Flatworms?

[Jennie]

My sister just brought in from Corpus some Zoos and mushrooms for my birthday. While I was floating the bag of Zoos I noticed what looked like a flatworm, and some clear/whiteish critters zooming all over the frag. Going to try to post pictures in just a sec. If it is flatworm, what am I supposed to do? Right now they are still in the bags.

[Nano_Steve]

"seachem reef dip" that sucker!!! i use that stuff exclusively now since my acro mite scare about a month ago. works very well on all sorts of stuff. i think the zoos will be fine in the bag to leave overnight if you dont have some of the dip.

-steve

[Jennie]

Ophoto is down for maintenance so I guess I can't post a picture right now.

[Jennie]

no, I don't have the dip, and husband just put the mushrooms in the tank (thinking he would do it for me). The zoos are still in the bag (where what I think is a flatworm is on the bag). I don't know for sure if they came out of the same holding tank, but my guess is that they did.

[matt]

The flatworms you really have to worry about are rust colored and have kind of a 3 pointed end which is their posterior. They're called planaria (maybe spelled " planeria") For a positive ID, you can go to the "ask Dr. Ron" forum on reefcentral, then follow the link in a sticky he left on his forum to a listing of articles he's written. One of them is on flatworm identification.

Freshwater dipping is a sure-fire way to kill flatworms, but it won't be great for your zoos and mushroom. If you're really worried, I'd go ahead and do it. Certainly the rocks that these came on you can dip no problem, just keeping the zoo/mushroom tissue out of the water as msuch as you can. A couple of minutes will do it.

The clearish fast moving creatures are probably some sort of small crustacean like amphipods or small shrimp; if that's the case, they're nothing to worry about, in fact they're beneficial.

[Jennie]

Thanks everyone, I did a search and did the freshwater dip on the zoos last night. The mushrooms were placed in the tank before the zoos so they didn't get the dip, unfortunatly. I'll just have to keep a close eye on everything for the next few weeks and order some meds should I need it.

[OrionN]

If she got them from Tropical Fish Haven in Corpus, you should not have any falt worm because I don't recall see any at that store.
If she got them elsewhere, and if you see flatworms on the mushroom, just gently take them out (so the worm won't fall off) and FW dip them.
You can see pictures of flat worms in the picture below. They are the red specks on the sand and glass.
http://advancedaquarist.com/images/minh/dscn3864.jpg
Minh

[dan]

what's the best way to rid them from your tank? besides flatworm exit. is there any fish that will eat them? i have some in my tank that i picked up at our lfs. thank you very much!!!!!!!

[GaryP]

I've tried several fish with no luck. The only sure thing is a velvet nudibranch. That's all they eat.

The down side is that they are hard to get and even harder to successfully ship.

Gary

[brackish]

hey dan. i have 125 gallon marine tank that i just started. it is my first, so i have alot to learn. i to have what looks like flatworms. i put a pistol shrimp in and it went to work digging. it did not take long for it to find the worms to eat. i have an all fish tank and do not know if the shrimp is reef safe. good luck.

george

[GaryP]

George,

Pistol shrimp are reef safe.

Gary

[bprewit]

I have had the red planaria in my tank for over 2 years now! They came from lfs and in the beginning they were everywhere! They would cover the substrate and I would suck them out with airline tubing every day for a week and never seemed to make a dent in the population so I gave up. They are still there but not nearly like they were just see a few now and then. I suppose they are scavengers of sorts? After the tank matured their numbers stay in check and no more mass reproducing. I figured leave em alone instead of more chemicals and work.

[Jennie]

Minh, that is where they came from. Tropical Fish Haven is the best place in Corpus to get any marine stock. I've bought from them before with no problems, that's why I was suprised when I noticed what 'I thought' was a flat worm. Ophoto is still down for maintanence so I can't post a picture yet, but all seems fine in my tank. Going to find another site to host a picture, so I can find out exactly what is was.

[StephenA]

Ophoto is still down


Why don't you just post your photo on here? Instead of replying in the "Quick Reply" box click the "Post Reply" button at the bottom of the window.

[Jennie]

spelled ofoto wrong but oh well. I've worked around that. I switched operating systems on my computer this week, so all the pictures I have are on there. Besides Im not the brightest crayon in the box on figuring out how to post pictures. Trying to figure it out once again.

[GaryP]

bprewit,

The red flatworms are a detritivore and are also photosynthetic. Their population waxs and wane. They are not actually detrimental except when their populations explode as you saw. They have a tendency to cover everything and prevent light penetrating to the surface of LR. Trying to kill them can sometimes be as harmful as waiting them out. I used Flatworm Exit on one of my tanks and waited them out in my other tank. The result was about the same. Adding circulation and physical filtration with a sock filter to my tanks seemed to help. My theory is that this limited the amount of detritus accumulating in my tank.

Flatworms release a toxic body juice when they are killed and can cause a tank to go into shock or crash if you aren't prepared to deal with it with carbon and water changes.

HTH,
Gary

[MarkLW]

We have a 10 gallon that has a huge flatworm population.. Sucked lots of them off the rock and glass yesterday and then looked 15 minutes later and there were the same amount left on the rock.... Very frustrating ordeal I must say, lol... Waiting on the flatworm exit we ordered to come in to see if that will get rid of them... Saw the post above where it was suggested to take the rock w/ the mushrooms on it and dip it in freshwater for a couple of seconds which will make them let go and fall off... will this cause an ammonia spike or kill the rock surface? Also wanted to know what they do at night cause at night seems like they all disappear? Then when the light comes on they start showing up on the rock again..

[Jennie]

THis is what was inside of the bag of zoos, it was on the bag itself.

http://images.ofoto.com/photos731/1/24/4/42/66/3/366420424105_0_ALB.jpg

[StephenA]

Now the pic is there.

[Jennie]

huh?

[Jennie]

Anyone else have an opinion on what that is?

[JimD]

Sorry, the pics not showing up for me.

[Jennie]

Is it showing up for anyone?

[StephenA]

I can see it.

[Jennie]

Maybe I can do this as an attachment.

[Jennie]

different pic, but thanks!

[JimD]

Thats definately not the red Planaria everyones talking about, it looks like a harmless translucent flatworm Ive seen come and go in my tanks many times.

[Jennie]

Thanks Jim, that makes me feel better!

[JimD]

You're very welcome, glad ya feel better!

[brewercm]

OK, now I'm wondering from another post that if I have flatworms what will they do to the tank. Everything seems to be doing fine so I'm confused as to what would be best to do. Also can't figure where they came from since I haven't bought coral from an LFS in over a year now.

Any info would be of great help. Not going to spas about it yet though.

[BA]

well some peeps have them forvever but they have been kept down in populations by something so they remain harmless, just hope thier numbers stay low..

[GaryP]

MarkLW,

They won't cause a spkie in ammonia because the worms will be removed in the freshwater dip.

Are you talking about a couple of rocks or your whole tank? If its the whole tank I don't think you would want to do that. The problem isn't so severe that it would require that drastic of action. If your tank has a large bloom of flatworms your options are to either wait it out or treat with Flatworm Exit. If you choose to use Flatworm Exit, please read the directions carefully and follow them very closely. If not, you can do more damage than good.

HTH,
Gary

[Ross]

I found one crawling on top of the sand last night. Its the first time i've seen once since i put the zoos in the tank. Its less than an inch long. Bright red w/ black in the middle. The black looks like its his guts or something. Is that a flatworm? Sorry for the bad pic.

[MarkLW]

I'm no expert but if you are comparing it to less than an inch I would not think this is a flat worm. They are very small less than 1/4" as the biggest I have ever seen. I'm sure someone else will know what it is ;).

[MarkLW]

Gary THANKS for the information. Unfortunately our entire 10G is infested with them at the moment. We have been cleaning them out with our water changes but have decided to order some EXIT and read very, very carefully the instructions and “TERMINATE” the pesky unwanted worms.

[brewercm]

If you could see it crawling it isn't a flatworm. From what I've seen you really can't see them move unless you are extrememly patient. That looks like it is probably a bristle worm.
Does it have little hair looking things all over it? If so that's what that is.

[JimD]

I found one crawling on top of the sand last night. Its the first time i've seen once since i put the zoos in the tank. Its less than an inch long. Bright red w/ black in the middle. The black looks like its his guts or something. Is that a flatworm? Sorry for the bad pic.

Although the pic isnt that clear, Im gonna go out on a limb here and say what you have there is a form of nudibranch, the guts as you call them are most likely the animals gills. Generaly reef safe and a nice addition to the tank, if you can keep it alive...

[Ross]

This really doesn't look like any kind of nudibranch i have ever seen. I think it is definetly some kind of worm. Probably just a bristle worm.

[JimD]

Get a nice clear macro of it and we'll know for sure, it doesnt look like any kind of bristlworm Ive ever seen...

[captexas]

Cliff - I had the red planaria awhile back when I had my 58g set up. They only thing I think they could have come in on was some live rock that I got at a LFS (PM me for name if you want). I didn't have much in the way of corals back then and after posting about them, someone mentioned seeing them at the store before.

Gary gave a good description of them, their population increases and decreases depending on the food/nutrients available to it. You can try to figure out what is helping them reproduce (heard reducing light and overfeeding would help) or you can just use a chemical treatment. I treated my tank with Quinsulex (multipurpose medication) in a small dosage. This was after scraping as many of them off of the glass and sucking them off of the sand bed. It worked very well. The main thing to do is to run carbon and do a large water change soon afterwards as the toxins the flatworms release when they die can be harmful to other things in your tank. The carbon will help remove the medication and the water change will help removed the toxins.

Hope that helps.

[Ross]

Get a nice clear macro of it and we'll know for sure, it doesnt look like any kind of bristlworm Ive ever seen...

Already sent him back to the ocean via sink. ;)

I seriously doubt that is a nudibranch, it doesn't look anything like any nudibranch i have ever seen. It may not be a bristle worm, but i think its some kind of worm.

[MarkLW]

We just received our salifert exit in the mail today to get rid of the flatworms in our 10 gallon tank... We have a carbon canister on the 75 gallon tank that we will use for the procedure to take the toxins (flatworms) and chemical out of the water. Only thing we do not have is a protein skimmer... Can this be done without the protein skimmer?

[captexas]

Mark - I believe doing it without a skimmer is fine as long as you do run the carbon and do water changes afterwards. Many medications/treatments instruct to turn skimmers off during treatment. Get as many of the flatworms out of the tank as possible before treating it. This will help reduce the amount of toxins released when the ones in the tank die. I've not used the flatworm exit product, but follow the instructions carefully. It doesn't take long for the flatworms to die so you need to be ready with new saltwater and the carbon before you start.