Flatworms in the fuge :(

[dakar]

Was doing a bit of maintenance and found myself again peering at the endless amount of itty bitty's crawling all over everything, then when I spotted a flatworm. Closer inspectioon revealed a few more, not a lot, but found half a dozen or so, have had them before and have never seen them in the display tank, but I have a pretty good idea of where they hitchhiked in from.

But to the meat of it, recommendations of a good critter to turn loose in the fuge, either as a temporary or permanent resident that will snack on them?

The fuge is around 15-16 gallons and about 1/3 full of chaeto. Just a couple of small hermits, asst small snails, and a serpent star (recovering from something eating off most of his legs) living in there now.

I do not want to use any chemicals as a solution, natural is better. But we'll be placing a critter order here in the next couple days anyhows so any suggestions?

[Reptoreef]

Maybe a six line wrasse... Tell me... are the flatworms yellow, brown, or more clear???

[dakar]

6-line is what we were thinking as well, not a lot of room for him though, might make for good temp. resident if I can get a juvenile one.
The flatworms are pretty translucent, clearish in color. Got what I hope are some good pics, but windoze is hosed and needs to be rebooted before it'll let me download the pics. I'll post them tommorrow.

[Reptoreef]

The clear sp is completely harmless... the yellowish brown sp are bad due to their photosynthetic nature and cause their harm more by masking needed light to photosynthetic corals... there's a bit of reading here about the diff sp..."Invertibrates A Quick Reference Guide" by Julian Sprung. If you don't have this series of books, get em... they're great for what they're intended... quick reference. BTW, info is on pg.84.

[Whoyah]

I was at the LFS today, add he happened to mention a nudibrach that eats flatworm. He says they work very while. Not quite sure why we got on that subject, I was looking at the lettuce sea slug. I am not sure what the flatworm eating nudibrach looked like. If your still interested in removing the flatworms (harmless or not) may be worth researching.

Whoyah

[Reptoreef]

They are very dark black with a brilliant blue rim along all edges... careful not to get a mimick sp and if you chose to use this method, you must be willing to provide endless flatworms or remove the brach when you think all of the flatworms are axed.

[dakar]

For now I think I'm just going to let them be and see how long they last, if they start getting out of hand I think a 6-line is in order, turn him loose in there for a spell then be able to move him to the big tank. A little leary of the nudibrach's, heard too many horror stories of mimics that go coral munching and stuff.

[Reptoreef]

You'll be fine...

[dakar]

Finally got around to pulling the pics off the digi... here's one of the little boogers.

[Reptoreef]

I've got em, too... they're safe, IMO.

[TOOMANYFISH]

I get them on and off all the time.If you really want to get rid of them just feed your tank less and they will die off slowly.

[dakar]

Welcome Aboard TOOMANYFISH!

Very few of them survived when I turned off that fuge and started a larger one. for the new tank :) So far only seen one, not too worried about them anymore.... if they become a nusance I'll siphon them out and feed them to my display tank.... bet they'd last about 2 seconds up there.. hee hee

[TOOMANYFISH]

Thanks for the welcome Dakar.

[JustDavidP]

Dudes and Dudettes..

Those clear flatworms are harmless...like they said. I've had two kinds in my fuge for years. One is exactly what you have above. The other had a neat thread/pattern in it that actually fluoresced or glowed for about 1/2 minute when the lights went out. That was KEWL!!

They typically keep low in numbers. I've never seen more than a half dozen at a time. They feed on lil' isopods. Watch them on the glass and they will envelope the smallish pods. Kinda neat to watch. If you have them in great numbers, I'd think that they would indicate a system problem. Even at that, the biggest problem with flatworms is that they "smother" corals etc. by denying them light. These guys would not have as dramatic an effect.

My population waxes and wanes often. I've never treated for them, nor have I put chemicals in there to rid my system of them. They seem to be a part of a decent system and the biology therein.

D

[JustDavidP]

The Flatworm Terminator.. AKA Hendrix

[Reef_Angel]

What an awesome shot!! Great job!! You've just been on a roll lately David! :)

[JustDavidP]

Love reefin....love reefin photography ;)

[dakar]

I haven't seen any more of these guys anywhere in the fuge for quite a while.... I was pleseantly surprised to find the other our six line wrasses had managed to up up in the sump, likely via the fuge since I watched the flatworm and pod population gradually diminish instead of increase over a period of a couple months. Yeah I'm a fuge watcher too.

How it managed to avoid the intakes on all the pumps and skimmer in the sump is completely beyond me, there is a LOT of water moving through there. But he/she doesn't appear any worse for wear, color is a little off (kinda pink instead of red), I'd imagine a little time should fix that, but the pair is once again happily zipping around the tank.

[perpetual98]

*drags thread up from the dead*

I just noticed some flatworms in my 26 Bow last night. They're the same shape as yours dakar, but they're light brown. They're also REALLY small. Maybe 1-2mm in length. They're also clustered into a small area on the front glass where they're receiving a direct blast from a powerhead. I think for the time being, I'm just going to keep an eye on them. The problem comes in that I had just taken some zoos out of the Bow a couple days ago and moved them to one of my 120G tanks. I haven't seen anything on the frags, but I'll keep my eyes open.

[JustDavidP]

The light brown ones are not 'good' per se, but not as bad as the reds etc. Their populations will spike and crash with nutrient loads. Keep an eye on your feeding/water quality.

I'd not 'watch' them. I'd siphon them out as soon as you could. While they may not be a problem now, you don't want to wait until they quickly become one. And...besides...I see no 'redeeming qualities' in them. They, tics, mosquitos... burn em all!

D

[perpetual98]

Thanks David. That tank is due a water change anyway, maybe I'll do one tonight. For livestock, all I've got in there now is a hi-fin banded goby and his buddy pistol shrimp, so I probably overfeed the tank for what it needs. Some monster bristle worms in there too, they could go on a diet. :) I'll try to suck the worms out. I've noticed that they squish really easily. Not sure if they're like aptasia where little worms can grow out of the parts of other worms.

[JustDavidP]

No squishy allowed! Flatworms, and many other marine "whatzits" will leech nasties into the water when squished. Very toxic to your tank...and probably not good for you either.

Dave

[perpetual98]

Darn. Squishing is fun! ;)