Uh-oh...Help with little red bugs please?

[scbadiver]

I have a 20 gallon fuge set up which I wa getting ready to put"on-line" with the display tank in the next week or so. I got this tank as-is and have been letting it go on its own with just a power head, some light and a little food now and then. The stuff has all been doing fine. Well I noticed the other day I had some "red algea" or fungus growing and today I noticed it moved onto the glass. Then I noticed it actually IS moving. With a magnifier I can see these are in fact what I think are the dreaded red bugs. They have 3 little tips at the head and are real bright red. First of, where did they come from? I haven't added anything, there are no corals, just algea and snails and pods. Secondly, now what? should I trash the tank and everything in it? So far I haven't seen them in my main tank but the fuge was hooked to the tank the rock came from when I got it. Should I be worried? Thanks for any help.

 

[Reeferhead]

If you don't have Acropora in your tank than they are not Red Bugs. They can't live for more than 5 days without a host coral.

 

[scbadiver]

Hmmm, thats what I thought. Any idea what they might be? I've been looking for pictures but I can't one, yet. They definitley look like a flat worm of some sort and they are very bright red on the outside with a lighter reddish brown in the center of their back.

 

[Reeferhead]

I have no idea without a pic but I bet someone will know at the Christmas Party.

 

[latazyo]

flatworms?

 

[scbadiver]

I think I found it. I got this from Melevsreef site. Thanks Marc! He has a great picture of them there too but I can't copy or link because I'm a computer iliterate. How I just have to figure out how to get rid of them before they get into the big tank.

"When I bought my tank, it was infested with Flatworms - Red Planaria - which propagate via fission. They are known to increase rapidly, smothering the sandbed and corals. If they all die at once, that crash will wipe out a tank due to the toxicity of the flatworm juice. I vacuumed out 1000's over the past 10 months, and then dosed my tank with Salifert's Flatworm eXit which removed them entirely. Here is a much better image I took recently."

 

[scbadiver]

Here is Marc's Picture;

 

[latazyo]

the word on the street is that the 6 line wrasse loves these things

when I had them in a 10g I used flatworm exit and it worked

whatever you do, make sure you get it taken care of before you put this tank online with your big system

 

[Lost His Marbles Name]

Are they red jelly fish. I had red bugs and they didn't look like that. Try something that eat's them in leiu of chemicals like latazyo said.

 

[Reefer Wannabe]

Another vote for a six-line wrasse.

 

[scbadiver]

Yeah, I'm definitely not using chemical warfare on these things. I'll toss the cheato and stuff first. This was a bonus tank when i got it so if I can't use it, no huge loss. I'll probably try to pick out anything I can in the way of snails, bugs and stuff if I end up draining it. I really hate to "banish" a sixline to a 20 tall tank.

 

[latazyo]

if that pic is what you have, then you have flatworms

if you think green penis weed was bad, wait until you let flatworms into your tank

if you're not gonna nuke them then you might as well throw the tank away and put anything from it into your system

they will multiply faster than GPW and make your tank look like ****

trust me, it happened to me

 

[kipher]

I had those those flatworms in my tank and the sixline i bought didn't eat them. Although I've heard several reports of people being successful with that.

I would just use flatworm exit on the sump though. I've done it twice and it really isn't that hard. Just make sure you siphon them out as much as you can over many nights in a row before you dose. For every one of them you see there are atleast 10 you can't. And the dose again about a week later. If you read the direction and follow them to the "T" you will be okay.