[alschwei]

I just got home and I noticed a small spot of what appeared to be coraline algae on my front glass. I though to my self that happened fast. I hit it with the mag float and it shrivled up and morphed back into shape. I think it is a flat worm.

Then I noticed 2 more on the glass and there are 2 more on my chalice.

If they are flat worms, how can I get rid of them before it gets out of control. Right now I can only count a total of 5...that I can see and I'm sure tht there are more.

Would the "flatworm exit" be the way to go? or is there another (safer) way, since it is early in the infestation?

Please help!!

I would like to nip this one in the bud before it get out of hand.

 

[alschwei]

Here's a photo

I put a styrofoam plate behind the glass so I could get a decent photo with m phone.

 

[alschwei]

anyone?

 

[garys reef]

looks like flatworms too me just hope its not the acro eating flatworms if so you should be able to get rid of them with flatworm exit

 

[ornatebutterflycod]

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchhikers.html

Any of these look like it

 

[alschwei]

Yes. The Pseudeceros sp. (tunicate predator) under the polyclad flatworms section. That is what it is.

I also noticed a s*** load on my fuzzy mushroom. They are the same color as the coral and almost impossible to see.

It looks loke I'm on the verge of an actual infestation. How would you recommend getting rid of these little pests?

How would I know if these are the acro eating type? If, by chance, they are not, what would the harm be in leaving them alone?

 

[scotkenny]

The harm in leaving them alone would be the reproduction rate.They multiply like crazy!They thrive in a nutrient rich tank.I would def employ the flatworm exit and be prepared to dose more than the rec amount and multiple times.A wrasse would help but any reef safe variety wouldn't take care of a full on infestation by themselves.I would take some sort of action and soon.I had these in my 120 for quite a long time.I would regularly use a canister filter w/micron filter that I attached a turkey baster to to blast them off and suck them up.I could take out thousands and within a week it would look like I never removed any.They will get on your corals and practically cover some types.Nasty lil buggers.Nuke em i say ,then get a wrasse.

 

[ornatebutterflycod]

+1 be ready for alot of wc they release toxins when they die

 

[alschwei]

Right now I have a rainbow fairy wrasse and I don't think he is eating them. I heard that the Six Line wrasse will eat them but I don't know of anyone having success with that method. Maybe get one after the treatment as a preventative measure against future infestations.

I took a close look again this morning. They are on every one of my corals. Especially my fuzzy mushroom, which is completely covered. They are the same color so its really hard to see them on it. There must be hundreds in the tank.

I don't think that I am not going to waste my time trying to suck out as many as I can. I'm just going to go with the "flatworm exit".

How big of water changes should I expect to do when using the product?

I guess this is my excuse to finally get a RODI unit. I have been trucking water in buckets from my LFS for over a year now but I'm not going to, if I have to do a bunch of, say, 50% WC's. LOL

 

[shred5]

That is a flatworm in the picture.

First of all there hundreds of different kinds of flatworms and most are literally impossible identify. Most people have flat worms in their tank and don't know it. Most are harmless and don't multiply into plague proportions.. A few flatworms give the rest a bad name.

Allot are specific feeders and only feed on one thing and once that food is removed they die off.

I redid my post. I see that they are all over. I have known people to use flatworm exit before but be careful and be ready to do a large water change. Problem is flatworm doesn't work on all flatworms. I would remove a few and try flatworm exit on them before you treat your whole tank.. Flatworm exit also can kill some invertebrates in your tank and will have to be removed.

If these are just attacking one thing I would just remove it and dip and quarantine.

 

[alschwei]

So Maybe I should not completely worry just yet? They are present on all of my corals, just that they seem to be more concentrated on the mushrooms. Now maybe that is just where they originally hitchhiked in on. I do want to say that thay mushroom has split twice since I put it into the tank. I started with one about 1.5" and now I have three that are 4-5" across. This happened in about 2 months.

This being said, I don't necessarily think that they are killing my mushrooms. It doesn't mean that they are not. None of the corals seem to be bothered.

You can see them on the fingers of my frog spawns and everything still fully extends as normal.

I am not really comfortable with doing FW dips with any of my corals.

Do you think that I should still do the treatment?

 

[Flear]

pay attention to everything, if you notice any damage then i guess your doing a treatment

 

[Flear]

add another search to see in you can find the specific flatworm species you have and get an idea of what it eats

sounds like things have gotten out of control, so there is lots of whatever it is your flatworms eat in the tank, or was when they last reproduced to the extent you have now

 

[alschwei]

I looked at this link that was posted earlier and about 3/4 of the way down, there is a photo that looks exactly like it. It is the Pseudeceros Species of Flatworm.

Since they are on my corals they must be eating or ?sucking? on them. I am not sure if this is a parasitic relationship or not. I am going to go out on a limb and say that it is. Nothing has shown any damage yet, however I think that it wouldn't hurt to go ahead with a treatment.

I am going to order my spectrapure today and during the time that it takes to arrive, I am going to keep a really close eye on things.

 

[shred5]

So Maybe I should not completely worry just yet? They are present on all of my corals, just that they seem to be more concentrated on the mushrooms. Now maybe that is just where they originally hitchhiked in on. I do want to say that thay mushroom has split twice since I put it into the tank. I started with one about 1.5" and now I have three that are 4-5" across. This happened in about 2 months.

This being said, I don't necessarily think that they are killing my mushrooms. It doesn't mean that they are not. None of the corals seem to be bothered.

You can see them on the fingers of my frog spawns and everything still fully extends as normal.

I am not really comfortable with doing FW dips with any of my corals.

Do you think that I should still do the treatment?

What bothers me is they are all over. Usually some will wander looking for another coral as a host. Most flatworms will stick to a certain host like just a goniopora corals, or just acropora corals or just mushroom corals etc. They might have just exploded and are just looking for more hosts and can die back if no host is found. Don't panic.
Usually once the host coral is gone they die. But sometime there are flatworms like the red variety which can exploded for what seems no reason and needed to be treated a different way.
When I say dip I mean using something like lugols or one of the coral disinfectants, not a freshwater dip even though that would likely work too just a little more harsh.

 

[alschwei]

Oh. I have never heard of Lugols. If I can find some I might try that with the frog spawn(s) and the other corals that are not attached. The problem is that the ones that are attached to the rocks...I don't think I can dip those.

Perhaps just pull the rock with them attached and use a spray bottle to squirt the solution on them?

Also, what about the ones that are not an anything in paticular like the ones on my glass?...and I'm sure that there are some wandering around my rock work as well.

 

[shred5]

Oh. I have never heard of Lugols. If I can find some I might try that with the frog spawn(s) and the other corals that are not attached. The problem is that the ones that are attached to the rocks...I don't think I can dip those.

Perhaps just pull the rock with them attached and use a spray bottle to squirt the solution on them?

Also, what about the ones that are not an anything in paticular like the ones on my glass?...and I'm sure that there are some wandering around my rock work as well.

There are allot of different dips like coral r/x,.

I am not saying dip everything.. If these flatworms truly survive on mushrooms alone you dip the mushrooms and quarantine them till there are no more flatworms on them. The ones in the tank will starve to death without their host. It is possible that you have something different and they can survive on other corals though in which case you may have to figure out another way to get rid of them..

Here is a example. Acropora flatworms which used to be a big problem only survived on acropora. You remove the acropora from the tank the flatworms in the tank would starve and die eventually. You then treat the acropora in a quarantine tank that is easier to treat the acros in with out disturbing the other corals and invertebrates in the main tank.