Please help me ID these things crawling all over my seahorses!

[sugartooth]

I'm very concerned. At first I thought they were leeches or something. They crawl like a snail, but look more tubelike, like a leech.
But then I saw all these flatworm looking things ALL over the glass! I'm completely infested. This tank is piped into a 75 gallon reef, and I am very very worried!

First, the pic as best as I can get it of the seahorse tail, and the flatworm on the skin. It is hard to tell the difference, but I've circled it in red.

Here they are, on the glass:

Here is one in the pipette, most of them have a spot of "red" at the tip:

Help! Help! Help!

 

[zoebeaglezoe]

they look like flat worms but it's hard to tell from pics

 

[flapjack1439]

I vote flatworms. I've got a bunch of them.

 

[sugartooth]

Are they going to hurt my seahorses? How would they be introduced to the tank?

 

[DragonFish]

That is a flatworm, and they can be introduced by nearly anything, a new frag, a new fish or even a new chunck of liverock. You can treat them pretty successfully by siphoning off as many as possible then dose the tank with FlatWormExit. Let that run for about a half an hour then start running carbon. As they die they will float into the water column, make sure to suck up as many as possible because when they die they excrete a minute amount of toxin. Too many of them dieing at once can have detrimental effects on your tank. I have a bottle of FWE and you aren't far from where I work so if you'd like you can stop by during the day tomorrow and pick it up. I don't think I'll be able to swing over to our Gurnee branch on Grand but I'm a short drive, right on green bay road near 137 at our main branch. Let me know if you need it and I'll bring it with me to work tomorrow okay? Don't worry, everything will be okay

 

[desjardiniidj]

How nice! Good luck sugar. You'll do fine.

 

[Racenrich]

Yep, flat worms......they like the light!
keep your lights off for a few hours...stick a flash light into the corner for about 30 min....you'll be amazed how many of those little buggers will come to light...siphon as many as possible prior to doing a FWE treatment...it'll help.
Good luck!

 

[jun_celis]

Flatworms here!

 

[sugartooth]

Thanks for the ID everyone. Now that I have accepted the fact that I have acquired these beautiful prolific creatures and gotten over the "I'm so mad I want to destroy the tank" phase of having flatworms......can someone tell me what they are going to do to my Seahorses? I'm thinking of removing them, dipping them and setting up a whole new tank.
Unless someone can tell me what I can do to SAFELY remove the flatworms from the tank, keep in mind it is plumbed into a 75 reef with lots of pods, shrimp, snails, etc.

So far, they appear only in the seahorse tank.

 

[Racenrich]

Unless someone can tell me what I can do to SAFELY remove the flatworms from the tank, keep in mind it is plumbed into a 75 reef with lots of pods, shrimp, snails, etc.

So far, they appear only in the seahorse tank. [/B]

do the racenrich trick...it really works! you may not get them all, but you'll get quite a few....from what ive read they are harmless, yet they make the tank look aweful.
So NO dont take down the tank...only a hump in the road.

 

[Sharpie129]

It wouldn't hurt to ask around seahorse.org as well... http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/diseaseguide.shtml

 

[sugartooth]

Thanks!
I'm off to start the Racentrick while I find out more in the seahorse forum.
Thanks again.

 

[sugartooth]

Okay, went flatworm hunting, Racen style.

Here is what I got today, after yesterday and the night before of hunting:

I noticed a lot of them in the hair and macro algae. The largest ones were also in there. I pulled a little bit of it out, then started vacuuming the algae.

Here is a pic of how big they are on the hair algae:

Then I put in Tropic Marine Pro Coral Cure to see what it would do to them. Somebody in the seahorse thread mentioned it may not work on flatworms. So, I gave it a try.
I thought the dead ones were supposed to float, but all they did was become very active, and then ball up.
They don't look any different from before:

I guess I should prepare to do the Flatworm Exit...I'm just scared to put meds in the tank.

 

[Rod Buehler]

Most flatworms that we encounter are not harmfull unless they get so thick that they cover everything like a sheet. Infact they are doing a job. They are cleaning up the detritus. If you let them be and siphon when you can and when they get out of control, they will usually crash on their own when (if) the food source runs out.

 

[sugartooth]

Resolution?

Resolution?

Thanks Rod, my feeling from the majority of the posts is that the ones pictured are undesirable.

I went hunting again:

This is the third straight day...and all from a 20 gallon.
My LFS taught me a trick.
He said to dose Kalkwasser everytime I top off to get my pH higher...and then they will automajically go away after 5 days.
He said there has been a recent outbreak with many people too.

I think I will try that first before any flatworm exit, and keep siphoning.

 

[Rod Buehler]

They appear to be the run of the mill flat worms/planaria.

Yes, they are undesirable, but not harmful unless they are so thick that they are forming sheets. The kalk trick is a new one.. I know of many tanks that dose kalk 24/7/365 and have still had flatworms.

The main point that I was making in my post was "dont sweat it too much.

If they become too unsightly for you, the flatworm exit is not a bad thing. It can be used witthout harming anything else if you follow the directions (Carbon/waterchanges). I have used FWE with no ill affects, but if they arent that bad, I prefer to let them do what they do and if they get "thick" , I would siphon out what I can (like youre doing now), and then wait.

If you do decide to use the FWE, it may not kill all of them in the first shot, and a second (or even 3rd) dosage may be required.

Good luck

 

[sugartooth]

Thanks Rod, I like your advice. I think I would rather just keep siphoning them out....even through it's a pain.
I was very frightened more so what they may do to the seahorses and eventually the display reef.
I also thought the same thing as you about the Kalk, but I think the point was that higher pH is not optimal for these guys so if you hit the top range of where it's safe to have your pH for a while, then they will go away.
We have also dose Kalk with a doser all the time for the 210 gallon tank, and have come up low sometimes. I guess it depends on the person's tank and how it trends....

Since I don't dose Kalk with this tank, we'll see if it works!

 

[kerusso316]

Does any one know if a pipefish will eat FW?

 

[sugartooth]

I always heard no. Someone was trying out if they took care of redbugs.
I think Mandarins are supposed to, but are hit or miss.