Please ID this Flatworm

[BAETech2004]

No idea what it us, about two inches when fully extended. Flat, pink in color, no visible mouth and what looks like two little horns on what seems to be the head side. Can't get pictures to upload but here us a video with almost identical worm. thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj6AVyEOZhc

 

[squishifishi]

I can'twatch the video, but from your description, it sound like it may be some type of nudibranch

 

[pagojoe]

Can't ID it, but I've seen it before. There are a couple of polyclad flatworm sites on the net that you can peruse. This one has the most variety, probably:

http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu6/flatsite.htm

Cheers,



Don

 

[BAETech2004]

Gotcha, the reason I ask us I ended up with a slight flatworm issue from some Chaeto a fellow reefer. I am planning on treating with flatworm exit and wanted to see if this was a bad worm or what. I thought about a nudi, and was scared it could be a bad one. I was afraid if it was a good critter it my get nuked by the flatworm exit. I also am trying to figure out if I needed to get it out of there before it wrecks my corals....thanks for the replies, I will try and get some pics up after work.

 

[pagojoe]

Well, most of the ones that come in as hitchhikers feed on snails or clams, but that isn't one of the normal candidates. Depending on the species, it could feed on just about any individual item in your tank (but probably not on more than one or two things). Flatworm Exit, in normal doses, won't kill it. It's only distantly related to the acoel flatworms that can reach plague proportions in reef tanks. They look pretty cool, but most folks try to remove them if they can, manually. Good luck!


Don

 

[BAETech2004]

Treated with Flatworm Exit a few hours ago. Worms began moving as fast as they could, moments after adding the Exit. There did not seem to be many worms, until the medicine spread.... Tons of them were floating around in no time. Waited some time and after I couldn't see any more moving around the rocks or glass I began sucking them out and Replaced carbon and did a 7 gallon water change. Everything seemed good but I already have a few worms on the glass again ALREADY:headwally:. I can hardly find any, and I had planned on treating again in a few days as suggested by so many people.A little bummed that They are already back. Any suggestions on where to go from here? The Large Flatworm has not come back out. The other inhabitants didn't even seem to notice that the Flatworm Exit was in the tank. Here are some pictures of the large flatworm taken this AM

 

[pagojoe]

Hmm, that looks kind of like one of the snail-eating species. Is it brownish, or bright pink like the one in the video?

 

[BAETech2004]

I suppose I would call it pink, or dirty-pinkish,haha. It's not brown, more similar to the pink one in the video. All my snails are still fine, although I did randomly lose a Margarita about a month ago.... And most the real tiny ones you see scooting around the rocks seems to be scarce...hmmmm

 

[BAETech2004]

Eurylepta aurantiaca was the closest I found on the above suggested site. It also was the closest in color and has the telltale horns or,"spikes." Can't find anything as far as diet etc......so no idea. Only ever seen it out this one time, so I have no idea how to lure it out again. I wonder if all the dead Flatworms made it venture out, perhaps it eats Flatworms?

 

[pagojoe]

Dunno. I know some of the Chelidonura slugs will eat them?

 

[alexander_ktn]

If you look at the family, most seem to feed on ascidians in nature - I don't know if that could be the case since you say you had quite a few in your tank and probably not enough ascidians to feed them.
But the thing is that if you haven't noticed any adverse effects (eaten corals, clams, snails etc.) despite having had quite some flatworms in the tank, they are probably not harming anything...