Help, I am under attack! Attackers unknown

[nkthekiller.com]

I have been in the hobby for over 10yrs, caring for two 180 gl reef tanks, one preditor, and my baby, the show tank is a great mix of soft & acro's.

I have not added any corals to my tank during the past 5yrs, where these guys came from I do not know! I have been maily interested in propigation of acro/soft corals.

These little guys came out about a 8 months ago, small and few of them I passed them off as food for some of the tank mates, altough I have noticed they are multiplying at astonding rates.

I have tons of acros growing and I do see them on it, but I do not see any eaten sections, as of yet.

At first I thought it was Tegastes acroporanus but after examing them under a 60x scope the do not resemble the same make up of the pictures Eric has posted on line.

I hope some body can label this pest, as I want to remove it from the show tank.

 

[Untamed12]

I'm sorry, I don't know the scientific name for this fella....but I can tell with certainty that you have what are commonly called "rust coloured flatworms".

These guys don't eat coral, but they can multiply to such numbers that they can completely smother every square inch of an aquarium. I know that sounds difficult to believe, but I have lived it.

I would recommend that you do the following things to eradicate them (assuming you want to)

1) Siphon as many as you can using airline tubing as a siphon. I attached a short length of rigid airline tubing so you can work it like a pencil. They are easy to siphon and they will sink to the bottom of the siphon bucket, so you can easily put the water (from the top of the bucket) back in and keep siphoning. Siphon out EVERY one that you can find.

2) Then...add a product called "Flatworm Exit". This product will begin to kill any remaining flatworms. As they die, siphon the dead bodies out as before, except this time replace the siphoned water with fresh SW. These worms are reputed to release toxins as they die. That is why it is important to siphon away as many as possible before you add the flatworm exit, and do a large water change following treatment.

I have used Flatworm exit on my SPS tank and can attest that it does kill these flatworms. It did not harm any other critter/coral in my tank that I noticed.

1 treatment was not enough to get them all. It took diligence and multiple treatments.

 

[mrferrit]

flatworms they will multiply quick

might want to look into flatworm exit and how to use it

maybe check melevsreef.vom

 

[xJake]

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=362
http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html

As others have said they're generally harmless, however, your aquarium can become overwhelmed with them.

 

[LisaD]

the populations generally bloom in response to high nutrients, and will subside with lower nutrients. does that seem like a possible scenario in your tank? I've had these come and go on tanks with productive refugia.

FWIW, I have not ever seen my mandarin or six line wrasse eat them.

 

[scapes]

flatworm exit didn't work for me....tried for months.
finally got a melanarus wrasse on the recommendation from my LFS and haven't seen one since.

oh, btw....I had plague proportions, and this bugger ate every single one of them

 

[nkthekiller.com]

Thanks for the quick responses, after finding out that they are flat worms, I research alot, and as much as I dont want to put chems in the system, I am going to try flat worm exit, as the wrasse is more natural, it will also attack more than just flat worms.

This community is great, and maybe some day , we might be the only people that can repopuate our reefs. We not only invest our time, money, and knowledge to the proper caring for our delicate species; we are passionate about our jobs.

Check the levels, and the nutrients are ok, but I did just have one of my vortech powerheads crank out on me. Those vortech pumps are very expensive, but turn some serious water. I have 4 of them, the life cycle of the pumps are no more than 2yrs before they start to knock and eventually dies. Have had a couple replaced by the company, hopefully they have revised thier design, and I will get a new design this time.