Flatworms that attack LPS, mushrooms, Ricordea, Xenia

[brandonberry]

Here is a picture of a species of Flatworm that I have been fighting. So far I have found them on Euphyllia, mushrooms, Ricordia, Xenia, Cabbage Leather, Colt Coral, and Lobophyllia. Fortunately, they do not bother rough feeling corals such as most SPS. They prefer corals with a slimy touch. Flatworm Exit only seems to be semi-affective against them. I was able to eradicate them in one tank using about 3 times the recommended dose. They fall off the coral instantly when the coral is swished around in freshwater. So far, this seems to be the best treatment. They blend in very well with tanner colored corals such as leathers. If you had never seen a flatworm before, you would swear it was just part of the coral. Fortunately, I have almost eradicated them through a series of freshwater dips. Unfortunately Xenia don't seem to like this much though.

 

[brandonberry]

Surely I'm not the only one to have seen these. I had to get them from someone. Come-on, fess up. Who deliberately sabatoged the hobby by bringing these things over here. LOL

I got an idea. How about everyone who posts on these boards with a bad attitude gets a free frag. (We just won't tell them what else they are getting. HAHA!)

 

[Len]

I had flatworms, but not these. I've heard of ones that attack Sinularia and Sarcophyton though. It's probably what you had.

When I started the hobby, flatworms were never a concern. I don't know where they are coming from to plague this hobby

 

[Anonymous]

I brought in flatworms on a brain once. They were smaller and red. Luckily they were very easy to syphon off. But syphoning wouldn't work well with something like a Euphyllia. I've heard scary things about FWE, and would try to use other solutions first.

Aren't there some reefsafe fish that eat them? Some kind of wrasse, six-line maybe?

 

[Anonymous]

If you had never seen a flatworm before, you would swear it was just part of the coral.

I've been getting something like that on my magenta stylophlora. Searches on "flatworm" doesn't help much, but I'm assuming the worm's texture is soft? Because the one on mine is hard like a scab. I've been picking it off but it comes back. Not sure what it is

 

[brandonberry]

Mrktplayer, Sounds more like you have some sort of limpet. I do have 2 types of Stylophora and they are unaffected by these. These do not seem to release the deadly toxin that the red planaria flatworms do. When I treated my friends 55g tank with the triple dose, it eliminated them and did not seem to greatly affect any of the fish. I guess I'm going to have to just order 2 bottles of FWE and dose my tank again if the dips do not seem to get them all. I don't want to have to keep dipping forever. Before I do that, though, I plan to dip all of my corals and move them to a seperate tank for several days, redip them, and place them back. The flatworms pictured above were kept in the container to see how long they would live wthout a host. Within 2-3 days they had disolved away.

 

[Anonymous]

Mrktplayer, Sounds more like you have some sort of limpet. I do have 2 types of Stylophora and they are unaffected by these. These do not seem to release the deadly toxin that the red planaria flatworms do. When I treated my friends 55g tank with the triple dose, it eliminated them and did not seem to greatly affect any of the fish. I guess I'm going to have to just order 2 bottles of FWE and dose my tank again if the dips do not seem to get them all. I don't want to have to keep dipping forever. Before I do that, though, I plan to dip all of my corals and move them to a seperate tank for several days, redip them, and place them back. The flatworms pictured above were kept in the container to see how long they would live wthout a host. Within 2-3 days they had disolved away.

thanks, I'll look into that

 

[Anonymous]

i just found some of these buggers on a mushroom of mine. I swirled it in freshwater and they fell off. How fast do these guys regenerate? I haven't seen them on anything else.

 

[brandonberry]

From what I've seen they seem to multiply really fast. They also seem to spread from coral to coral pretty fast. I've dipped corals and then had them be re-infested within a couple of days of returning them to the tank. Evidently they wander among different hosts at night. During the day they seem to stay pretty stationary on the host from what I have seen.

 

[Anonymous]

From what I've seen they seem to multiply really fast. They also seem to spread from coral to coral pretty fast. I've dipped corals and then had them be re-infested within a couple of days of returning them to the tank. Evidently they wander among different hosts at night. During the day they seem to stay pretty stationary on the host from what I have seen.

I see. The freshwater dip you mentioned really worked. They just fell off. I don't have much softies, but hopefully they didn't travel far. I'll probably get them all dipped just in case.

 

[brandonberry]

You may want to dip them all at the same time and then re-dip them a day or two later just in case some happened to not be on a host at the time of dipping. I'm hoping I got rid of all of mine. I haven't seen any in a few weeks now.

 

[mr_X]

i had some of those pictured. i believe they retain the color of whatever they are eating. 1 freshwater dip was enough. they fell off like i sprayed them with raid

 

[mr_X]

i found the link to mine...there are some pics-
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... =flatworms

 

[brandonberry]

Yeah they appear to be the same or a similar variety. There was some talk on that thread about the red planaria and these definitely are not red planaria. I've had them too and they are a lot easier to get rid of. One small dose of FE controls them pretty good. I thinks these are more closely related to the Acropora eating acoel flatworms which FE is pretty ineffective.

Anyway, I'm planning Operation Reeftank Freedom right now. I'm planning to launch my biggest attack on the flatworms yet tomorrow. Everything affected is getting dipped and moved to a different tank.