Something is Bugging the Snot Out of My Zoas & Palys!

[land shark]

I thought they looked a little like red bugs but not really. They look like small yellow worms. They swim in a corkscrew fashion and slink all over the place. They started as just a few but now they cover my zoas and cause them to stay closed. Please help to identify these.

 

I siphoned a few off to get a good pic. Link to full size album.

 

 

 

 

 

[land shark]

Any ideas??

[amphipod]

Sorry I missed this, flatworms it looks like.

[metrokat]

Pictures are far too small, any change of getting bigger pictures?

[land shark]

Sure, thanks for the reply guys. There was a link to the full pics but I will just post them here. The pics were supposed to be thumbnail links as well but it didn't work for some reason. amphipod I think your right about it being a type of flatworm. I dismissed them as being a flat worm because they weren't exactly flat. They do seem to have other features that would fit the description though.

 

What can I do to stop these things? I can't do anything that could jeopardize my pod population as it is an important source of food for my Flaming Prawn Gobies. I also can't get anything too large that could eat them as this is only a pico. I can't risk my gobies getting eaten either. Are these more than likely what is causing my polys to close up? There are quite a few of them clinging to almost all of my zoa. Thanks again for all the help.

 

 

 

 

 

They are difficult to see in this one. They are the small brown(actually yellow though) specs.

[land shark]

I looked around a little. If they are indeed flatworms I think my best bet is the Blue Velvet Nudi.

[metrokat]

In the last picture, the irritant could very well be the white fuzz and other algaes. You can try a 50-50 peroxide dip for 1-3 minutes. rinse in salt water put back in tank. That usually clears up bad algae and critters really quick. Give the dipped zoas a few days to recover to see if it helped. Zoas that are too far gone will not make it through the dip but healthy zoas will come through no problem.

[land shark]

That tends to bleach them ime. Also, I really don't want to have to dip the the rocks. It's hard to get them out without the FPGs inside. It seems too drastic atm. The algae has been around a lot longer than the worms and the zoas started closing around the same time I noticed the worms. If I keep manually removing the algae it should starve out eventually. There's probably phosphates in the rock work due to using well water to cycle the tank(didn't have a ro at the time). It doesn't really choke the corals at all anyway. I'm just worried dipping all the rock work will cause the system to crash being such a small tank. I really don't want to loose that many pods either. If I brush the coral with a toothbrush they open up nicely for a while then close up again. I'm almost sure it's the yellow things causing the issue. I thought about using flatworm exit but the tank size still worries me.

 

I have not heard of flatworms or really anything like these hurting or irritating zoas. I just don't see why they would be all over them if they were not eating them. Are they for sure flatworms?

 

Again, all help is greatly appreciated.

[metrokat]

Both treatments will kill benthic life.

Both treatments can upset the balance in a small tank.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[amphipod]

Nudibranch is in that case probably your best solution, buy a few and you may have to grow a side population of them because baby nudibranch are occasionally savored by amphipods.

I'm like 98% sure they are some sort of flatworm.