Still_human February 18, 2020 Share February 18, 2020 I just got some corals in, and after a couple hours of dripping, I lowered the water to the limit and did a 5minute dip of “reef dip” and melafix, and when I was putting the 3rd/last thing in unnoticed something had been loose in the bucket next to it....a HUGE(I think) flatworm!!!! It got damaged so it broke itself in half, but here are the halves. I need help quick, cause after about a minute in the tank, I took them all back out and put them back in the bucket, but I need to know what to do! I already diluted the bucked way down with tank water, so they won’t be harmed by too much dip time. pics 1,4&8 r the butt end which is very slowly moving, and pics 2,3,5,6&7 are the larger front part, which is pretty active. The last picture has my finger so you can see how big its butt is, but the head/front is significantly larger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds February 18, 2020 Share February 18, 2020 Kinda looks like a nudibranch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds February 18, 2020 Share February 18, 2020 What coral did u dip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 18, 2020 Author Share February 18, 2020 3 minutes ago, epleeds said: What coral did u dip? Hammer, elegance, and torch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 18, 2020 Author Share February 18, 2020 (edited) 16 minutes ago, epleeds said: Kinda looks like a nudibranch. It’s totally flat. It makes those ruffles on its side come up when it moves, but when it also can slide totally flat along the surface. Also, it doesn’t have the nudi bunny ears. Edited February 18, 2020 by Still_human Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds February 18, 2020 Share February 18, 2020 That’s a big flatworm then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds February 18, 2020 Share February 18, 2020 Did u check the corals to see if there were anymore? Something that big looks like they would have friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn.reef.nerd February 18, 2020 Share February 18, 2020 Look into euphyllia eating flatworms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite February 18, 2020 Share February 18, 2020 (edited) The tan colored flatworms that don't eat coral are usually harmless if few in number. Some fish eat them, so they are often just live self-producing fish food. One time I set up a fishless frag tank that was plumbed into my main system, and after several weeks it had tons of flatworms, even though I never even saw them in my DT or sump due to fish eating them. AIl the frags came out of my own DT, but even searching carefully, I found no flatworms in the DT. Edited February 18, 2020 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 18, 2020 Author Share February 18, 2020 (edited) 14 minutes ago, lynn.reef.nerd said: Look into euphyllia eating flatworms Holy carp, ur right! It’s a euphyllia eating flatworm:( just to be safe, I’m double dipping them, with much a higher strength dip! I feel bad, cause I was starting to like the little thing...I was hoping I would put him in the tank let him happily do his thing.......if it wasn’t destructive:( Edited February 18, 2020 by Still_human Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 18, 2020 Author Share February 18, 2020 (edited) 25 minutes ago, epleeds said: That’s a big flatworm then. That’s what I was thinking! I knew it’s HUUUUUU-U-U-U-U-UGE compared to some flatworms, but I didn’t know if there were others that were big like this one. No, I didn’t really check again, I just immediately put them back into the bucket. The big hammer was in the tank for a good couple minutes:( hopefully if there were still any on the corals, they wouldn’t just leave an otherwise healthy big hammer, and we’re taken back out:/ Edited February 18, 2020 by Still_human Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 18, 2020 Author Share February 18, 2020 21 minutes ago, treesprite said: The tan colored flatworms that don't eat coral are usually harmless if few in number. Some fish eat them, so they are often just live self-producing fish food. One time I set up a fishless frag tank that was plumbed into my main system, and after several weeks it had tons of flatworms, even though I never even saw them in my DT or sump due to fish eating them. AIl the frags came out of my own DT, but even searching carefully, I found no flatworms in the DT. Did the fish all just hang out, staring right at the return from the frag part? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite February 19, 2020 Share February 19, 2020 3 hours ago, Still_human said: Did the fish all just hang out, staring right at the return from the frag part? LOL. I think it was mainly my ocellated dragonets eating them. Apparently it is hit or miss for people who put dragonets in a tank just for flatworm control, but it would probably not hurt to get one "just in case". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefdUp February 19, 2020 Share February 19, 2020 Yeeeup. I'd go with that it's a polyclad flatworm, likely a euphyllia-eating flatworm. Recommend treating like AEFW - dip every few days for a few weeks to catch any new hatches. Sorry. That's a bummer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 19, 2020 Author Share February 19, 2020 2 hours ago, ReefdUp said: Yeeeup. I'd go with that it's a polyclad flatworm, likely a euphyllia-eating flatworm. Recommend treating like AEFW - dip every few days for a few weeks to catch any new hatches. Sorry. That's a bummer. Ohhhhhh, gotcha, so the dipping doesnt kill the eggs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefdUp February 19, 2020 Share February 19, 2020 I've only dealt with EEFW once, so I can't be sure (nor have I seen any decent articles on them), but I'm going to guess we have to treat them like other polyclads. Polyclad eggs are not affected by dips to the extent I've seen researched. If there are any eggs, they'll hatch, and that's when the dips can knock the juveniles off before they can reproduce. Doing that repetitively should interrupt the lifecycle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sethsolomon February 19, 2020 Share February 19, 2020 Use some targeted dip specific to worms. Levamisole HCL works great! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Worm-Parasite-Control-for-Aquariums-Levamisole-HCl-Powder-/221908803967 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nburg February 20, 2020 Share February 20, 2020 Looks like a flat worm I found in my sump about 12 years ago. Only found a few in my tank and never seemed to eat anything specifically... So maybe its harmless, but I don't know enough about all the types of flatworms that are out there. The egg are not affected. You can usually find them in cracks or on the bare skeleton or plug. They look like little yellow grapes. Id look for those, scrape if you see them and maybe dip those corals every couple days to see if you see any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 22, 2020 Author Share February 22, 2020 On 2/19/2020 at 7:01 PM, nburg said: Looks like a flat worm I found in my sump about 12 years ago. Only found a few in my tank and never seemed to eat anything specifically... So maybe its harmless, but I don't know enough about all the types of flatworms that are out there. The egg are not affected. You can usually find them in cracks or on the bare skeleton or plug. They look like little yellow grapes. Id look for those, scrape if you see them and maybe dip those corals every couple days to see if you see any more. Did u have euphyllia in ur tank? Cause I’ve been reading all over about how nasty they are. Luckily if u have them, they can only hide for a short time when they’re still small Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 22, 2020 Author Share February 22, 2020 Do euphyllia flatworms attack elegances? I’ve been hoping to find a list of stuff they attack, cause I just find it hard to believe they specifically JUST attack euphyllia and not any of the many other similar corals like elegances, bubble&grapes, and fox(where have all the fox corals gone????)...even scolys,donuts&meats, and other super fleshy topped corals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nburg February 24, 2020 Share February 24, 2020 (edited) here are the pics, but it was in 2009, so not sure of the details but I remember not being concerned after asking on RC, and never had any coral issues. Only ever found the 1 and it was not on a coral. BTW, I did have hammers and frogspawn, and still have a frag of the hammer to this day. Never had an issue with them or signs of getting eaten. Edited February 24, 2020 by nburg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite February 24, 2020 Share February 24, 2020 Wow, that's pretty big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 25, 2020 Share February 25, 2020 On 2/24/2020 at 12:11 PM, nburg said: here are the pics, but it was in 2009, so not sure of the details but I remember not being concerned after asking on RC, and never had any coral issues. Only ever found the 1 and it was not on a coral. BTW, I did have hammers and frogspawn, and still have a frag of the hammer to this day. Never had an issue with them or signs of getting eaten. p That thing is bigger than Texas! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefdUp February 25, 2020 Share February 25, 2020 There are an insane number of flatworms out there, and many of them have extremely specialized diets (similar to many nudibranchs in that regard). The massive polyclads typically go after only clams. Then there's AEFW. I've seen elegance-eating flatworms too. In other words, if a coral is in bad shape and you find a flatworm... I recommend caution unless you know for sure that it is "reef safe." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still_human February 26, 2020 Author Share February 26, 2020 On 2/24/2020 at 12:11 PM, nburg said: here are the pics, but it was in 2009, so not sure of the details but I remember not being concerned after asking on RC, and never had any coral issues. Only ever found the 1 and it was not on a coral. BTW, I did have hammers and frogspawn, and still have a frag of the hammer to this day. Never had an issue with them or signs of getting eaten. That’s good, cause yours looks awesome, that’s cool that u got to keep it with no problems. Did u keep seeing it, or just the one time? thats about the size of the one I had. I feel bad cause I started getting attached to it by watching it for awhile. I felt really bad getting rid of it:( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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