Flatworms?

[Kathryn Lawson]

Great event today and I'm super excited about the corals I brought home!

 

However, these were all over a zoa frag I got today. They look like maybe flatworms? Almost stereotypical ghost shaped, and very dark maybe purple? Moving around surprisingly fast - I took a video but can't seem to post it.

 

On a scale of "don't worry about it" to "fight it with fire", how concerned do I need to be about these guys? For now, I've removed all the visible critters and am going to quarantine the frag in a container separate from everything else, but am curious if I'll need to treat it with anything in particular. The dips I have available are CoralRx (my default) and Bayer's (only if really needed, which might be applicable here), plus hydrogen peroxide.

 

[ReefdUp]

Fight with fire but not a flame thrower. No need to burn the house down, but they aren't good. Given the presence of the mid-tail, they look like Convolutriloba sp. (red planaria).  Definitely quarantine and treat. Flatworm Exit has always been my go-to, but there are lots of very good treatments out there. You can also use what you have on hand to break the lifecycle.

 

Hopefully others will chime in woth more... I'm exhausted. Zzz

[epleeds]

If it was on one zoa frag, i would toss is. Did you put it in your tank?  
 

anytime a bunch of flatworms fall of frags I get when I’m dipping the whole thing goes in the trash. I would rather throw out a $50 coral then get them in my tank and have to worry about getting rid of them. 

[DaJMasta]

Did you already try the various dips?  If one is making them jump off and die, you could keep it isolated and do a dip every couple of days - I would probably start with CoralRx or hydrogen peroxide as I know both are fine good with zoas.  I've used flatworm exit to good effect to, but I never really considered it as a dip - if the others appear to be effective, they maybe a cheaper/easier to get option.

I've had some reddish looking flatworms in a tank, and while they didn't end up being harmful, they did multiply quickly and stick around for months.  Probably good not to mess with it, but if you have the means to keep it going in isolation, repeated dips over a couple of weeks sound like a fairly reliable way to take care of a lot of pests.