polyclad flatworms

[nickyblase]

Hi all,

I discovered what I believe to a polyclad flatworm on my front glass this morning (before lights on).

I quickly removed it, but am nervous about all the things I DON'T know about these things.

How do they reproduce? Is it very likely that there are more (like red bugs - if you see one, there are most definitely more)?

I have 6 clams in my tank, so I am incredibly nervous about these things... not to mention they are just plain creepy looking.

 

[pagojoe]

I've heard of a few cases where people had more than one in a tank, but that's usually not the case. I don't know of any case where they kept showing up after people caught the ones they could see. On the reef, you rarely ever find more than one under a single rock, so it seems they are usually solitary. Although I don't know how they reproduce (Leslie?) they don't divide like the flatworms you read about in high school biology. If you smash them just a little bit while you're collecting them they usually die, unless you just nick the outer margins.

Cheers,




Don

 

[emmanuel]

Its funny you say only one to a rock
I've had one for about 4 years could never catch or see it in the open I've spent many nights with a flashlight but nothing more than a 1/2 inch would be sticking out of the spot on a rock wich had a ton of rocks on it 1:30 this morning I could not sleep thinking about it so I went to the tank and there it was holding 2 small snails barely sticking out of the rock so I tore down 2/3 of my 125 reef and saw 3 in the same big about 15lbs rock I couldn't get them out so I placed the rock in a bucket with ro that took care of them. I checked most of the other rocks and found nothing but still am not satisfied I wanted to get one of the worms and see if flatworm exit works on them that way I cand treat the tank before the next water change
Does anyone know for sure if FWE works on these flatworms ?

 

[pagojoe]

I told you what I find in the wild, and I've got a few thousand hours of rock flipping under my belt. You could probably concentrate them to one area in a live rock tank, and they obviously have the ability to reproduce, I'm just not sure how they do it. Greenbean or Leslie should be able to tell us. I've also seen pics of people finding more than one in their tanks, but it's not like you get an infestation of them like the acoel flatworms. I don't know if Flatworm Exit will work on them, but they aren't all that closely related to the creatures that Flatworm Exit was designed to work on, and aquarists on RC have said that it didn't work for them. I've never used it.

Good luck,



Don

 

[emmanuel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14297963#post14297963 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pagojoe
I've heard of a few cases where people had more than one in a tank, but that's usually not the case.





Don

sorry reread your post

 

[pagojoe]

Alright, I'm out of my field on this, but I do have a copy of Prudhoe's "A Monograph of Polyclad Turbellaria" on the shelf, and I read up a little on these guys. They don't reproduce asexually, although they're hermaphroditic. It says self-fertilization isn't known, and that the younger ones are more likely to perform as males in some species. Most lay egg ribbons after the eggs have been fertilized, but at least one species, (Discoplana takewakii), deposits its eggs in a cocoon in the genital bursa of a species of brittle star! Some species have a planktonic stage, and some are direct developers.

Hope that helps a little. Cheers,



Don