I have never seen something like what i have in my tank right now. something has been eating my emeralds and pepperment shrimp for awhile now, and i have lost 2 of each to it. well, tonight it also claimed my 4" long tiger pistol shrimp. which was in perfect health. with a paired goby. i look into a small corner of my tank where i normally can see my pistol shrimp when the lights are off, and instead i saw what looked like a ball of snot hanging from between 2 rocks that met in an upside down 'V'. it was gray and had some folds in it. it also had what looks like viens running around it. well, i was confused at how it had 2 antenna poking from the bottom of it, becuase there was no mouth. then it dawned on me. whatever it was, it had envoloped my shrimp, and was hanging it upside down. the only part not covered were the antannea. when i flicked the lights on, i got a quick glimpse of how the creature had its 'folds' pushed through all the holes in the rocks around it, with a size of around 4"radius. i only have a 37gal! i have never seen it before! someone help!

oh, and i pulled it out. it retracted into the holes around the place, with mucous it created holding the shrimp in place suspended. i pulled the whole rock and threw it into a small 2 gal and threw in a heater, pump, and light. ill get more details tomorrow.

cant wait to see pics

bzphotog

I WANT PICS NOW
I haven't a clue now anxious to see

well I have some ideas... oh wait. No I don't.

+1 to can't wait for pics. Was it like.. a worm of some sort?

Sea slug maybe? There are several species that are carnivorous...

At first I was thinking anemone too... Not all anemone's look like our favorite BTA's...

actually i found it :/
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/WormPIX/Flatwor...latworm_id2.JPG
this is a fairly good picture of the pattern, although mine is quite larger, and they said it only feeds on clams. but for me it has been feeding on mobile invertabrates, which isnt what i have read :/ and for some reason it just doesnt seem to match some of the other details... idk, im tired, but this is a good start to figure out what has costed me over 70$

freaky, set up a tank for it! study its habits

looks like a zombie vadge

Damn it! flatworm.. thats what I was gunna say. Somebody on here posted a vid of one a couple months back. Pretty cool IMO, minus the lost livestock

Dude, those suck big time.

but yeah, it doesnt seem to like the light, so as soon as i flicked on a little back up PC over the 2.5gal its in rite now it slid super quickly into some holes. and yes, not one. 4. getting a picture is going to be a PITA! now all there is is my pistol shrimp dead and glued to the side of the rock by the worms mucus. FML. although to be honest i am quite happy i finally discovered what it was eating everything, and then to be able to catch it is nice...
does anyone know how i would be able to lure the worm out of the rock? so i can then quickly remove the rock and trap it in an empty cage

Throw in your pistol's dead carcass - that should lure it out

+1

WOW that thing does look freaky ,
+1 to trying to lure it out

i have one of those. it's huge.

i haven't had anything die :x

allow me to play devil's advocate here:

are you sure your inverts were killed by the flatworm? is it possible that they died from something else (copper in the tank, ammonia/nitrite, etc.) and then the flatworm was just scavenging? you might want to consider other possibilities just in case the flatworm isn't the issue. how old is the tank?

I also do not think the flatworm is your problem. I have the same flatworm in pic and have for some time, I wish it would eat my peppermint shrimp or even my sexy shrimp.

+2 lol. thats the funniest *%$#, im siggin it. lol

Its funny cuz its true.. maybe you could lure it out with some wiener. Oscar Mayer wiener that is.

maybe a zombie wiener.. but then again, zombies like new flesh. lol

I don't know which is worse, a psycho zombie vadge-worm or a gaping clam.

God help us all.

a very good thought! i did test it, and no ammonia or nitrites. i in fact just cleaned the tank saturday, and fed it all then as well. the shrimp was alive and well, digging and snapping as usual monday night, just hours before i found it. the reason i think it may have been the flatworm is becuase whenever i would lose one of the inverts, i would look all throughout it, and not find it until extended searching would reveal what looked like a molt of the invert 'stuck' to the side of a rock. i then blamed losing the invert to something else, but could never figure out what caused the death. it was until the pistol shrimp where i have witnessed it first hand that i realized what happened. the pistol shrimp carcass (which now looks like a molt, most of the inside is gone) is stuck to the side of the rock rite near the hole the worm is hiding in.
today i caught the worm moving between holes. i tried to grab it with tweezers i use to feed my gecko with, but it was too late and it retreated into a hole. so the carcass thing wont work cuz its already in there. im debated throwing a snail in there, since i looked it up and supossedly they eat those... maybe i could trap it. you never know.

I had the same thing, eating my snails. Pretty cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boBCG0ZgvAQ

adin has a zombie vadge.......................and it's HUGE!!!!!!

and................BTW............................




























I know what it is....................................................................




































yup.............................................................................
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These feed on any number of mollusks. I've never seen one actually eat anything else, though. I've watched them eat clams, snails, etc. No crustaceans, etc. When I was working at an LFS, we had an issue with these guys coming in shipments of snails and wiping them out. Don't try to pick it up with your fingers. They secrete lots and lots of thick mucus.

wat.

oh wow thanks! yeah, i set my 2.5gal up a little more thoroughly tonite. may i ask how you lured the worm out though? like, out of the rock? mine i can occasionally see the edges on the sides of some of the holes, but for the most part it sticks inside... i want to be able to seperate it from the rocks and get some pictures/video. oh, ya, and most likely get rid of it. but not the whole rock, becuase it has some of the best life on it (brittles, dusters, coralline, loadssss of colorful sponges, bits of corals etc)

There is no way that a flatworm can out run a shrimp, catch it and kill it, unless the shrimp is molting at the time. Shrimp are also very nocturnal so even at rest they are not going to be stocked, caught and killed by a flatworm. Sure flatworms can kill a snail or a clam, why because they do not move quickly. Flatworms are suprisingly fast but not that fast. I think you need to look else where for your problem.

flatworms can actually move pretty fast ime. you should see the planaria i have book it when i squirt in some FWE.

Searched and searched and the only documentation I could find was shrimp eating flatworms, not the other way around. I hope that if someone else has had experience with this particular flatworm they will chime in.

well yeah, but remember, it was in a tight corner in between some rocks where the shrimp can only go one way out of. he will go up to the glass, but cant go either way, or even turn around. he would only go up to the glass at night when a light was on in the room sometimes. if the flatworm had it cornered then i think maybe tht affected it... i dont know, im still looking into it. all my levels are checking out though, and every single other thing in my tank is doing incredible, so it would be easier if multiple things were being affected. i know that i have lost a good number of nass snails though. a good, eh, 6-8?