What are these?

[LBFish]

I started seeing these things on the glass recently and now starting to see more of them. I know the pics are blurry, but I can't get a better pic. And now they are all over the place help!

And I just noticed they are all over the rocks too :(

 

[Bifferwine]

Those are flatworms. You should treat with Flatworm Exit, which is reef safe. But you will need to do a large water change after the treatment, and you will have to run carbon, as flatworms are toxic and release their toxins when they die.

 

[Kazarko]

is that cyano I see in the sand? you may have some water quality problems I think. Maybe test the water and do more frequent water changes if you have high nitrates.

 

[Bifferwine]

Oh, and try to siphon out as many as you can by hand before you do the treatment. You can rig up some tubing attached to a powerhead with some mesh held on by a rubber band at the end to create a "vacuum" that will trap the flatworms.

 

[LBFish]

Thanks Biff, was just googling flatworms and found some better pictures of them and sure enough, what i have looks just like the pictures of flatworms. I already run carbon, but will put some fresh carbon when I treat. I have a 40g tank, what would be a large water change? 10 gallons?

 

[LBFish]

is that cyano I see in the sand? you may have some water quality problems I think. Maybe test the water and do more frequent water changes if you have high nitrates.

That is some cyano you see in the sand and I did have a little bit of a nitrate spike recently, but the cyano is on it's way out and water quality is back in check.

 

[LBFish]

Oh, and try to siphon out as many as you can by hand before you do the treatment. You can rig up some tubing attached to a powerhead with some mesh held on by a rubber band at the end to create a "vacuum" that will trap the flatworms.

Ok, I like this idea, but not understanding how to make this work, forgive me i'm really tired.

 

[Bifferwine]

Here you go!

Melevsreef.com - Flatworms | How to eliminate them!

 

[LBFish]

Now i get it, thanks!

 

[dcantucson]

Looks to be a lot of them too. :shock: Good luck with the treatment.

 

[LBFish]

Ok, so I went about treating for the flatworms a little differently and thought I would post what I did. Sucking out all those little guys with a siphon seemed like it would it would take forever and I wouldn't be able to get in the rocks, under the rocks etc. I have a lot of rock for a 39g and didn't want to miss a bunch of them.

First, I setup a small tub with 3g of RO and added the flatworm exit to that. Then I setup a larger tub, 5g, with clean saltwater and added the flatworm exit to that. I took out each piece of rock and gave it a bath in the freshwater tub. And I used a turkey baster to blow them off the rock and get into all the little holes. After that, into the saltwater for a while, ended up being close to an hour I think. I left all the rocks with coral attached for last so they didn't get as much time out of the tank.

I added all the rock back to my tank and left it alone for a few hours, mostly because I had to take my dog to the vet. Anyway, after all that, I treated the tank with flatworm exit, used about 1.5 times the recommended dosage. After 5 minutes I could see the remaining worms dying off. After 30 minutes I added my carbon and at the 1 hour mark I did a 25% water change, and siphoned out all the little dead guys I could find.

So far I haven't seen a single worm, but it's only been a day so far. Wish me luck!

 

[ErinCahir]

Good luck! Sounds like you have good system set up there!

 

[dcantucson]

Wow you certainly planned that out well. Congratulations on killing those little buggers.

 

[Cottonwood]

Im curious about the flatworms. Did you bring anything new into your tank that brought them in? Or is it one of those things that may just pop up when things are just right for them?

 

[LBFish]

Im curious about the flatworms. Did you bring anything new into your tank that brought them in? Or is it one of those things that may just pop up when things are just right for them?

The last time I added anything to my tank was in December, I added two frags. The worms could have been hiding on those, although I didn't see anything and I did do a dip.

I'm guessing though they could have tagged alone on frags that I bought a long time ago (before I knew about dipping frags) and just not had a population explosion until now. I also had a nitrate spike recently which no doubt gave them plenty to eat...

 

[Bifferwine]

Have you had any fish or inverts die recently? About a year ago, I noticed flatworms in my tank for the first time, and I hadn't added anything new in at least a year. I happened to notice them right after my leopard wrasse died. I figured the leopard wrasse had been keeping them in check the whole time, and I never saw them until the flatworms didn't have a predator anymore.

 

[LBFish]

I did have a starry blenny die recently but I have no idea whether he ate the worms or not. I have heard that wrasses and dragonets will eat them though.