ID Please

[MattK]

I saw the bugger crawling at the base of my LR and tried to catch him. I think he tore in half when I pulled on him but I'm not sure. The part still in the tank took off in the rock so i think he's still alive. This one is about the size of a half dollar and is still alive and kickin'. What is it? :huh
I have an idea but I want to see what you think.

[cbianco]

I'm gonna say 1/2 of a flatworm.

Christopher

[MattK]

BIG flatworm

[MattK]

Yes it does. I didn't know they got that big. This is only half of it and this is the only one I've seen.

[hobogato]

well, the other half is now cruising you tank becoming a whole flatworm again. :blink

[Thunderkat]

Flatworms are easy to get rid of, all you have to do is use that medication that you can buy at pretty much any local fish store. Just be sure to read the directions and follow them. I had only a few flatworms in my main tank (15 tiny ones) and my nano had about twice that number. I medicated both tanks (really cool to watch the flatworms during the process, they are realxing before the med is in the water, when you add it they start moving around really fast and eventually fall off the glass one by one). In my main tank all my ceriths got "drunk" and I had to keep turning them over and they were hanging out of their shells and acting funny after a week and water changes and activated carbon use the ceriths are back to normal. In my nano tank however I had two ceriths, one of them died and my pom pom xenia are on the verge of dying, they look really bad but are still alive, so far I have done a 10% water change on it and will do another 10% today.

Don't forget, follow the directions!

(Oh, and nothing else was affected by the flatworm medication. It is good stuff!)

[MattK]

I treated my tank (12g nano) for flatworms about 5 months ago and haven't seen any since then. It's just strange that I haven't seen this big sucker before. When he was moving along the base of the LR he was about 3 inches long. I know most flatworms feed on sponges but do you think he could have been eating my turbo snails?

[GaryP]

I have found a coluple of those in my sock filters. I have seen them eating algae off the walls in the back where I can get back to clean. I'm assuming, since they ended up in the filter, that they were in the overflows eating algae too. I just put them in my fuge whenever I find them.