Need help....small gray flatworms on corals

[Faciosity]

Don't know what they are or where they came from, but I have small grayish flat worms on some of my corals. Several of my zoanthids have gone down the drain lately, and I was blaming it on asterina stars. Could these be the culprit? Several of my LPS have shown signs of stress lately also, not becoming fully expanded during the day. Whatever these are, how do I get rid of them?

 

[Workaholic]

flatworm exit. either of the Saltwater LFS out there should have it. its made by salifert. personally I would do a double dose and do a big water change as the directions perscribe just to make sure they are all toast as is common practice with using it to kill zoa eating nudi's. keep in mind that doing this will nuke your copeopod population and I would pull any inverts you want to keep out of the tank before you do the treatment.

 

[Faciosity]

That sucks. How am I going to support my mandarin if I toast my pods? And what do you mean by any inverts? That would mean dismantling my entire reef! Well, at least I'm switching tanks soon, will look at my options.

 

[Workaholic]

to keep the mandarin going you can buy some copeopod cultures after you get the treatment done. what I mean by inverts is any lg feather dusters. coco worms, cleaner shrimp etc. flatworms at tenacious and can sometimes take multiple treatments to get rid of. it took 3 treatments when i had a brown flatworm outbreak and then when I switched tanks I soaked EVERYTHING that went into the new tank in very concentrated melafix dip in 5gal buckets for about an hour before going into the new tank.

 

[returnofsid]

I'd work on getting a positive ID, before deciding on a treatment plan.

If they're common Red Planaria, which aren't always "red," unless you have a HUGE population of them, to the point where they're covering your corals, I don't see them bothering your corals.

If they are Red Planaria, you'll need to take some precautions, before using Salifert Flatworm Exit. When they die, they release toxins, than can crash your system. It's very important, to remove as many as possible, prior to using Flatworm Exit. Then, as they die, it's important to remove as many as possible, while they're floating around your water column.

 

[dtd87]

I've seen pictures of the red planaria but they are so different.. Anyone got a concrete picture of them?

 

[noworries]

I second returnofsid...if you aren't sure what they are post a picture so a positive id can be made. Don't ever treat a tank not knowing EXACTLY what you are treating for. Just my 2.23456129730033 cents

 

[FreakinReefin]

I have treated using saliferts FWE several times and it has never hurt anything in the tank except for the flat worms. Also I have had the gray worms you are dealing with(at least assuming that they are the same). FWE did kill them too. The trick to FWE is to make sure to leave it in there long enough to be effective. Many times I have used double and even triple the dose and saw effects immediately(within a few seconds). However those little bastards will run and hide under frags or in low flow areas that possibly won't get enough of the poison to kill them. Therefore you really have to make sure you leave it in the water long enough. I finally got rid of the little pricks after I left the treatment in overnight and then did a 30% change in the morning. Never have I seen any ill effects to anything except the flatworms...and I was watching closely.

 

[Myteemouse]

I have heard of these before and seen pics somewhere..
they are LPS eating flatworm they are light grey and or white?!?!?! Correct??
If so they will smoke your LPL fast..
I don't know the cure but I would act quickly what ever you do..

 

[Myteemouse]

http://www.projectdibs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2296

http://www.ronshimek.com/flatworms.html

heres a few links!!

 

[Faciosity]

Thank you everybody for the help. I have done some research now, and they look most like the Acropora Eating Flat Worms. The first way I found out about them is because I fragged some stuff for somebody the other day, and when they dipped the frags, the worms came off. They were mostly on a frag of Acropora Valida, but I have also found one on a zoa frag that was closed.
The only LFS near me that might have FW exit is closed for the next 2 days. Anybody near me have some?

 

[returnofsid]

Acropora eating Flatworms won't be effected by Salifert Flatworm Exit, much. Some have had good luck, using Revive and QTing all of their Acropora. AEFW will only effect Acropora, they won't effect LPS, Zoanthids...etc.

 

[Faciosity]

Acropora eating Flatworms won't be effected by Salifert Flatworm Exit, much. Some have had good luck, using Revive and QTing all of their Acropora. AEFW will only effect Acropora, they won't effect LPS, Zoanthids...etc.

Well, the majority of them found came from the acropora coral, however, the acro had shown no negative symptoms whatsoever, but a few of my LPS have looked stressed for over a week now, and I found one of the worms climbing around on a zoa frag that was half closed.

 

[luisse25]

whats your parameters ben?any new additions?new changes?

 

[Faciosity]

The most recent thing I got was a red planet and some chaeto from a local reefer. It looked healthy and pest free, and several others got the same thing from him without any bad news. It's possible that they have been in there for quite some time unnoticed since I have a six line and a dragonette, which I have read are both natural means of population control when it comes to flatworms. This is very disturbing to me, because I have had zoanthid issues for at least a month or two now, and I have been blaming asterina stars and water quality, but now I might have a new culprit. Just within the last week a couple of my acans and my trachyphyllia have not been fully expanding, and my water quality is great. I have done several water changes and lots of testing lately.
Only thing I can't test for is magnesium and calcium. Recently added a hang on back fuge with a built in mini skimmer and a larger reef octopus HOB skimmer, but a few things started looking sad before that, and a few of them look quite a bit better especially since the last water change a few days ago. I also switched salt a while back and didn't like the effect it had and went back to the stuff I had success with.

 

[luisse25]

what are u dosing?or are u dosing anything?
im asking these because same thing happened to me long time ago when i dont dose anything and the only thing i do is water changes...
but my problem that time was this lps bug+high mitrates+cyano+low mag equals declining lps....

 

[Faciosity]

I don't typically dose anything, never have. My nitrates are staying about 2-3 ppm, and I have just a tiny bit of cyano in a couple places nowhere near my nice corals. Don't know what my mag level is, And still havn't got a definate id on the worms, just know that they are definately a small grayish flatworm.

 

[luisse25]

you need to test your mag...sometimes if i see a couple or more lps that are acting weird,i test my water right away... i test for mag,alk and ca....

 

[Faciosity]

I used almost a double dose of flatworm exit about an hour ago, and so far I've scooped out about a dozen dead worms. Hope everything will start going back to normal! Still havn't gotten a harlequin for my asterina problem though. I've been waiting for a couple weeks now, and for some reason it keeps getting outed on the order at the LFS.

 

[Faciosity]

So far the flat worm exit has killed several of my mini brittle stars also, I just hope it doesn't kill my large one. I didn't have anything to do with him, so didn't have much of a choice but to risk it with him in there.