Unknown growth

[dochoot]

I am not sure where to post this. Does anyone know what this growth is? It seems to just be on the rocks and a little on the sand. None on the coral and it came quick. Thanks.

 

[graveyardworm]

Hard to tell from the picture, can you blast it off the rocks with a turkey baster or something similar, does it have bubbles within it's tissue?

 

[dochoot]

What do you know? I could knock it off of the rocks and they are tiny red worms. When loose on the sand, they are longer, 1 mm by 0.3 mm. They did not look like worms when they were on the rocks. How big of trouble am I in? They are not bothering the coral at all.

 

[Samala]

Worms?! That totally looked like cyano to me at first. Ughhhhhhhh.. worms. I am terrified of worms. Maybe you should look up flatworms/red? I have never seen a horde of them like that before. Geeesh. Best of luck to you.

>Sarah

 

[graveyardworm]

Oh no, red flatworms. Siphon out as many as you can get, If they die thay release toxin which is very powerful. Keep their numbers as low as possible. Salifert Flat Worm Exit (FWE) has worked for some but does have risks. Mostly because it kills them. I have chosen not to add chemicals and keep their numbers in check wih frequent siphoning.

 

[dochoot]

Yes. It looks like Red Planaria. Wrong forum. Sounds like some can be harmless. They are thick like that over half of my rock. At this point, the plan is to hope they are not the bad kind, o/w the tank is doomed.

 

[graveyardworm]

The red is the bad kind, no gettin out of it with hopes. Now start siphoning! If their population crashes it WILL kill everything in your tank, you have alot of them. What you can see is only a fraction of whats in your tank.

 

[bluenassarius]

WOW
talk about flatworm infestation... i had that in my 55g tank. i bought a mandarin goby that ate that stuff up. i believe coris wrasse or 6 line's eat em too

 

[Elite]

Holy.. I would just take the whole rocks out and dip in FW... That will kill them right away

 

[Samala]

What you can see is only a fraction of whats in your tank.

Say wha?! I think I may faint.. I now have to go pray to the reef gods that I will never see red flatworms in my tanks. Shiverrrrrr.

So a freshwater dip wont help? It would at least make a nice dent in the population he can see. Course.. siphoning would do that too.

>Sarah

 

[Elite]

FW will help but it also kill other stuff in the rock. ... With that many I would rather kill everything in the rock... That look really really bad...

 

[graveyardworm]

Siphoning is the best option, it'll only take a couple minutes and it wont disturb any other life in/on the rock. Use a piece of rigid airline and some flexible stuff. Once you pull out the guys on top more will continue to surface. So it'll take a few days but you should have the population down to a few smart individuals quickly.

 

[dochoot]

I can't imagine getting rid of them manually. They cover a third of the rock in a 300 tank.

 

[Elite]

WOW.. good luck man..

 

[techigirl78]

How much flow do you have in your tank? I think you may need more.

Do you have any mandarins, scotter blennies, or wrasses?

 

[bluenassarius]

dude, invest in a fish that will kill em. it's going to be a task in a 300g tank to manually siphon em out. either that or do what elite recommends. dip it in FW. sure you'll kill some stuff but you'll get rid of them quicker.

 

[dochoot]

I am looking into getting a pair of green mandarins. I do not have any fish that eat them. Wrasse temperment scare me. Seems like I have a lot of flow in the tank. I may have a nutrient problem.

Thanks

 

[Samala]

Ah, I dont think we realized it was such a large tank, and in wall at that. After reviewing a few threads here on RC it definitely seems like a biological control is the best bet over chemically treating the tank or more invasive measures like siphon/FW. I'm glad to see you are getting help from the MD guys too.

I'm just curious as to why these little wormies swarm like that. Weird behavior.

>Sarah

 

[dochoot]

Their distribution is related to their photosynthetic properties. They don't like too much light near the mh and there are so many of them that they fill up the rest of the free areas on the rocks. I will post a pic in a month or so here even though not the correct forum. I am going to start with a pair of green mandarins as I wanted them anyway. If that does not work, I will try a Radian Wrasse. Lunch will be served!!

 

[graveyardworm]

They dont really swarm. They reproduce through fission so 1=2, 2=4, 4=8, and so on. If they're in a preferable place they dont stray very far.

There is only one true natural predator of these found in the hobby, Chelidonura Varians, also called Velvet nudibranch although not a true nudi. Generally what happens with the CV is it will eat most of them and then starve leaving some to repopulate. The other fish predators mentioned are hit or miss, usually miss. The toxic nature of the FW makes them undesireable for most fish.

Siphoning them out is truly the best method for removal as much of a pain as it might be. Like I said earlier if you have a large population you need to get them out. There are plenty of stories here on RC where they all of a sudden die and nuke the tank inhabitants. Also if you decide to treat the tank with Flatworm Exit you will have to first get the poulation as low as possible otherwise killing them will nuke your tank.