Ricordea flatworms?

[Karkadannspiral]

I have a ricordea that has finally attached to a rock after a week of sitting in a plastic cup in a low-flow area of the tank. But something odd that I just noticed - it is covered in flatworms. They look just like a pencil eraser cut in half - same color and size. At first I had thought they were parts of the ric itself, but after watching one dart off when disturbed by a crab - they arent attached.

 

What I am wondering is, if it looks like a tiny pink flatowrm, why are they only on that one ricordea? They are not in the bottom of the plastic cup, they are not wandering the tank that I can see, they are not even on the rock the ric is on, they are *only* on that one ric. Are they really flatworms?

 

I cant really get a pic, as my camera is cheep, and if I had a nice one, it really is difficult to tell them apart from the rest of the ric.

[LiQuiD]

That variety eat coral and is happy on the Ric which is the reason why you only see them on it. The will slowly spread to other coral but do not reproduce as quickly as non coral eating worms. Don't go nuts, they are more of a nuisance then a major problem.

[Karkadannspiral]

If they eat coral, shouldnt I be worried and trying to get them out asap?

[LiQuiD]

If they are COVERING the coral like you said, I would siphon as many as possible with each water change. Eventually, the population will subside and be under control. It seems the ones that people get that cover their substrate, LR and glass reproduce rather quickly but the ones that reside mostly on the coral (coral eaters) don't multiply as fast and can be kept at bay. This may sound strange but they really don't do much damage to the coral as they eat it. Of course if the coral is covered, the photosynthetic process is diminished and they can "choke" them out. Just siphon as you water change and they should slowly reside in populus.

[Karkadannspiral]

Do you know offhand if a 6-line wrasse might eat them? I was planning on getting one anyways, but the ric isnt attached to the rock very well so I figured the less messing with it the better.

 

There is probably atleast 20 or so on the one ric, but they are barely 1/2 the size of a pencil eraser, and under as well as over, so its not in real danger of loosing photosynthesis time.

 

Its just - my shroom is *unhappy*! And for some reason the bullseye feta cheese sprinkled shrooms are melting. Not the ones that have been in the tank the longest, not the second rock I got, and not the fourth or fifth or so on, but only the third - bullseye ones.

 

Theres also some creepy tentacle demon crawling arround under the bullseye shrooms. Not a bristle, 3 tentacles that look like brittle star tentacles, they wave arround untill I get bored of watching them, then when I look later, they are in a new spot.

 

Too many odd things pop up in salt water tanks...But then thats half the fun. Now I just need a saltwater book that has "tentacle demons" in the index

[LiQuiD]

Don't know what your demons are. As far as the wrasse goes, I really have no experience with them eating flatworms so I couldn't help ya.

[Karkadannspiral]

I shall find out by the weekend, thats usually when I stop at the lfs. Thankee for the advice