what is this??

scapes

New member
I set up this aquarium at the end of Oct '06. All of the liverock, corals, and two seahorses came from my other existing tanks (80g bow and 35g hex). this stuff was just transferred to this new tank. the ONLY new addition to this tank were 5 lbs of mud I bought from Floridpets.com.

I have enclosed three pics of an unidentified "critter". They are these tiny brown spots. they don't move on a constant basis, it almost looks like some form of algae, but when I clean the glass w/ my magnetic scrubber, i do seem them moving.

they don't seem to be harming my corals, however they are reproducing at a very fast rate. they're very easy to siphon off, but they are in such vast numbers, i'm siphoning on a regular basis.

I have the mud on the left side of the aquarium and the sand is on the right side.

full tank shot:
000_01971.jpg


here are the creatures found above the sand (taken w/ flash):
000_01891.jpg


creatures in same spot w/out flash:
000_01901.jpg


creatures on back glass:
000_01911.jpg


& my female Reidi Seahorse I"ve had since around April of this year:
000_01931.jpg


any help is greatly appreciate. Like I said, it is NOT an algae, but some unknown critter. it just slides along the glass. no shell or anything.

thanks
julie
 
I am sorry to deliver the bad news, they are red planaria (red flatworms) and they are considered a pest to say the least.
 
ok, flatworms....
hurtful to corals(don't seem to be)???

hurtful to seahorses(don't seem to be)???

hurtful to anything or just a pain in the neck?

thanks for your help
julie
 
they look like flatworms to me too I have a thread in this forum asking about them also I had them really bad once and I think that they killed a mushroom but im not sure if that is what happened...
 
Do a search online for more details, but from I remember reading they don't directly harm anything but release toxins when they die. So when the population crashes, it could take out your whole tank. I think you're suppose to reduce light and feeding and try to siphon them out. Or alternatively, use the flatworm med and do massive water changes afterwards.

BTW, nice tank. Really like the grass look.
 
Nice tank. If they don't really bother you and they don't get very dense (what you have now is nothin' compared to how bad it gets for some people) I would just let them do their thing and casually try to siphon some out when you do a water change.

Kevin
 
thanks for all your inputs!!!

sunday i did my regular water change (5gallons). got alot out.
yesterday i siphoned maybe 3 gallons out
i just now did about a gallon. all the ones you see in my pictures are gone

i've drastically reduced the population already. glad my intuition told me to get rid of them on sunday as the population was high then. it's ALOT less now.

i don't want any fish b/c i have seahorses. i just read about the flatworm exit stuff. said it was safe for everything but i am not sure about seahorses. so, i'm gonna stick to siphoning for now.

thanks for all your help!!
 
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