weird worm thingy's???

[oceancube]

well today i noticed some small worms on my glass, they were shaped like a U, like they have 2 tails, im thinking there little flat worms, they stay still then move very fast when i put my hand in the tank, i see them on the glass, they dont look like the one's on rock, that some lfs have, my question is, should i leave them alone or try to kill them off!! also if yall tell me to kill them, how do i do it? thanks all for any advice!!
RUDY....

[Instar]

Sounds like little flat worms to me. What color are they?

[manny]

Rudy,
hey man, you need to get rid of those guys fast!! If not, they'll eat everything...including the glass!!! HAHA jk dude Just getting back at you for that reply you gave to one of my posts awhile back. :-D Really though, hope what you got ain't too bad and you can get rid of em

[robertpower3]

Check out this thread
http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=16786&hig hlight=#16786

[manny]

Here's some real help I hope. www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu6/flatintr.htm
At the bottom of the page go to See the photo galleries! and theres alot of pics of different types of flatworms.

[manny]

Here's some real help I hope. www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu6/flatintr.htm
At the bottom of the page go to See the photo galleries! and theres alot of pics of different types of flatworms.

[DeletedAccount]

My yellow coris wrasse chowed down on them until the were almost non-existent!

[MikeP]

Wrasses = the flatworm terminator.

Like Misti said the yellow coris will work, also the 'lined' wrasses like the six line are great for flatworm control just they seem to turn aggressive with other small fish as they age - just pulled mine out last month due to bullying.

[oceancube]

good one manny :grin: , well today i noticed they were a brown color, i really would hate to get another fish in my tank, as i have to many already in that 37(3fish), i guess im gonna try that stuff josh recommended, just hope it doesn't kill pods and other small critters!! darn manny you got me good bro, i was like :o , then i saw the j/k and was like :lol: , thanks alot for the feedback guys!!!!

[GaryP]

My sixline hasn't touched them that I have noticed. A leopard wrasse is supposed to eat them too.

Rudy, I just had an outbreak of flatforms. Their were a lot of them. I have been vacuuming them out for about a month. I am on the down side of the problem now. They haven't seemed to cause any major problems other than appearance. From what I have seen and read they have a tendency to peak and then decline on their own. I attribute the "bloom" to the upset from moving my tanks in August. Now that the numbers are down I plan on hitting them with Flatworm Exit to cean up the remaining worms.

I can vacuum every worm I can get to and the next day they are back. I think that for every one you see there are ten more back in the live rock. You have to stay with it to reduce their numbers by siphoning them out.

Gary

[oceancube]

darn :? , what a bummer, i guess ill be up allllllllll night tonight!!!

[GaryP]

Just work on them a little at a time. Another techniqu that I have used is to siphon through my Magnum. I have choked the hose size down to a little bigger than air hose sized tygon and frayed the end of the hose with a small pair of scissors to make a little brush. The smaller hose gives me better water velocity while reducing volume and helps keep from sucking up as much substrate. Once I get the Magnum primed I turn off the pump and move the discharge hose to the sump so that it is just gravity feeding through the filter. That way you can take your time and do a good job of sucking the little SOB's out. If you get some small pieces of shell caught in the hose, crush it with a pair of pliars so it will flow through. When I'm done I always bleach the filter because it gets real nasty.

Hope that helps,
Gary

[GaryP]

If you don't have a Magnum I guess you could make some sort of filter to put in your sump from poly filter or filter floss.

Gary

[GaryP]

The worms don't die in the filter. They're not in there that long. It never takes me more than 30 min. to go a good job of cleaning both tanks. I use the magnum in between water changes. When I do a water change I just siphon them into a bucket.

Gary

[Instar]

My pair of six lined wrasses have only eaten a few of those worms. Not sure why anyone cares if they have common flat worms though. Why go thru so much trouble over them? They'll reach their peak and decline after a while without intervention, won't they? Thats what has happened to me in the past. Meanwhile they clean things of algaes and trash.

[Instar]

If u get flat worms in a frag trade, then you should beat em with a wet gorgonian. The only way that happens is if the frag is dead. Those common worms don't cooexist on living coral tissue (not referring to that one parasitic specie).

[Instar]

You mention flat worms crashing and releasing toxins, but, that is true of many things we keep in our tanks. If anything crashes, you gotta get the toxic materials outta there. Well, thats the theory anyway. My cat jumped into my sump right after he'd been at the vet for a week. He was loaded with flea insecticide, shampoo and antibiotics. He swam around in the sump till it was all off him, including the dead fleas. I figured that tank was all going to be dead. And so I learned how resilient this stuff really is. I may have lost a couple cleaner shrimp and emerald crabs, but, nothing even looked troubled. Since I wrote the tank off to the insecticide and shampoo, I didn't change water or add carbon. Nothing really happened to it at all. Pleasant surprise. So, do we really have to worry about toxins from flat worm or other crashes, or do the animals have protection mechanisms for such things? My oysters, BTW, are doing just great.

[oceancube]

well ive been told that there are alot of different types of flatworms, in my case i have tiny tiny ones, ive seen some at alamo aquatics, they look like brown strips of tape, mine are nothing similar to that, like i said the one's i have are really really small, have to look kinda hard to see them on the glass, i dont see none on my rock, i also noticed alot of small baby snails everywhere, there black im loaded with them, i suppose those are good right??? well guys again thanks for the advice and i hope it doesn't become a major problem, i siphoned like 15-20 of them tonight, tommorrow night another 15-20!!! thanks guys!!

[Instar]

What you see may just be juvenile flat worms. Hope they aren't the ones that eat coral. Those tiny snails could be the ones that eat some of the LPS corals, especially the tubastreas. There are others that parasitic to clams and sponges. By your descrption ("tiny black snails") they could be less than beneficial. Are they cone shaped? Could also be little cerith snails or margarita snails; both beneficial. Someone would have to check them with a scope perhaps.