole tank 3x and go from there by watching every coral for any signs of bite marks, polyps not extending loss of color Etc.
My coral is already getting back to looking as it did before this outbreak i found and i will stay on it until they are gone.
Bill
 
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