Jestersix

Ack! I think I have flatworms?! And a tiny tank centipede.

Lyn

Lyn

Guest
BARcard
#1 I put 2 new SPS in my 12 gal. nano. Did the iodine dip, brushed one off that had cyanobacteria. I checked the tank a bit later, and I see a bunch of tiny tan, oval shaped "worms". They have a split on the back end, kind of like tuxedo tails, and they glide around the glass, even above the surface of the water. In the middle of the creature is a whiter spot, perhaps a stomach? The head end is also a bit lighter in color. Are these flatworms? They kind of remind me of planaria in their movement.

Can anyone please ID, and tell me what to do? I believe the critters came in on an unmarked grape monti. Should I remove the Monti from the tank, even though the damage has been done? I don't have any meds except iodine and a host of old FW meds.


#2 Now that I took my fish out of my 28 gal. I see another tiny creature that looks like a long-legged centipede. They sit on the glass. They have long antennae, and an even longer "fishing line" on the other end. I am assuming they troll for edibles in the water?

What are they and should I worry about them?


Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
You see a bunch of them? Just a few hours after putting the corals that you dipped and brushed into the tank? Are you sure they weren't in the tank before?

Regardless, they sound like red-brown flatworms (which are planaria). They're harmless but unattractive in my experience. FlatwormExit might be effective, but they release gunk when they die that can be toxic, so be careful if you try and kill them.
 
I don't think the flatworm exit hurts much of anything but flatworms. The dying flatworms are pretty hard on everything, but not more so on clams than other animals.

I just treated my tank recently (and I have a clam). One of my clownfish seemed to have a harder time with it than anything else.
 
If there aren't a ton of flatworms, you can just keep up your water changes and eventually they'll be gone.

They eat copepods, if I remember right.

You can siphon out the planaria when you do water changes too.
 
[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=6377.msg81413#msg81413 date=1234681920]
If there aren't a ton of flatworms, you can just keep up your water changes and eventually they'll be gone.

They eat copepods, if I remember right.

You can siphon out the planaria when you do water changes too.
[/quote]

Really Norman? Thiis actually sounds like a doable plan since this is such a little tank. Them eating copepods makes sense since I do not see copepods in this tank anymore. :(

Should I do something about the offending coral? Will there be eggs on it?
 
I would suggest that the offending coral should just stay. I mean, the flatworms have been released already! If there are eggs on the offending coral, they'll just hatch later, but if you plan to flatworm exit them, then you have to do it twice anyway (once for the adults, then a week or so later again for anything that hatched).

Sort of like "Doing the crime after you've done the time"... you've already got the flatworms, might as well enjoy the coral that cursed you with it, otherwise you'll just have the flatworms "for nothing".

V
 
I wouldn't worry about planaria/eggs on the monti. Just keep the water really clean.

Keep an eye on the monti for monti eating nudibranchs and their eggs. One of the more common pests to show up at swaps.

http://www.reeffarmers.com/tracygraynudi01.htm

Eggs can be hard to recognize if you haven't seen them before.

If you like, take a pic of the back side of the monti and post here. We can look it over for you.
 
[quote author=Vincerama2 link=topic=6377.msg81422#msg81422 date=1234683032]
I would suggest that the offending coral should just stay. I mean, the flatworms have been released already! If there are eggs on the offending coral, they'll just hatch later, but if you plan to flatworm exit them, then you have to do it twice anyway (once for the adults, then a week or so later again for anything that hatched).

Sort of like "Doing the crime after you've done the time"... you've already got the flatworms, might as well enjoy the coral that cursed you with it, otherwise you'll just have the flatworms "for nothing".

V

[/quote]

This sort of makes sense, I think. ;D At least it'll save some time and money?

[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=6377.msg81429#msg81429 date=1234683417]
I wouldn't worry about planaria/eggs on the monti. Just keep the water really clean.

Keep an eye on the monti for monti eating nudibranchs and their eggs. One of the more common pests to show up at swaps.

http://www.reeffarmers.com/tracygraynudi01.htm

Eggs can be hard to recognize if you haven't seen them before.

If you like, take a pic of the back side of the monti and post here. We can look it over for you.

[/quote]

When you say to keep the water really clean, should I forgo feeding this tank? Right now I feed Phyto and Oyster eggs as well as little bits to the Banded coral shrimp.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for Nudibranchs. I have two other Montis in this tank that are doing well. It is a good thing I know what the little critters look like. I got one in a raffle win awhile back, and then the next meeting there was a display of one in a container.

The Monti I got was broken into 3 pieces. I mounted the smaller 2, but the largest piece is loose. I'll try to get a picture of teh back side, but it is brown too. Should I seal off the other smaller pieces with Icegel?
 
[quote author=Lyn link=topic=6377.msg81436#msg81436 date=1234684475]When you say to keep the water really clean, should I forgo feeding this tank? Right now I feed Phyto and Oyster eggs as well as little bits to the Banded coral shrimp.[/quote]

Water changes, and lighter feeding if necessary.

It may be that you got a copepod bloom from the phyto and oyster eggs, and that led to an increase in planaria.

When culturing pods, you feed them a ton of phyto.

[quote author=Lyn link=topic=6377.msg81436#msg81436 date=1234684475]
I got one in a raffle win awhile back, and then the next meeting there was a display of one in a container.

[...]

Should I seal off the other smaller pieces with Icegel?
[/quote]

If it was the nudibranch display at one of the previous swaps, those were pretty big. Often, they'll be smaller in your tank.

Sealing the back side of montis is a handy trick. If there aren't a lot of crevices and you can tell there are no pests or eggs, you can skip the IC gel.
 
Ahhh... I've been trying to feed the clam Phyto, and the SPS' Oyster Feast. I guess all the excess had to go somewhere. You know, I never had planaria until I started feeding these products. I'll cut the amount back, or skip days to see if this will help, as you have suggested. :D Thanks for the info and help! :D

BTW, does anyone know what I'm refering to in #2? Funky little creature with multiple legs, antennae, and some have long tails. Are they parasitic or benign?
 
Hey, although I've heard of the "planaria crash" I've never seen it, even when my tank was literally carpeted with red flatworms (years ago, a routine of siphoning them and then a mega-dose of flatworm exit cured that probelm!)

Does keeping the tank "clean" actually help? I know it's good practice anyway, but why would that get rid of flatworms?

V
 
Planaria population can increase and decrease. That type of behavior is typical for ecosystems where the organism runs out of resources. Depending on the organism, resources, and predators, the population can rise, maintain steady state, crash, or oscillate.

Dirtier tank grows more pods, which grows more planaria. Also planaria are photosynthetic. I'm guessing that nitrates probably help the zooxanthellae.

Other things to do for controlling planaria, introduce predators like 6-line wrasse. Increase flow. Aggressive skimming, Decrease lighting.

People will say that "planaria will go away or cycle on their own". That makes it sound like the come and go for no specific reason. It was everything to do with ecosystem behaviour. So you just have to look at it from that point of view.
 
[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=6377.msg81413#msg81413 date=1234681920]
If there aren't a ton of flatworms, you can just keep up your water changes and eventually they'll be gone.

They eat copepods, if I remember right.

You can siphon out the planaria when you do water changes too.
[/quote]

The clear ones *may* eat copepods, diatoms, bactaria, etc, but I have never heard of red planaria eating copepods. I have an email out to an expert in that field and I'll post what she replies.

FWIW you can't feed more them me, or have more pods in you tank them me, and I have never had an outbreak of red planaria :p They never take hold even after other hobbyists tried their hardest to give them to me.
 
Fossa says they do not eat copepods.[quote author=Lyn link=topic=6377.msg81455#msg81455 date=1234686301]
Ahhh... I've been trying to feed the clam Phyto, and the SPS' Oyster Feast. I guess all the excess had to go somewhere. You know, I never had planaria until I started feeding these products. I'll cut the amount back, or skip days to see if this will help, as you have suggested. :D Thanks for the info and help! :D

BTW, does anyone know what I'm refering to in #2? Funky little creature with multiple legs, antennae, and some have long tails. Are they parasitic or benign?
[/quote]

It's just an isopod, harmless.

I feed both those and never have had a problem with flatworms. We sell a ton of product and we rarely get people stating any of them "created" a flatworm problem. PLease be careful how you word your posts. Some one will latch on to your reporting of RN products causing flatworms (and that they eat copepods Norm ;) ) and voila, a new*false* urban legend has started!
 
I only see planaria when they come in from frags from infested tanks. Once a population takes hold in my tank, there is nothing for it but a nuking with flatworm exit...meaning that I've never seen a population wane...but that's just my experience with them, I know that this does happen. I would think that a crashing flatworm population (from lack of food or whatever) will cause major peoblems as they exude death juice when they die. A planned flatworm genocide with Flatworm exit with carbon and water change water at hand is the way to go. OR a six line wrasse.

V
 
[quote author=pixelpixi link=topic=6377.msg81405#msg81405 date=1234680948]
Regardless, they sound like red-brown flatworms (which are planaria).
[/quote]

The Internets tell me I'm wrong about this. Planaria are a type of flatworm, not the other way around.
 
Per Calfo on WWM:

your critter is a flatworm/AKA Planaria... and is actually of the harmless variety. This creature preys on copepods and is common to flare in young tanks when the copepod population is strong (yay!) before the tank is overstocked (booo...) or stocked too quickly (too common). They will wane when the copepods do. No worries. Best regards Anthony
Click to expand...

The pic in that answer shows a clear-ish planaria though.

Haven't read that much about what they eat, but ran across a random reference or two.

Overfeeding any food could contribute to increase in planaria population. Not specific to RN products, folks.
 
Sorry Gresham. Didn't mean to imply that RN products cause flatworms. For everyone out there.......You can't get flatworms from RN products.... I Love RN products, and I was so happy to win some in the raffle. I'm especially excited about the live Tigerpods :D Thanks! :D

Perhaps my increase in planaria is due to my overfeeding though? And perhaps the copepod population decrease is due to the larger planaria out competing the copepods? Before this outbreak, I only saw copepods; and an increase in their population (which is a good thing) once I started feeding this tank. I do run a skimmer on this tank, but have not increased the amount of water changes once I started feeding it. I should have taken into account that the increase in food (any food) would increase less desirable areas of tank chemistry and balance as well.

I have to admit though, feeding such tiny food is a bit more challenging than being able to watch your fish actually consume all the fish food you put into a tank. I don't know how much is leftover. ??? And with this being a small tank, it must get impacted much quicker than a larger tank would. However, I am not going to stop feeding this tank. I noticed that the SPS' love Oyster and Phyto. I see their polyps alot more now that I do feed them. :D I'll just have to adjust the amount and increase water changes.

BTW, what do these flatworms eat? Are they like fresh water planaria in that they'll eat any leftover food? Also, aside from 6-lines, are there other fish or critters that will eat them?

Thank you all for your posts and answers to my questions (even the slightly misinformed ones- I'm speaking generally here. ;) Doesn't change my opinion of anyone. :D ). This club is formost about caring and helping people. In many instances, we are truly friends, not just acquaintances, as evidenced by yesterdays event. :D

I'll try all the suggested remedies, and as a last resort, use flatworm exit with lots of sucking and water changes. :)
 
[quote author=pixelpixi link=topic=6377.msg81533#msg81533 date=1234720659]
[quote author=pixelpixi link=topic=6377.msg81405#msg81405 date=1234680948]
Regardless, they sound like red-brown flatworms (which are planaria).
[/quote]

The Internets tell me I'm wrong about this. Planaria are a type of flatworm, not the other way around.
[/quote]

No problem Pixi, we know what you mean. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top