Small rust-colored flatworms

[SPS20]

So, I have been reading various threads here and there which imply that if you have small reddish rust-colored flatworms, you have a pest which will eat or otherwise kill your corals.

 

Well, I have, and have had for some time, lots and lots of little rusty flatworms in my 20L. My corals, so far, are doing great, growing well, have good color, etc. Should I be worried? Alot of people here seem to be of the impression that having these critters in your tank is cause for immediate action, such as flatworm exit, or a 6-line to eat them. Will they eventually reach plague proportions and turn on my corals? Do they secrete some kind of toxin? Or, are there multiple species that look similar, and I just happen to have the harmless ones?

 

This has been nagging at me for a little while, but I always figured that if my corals look ok, I shouldn't worry too much. Well, now I am worried, but I am not sure if I have a good reason to be. (my corals still seem unperturbed, but I do have bajillions of little rusty flatworms)

 

Can somebody fill me in a little bit about what I am missing? Do I need to worry, or should I assume that the flatworms are not interested in eating my corals?

 

- Josh

[dtfleming]

I know red flatworms will eat your Acro.

[ldballoon4]

catchem and get rid of em!!

[SPS20]

Ok, I did a little research (which I should have done before posting here) and found the following:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/pestflatwrmanthony.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/flatwormfaqs.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/flatworms.htm

Alright, so now I know its normal to have them, they like slower flow areas of the tank, they can secrete toxic chemicals when they die, they can host symbiotic zooxanthellae (hence the rusty color), they can crawl onto the bodies of corals (which I haven't seen in my tank) and annoy and shade them, and they can apparently reproduce to ridiculous populations in some systems.I suppose i'll just keep an eye on them. Doesn anybody have any experiences with them personally they would care to relate? I'd like to hear some horror stories, actually. As in, what is the worst-case scenario? And, what is the typical experience with them.The article says almost every reef tank has them. That calms me down a bit. Lets here some anecdotes.- Josh

 

EDIT: (responding to responses made while typing the above)

I know red flatworms will eat your Acro.

But do they really eat them? It seems so odd to me, since my tank is packed with acros, and they all seem ok. Are my acros just healing the damage as fast as it happens? Or do they not really eat coralsm but just pester them?

 

catchem and get rid of em!!

Well, there are definitely waaaay to many to just catch them, the only way to kill them at this point would be some sort of poison, or a predator.

 

Ok, thats 2 votes for "take action now" and zero votes for "naa don't worry too much"...

[SPS20]

Ok, I found pictures of what a real infestation of these guys looks like, and it isn't pretty. It reassures me, however, as I have nowhere near as many of them. They just hang out low in my tank in the slower-flow areas. This one pic I found showed a tank where you couldn't even see into the tank; there were so many on the glass the view was obstructed. Thats insane!

[Izzue]

BUT...they are hosting and sucking on your corals...

 

I dont like the little buggers...

 

My Exp...Got some yellow with almost red dot on their head flatworms from LFS

frag...1ST time I ever had them.

I had them in a 18 gal Nano...so toxins would be an issue if they are all killed at one time.

 

1ST...do a large water change and syphon out as many of the FW that you can.

Rest tank a day or so.

I used flatworm exit to the directions provided...including water changes.

It killed all but like 8 that stayed on a bottom corner of a base rock on a hairy mushroom.

 

Nice thing about a Nano...out came the rock work

 

FWD...is your weapon to rid the little buggers. I got lucky and had some success with

the flatworm exit...and FWD the base rock with HM with FWD...including blasting off with baster.

I made sure I got all of them. Replaced the Rock work and no more flatworms.

Keep in mind...if you ve got certain softies with the FW and can easily FWD...do it

and rid them without the risk of FWE releasing to much toxin at once.

 

Im very very careful adding anything to my 75 gal now cause it aint so easy to tear down

I actually think I just killed a free frag of Blue elk horn SPS...to worried bout red bugs and over

did it..LOL

 

Some peeps have success with Wrasse eating them...I had a 6 line in the tank at the time and

he didnt care for them.

 

Good LUck

 

Izzue

[dtfleming]

Red bugs or red planaria with hurt your acros. We may not be talking about the same thing. I know flatworms will set or your coral and cover them. If enough do it the will block the light to the coral. I would personal try to get rid of them before the multiply

[SPS20]

Red bugs or red planaria with hurt your acros. We may not be talking about the same thing. I know flatworms will set or your coral and cover them. If enough do it the will block the light to the coral. I would personal try to get rid of them before the multiply

 

Well, getting rid of them short of drastic action isn't really in the cards atm, as they have been established in the tank for months. I don't imagine siphoning out a few will make much impact. The corals are mostly SPS, and get really strong flow, so they don't actually hang out on the corals much, if at all. The flatworms seem to prefer hang out in slow-flow areas on the rock and sand, and just kind of sit there. They don't move around very fast, I have noticed.

 

I suppose they aren't red bugs, or, if they are, the current is too strong for them to hang out on the acros. Is there a way to tell a "red bug" from a run-of-the-mill rusty flatworm?

[Matty1124]

get a pieces of airline tube and suck out as many as you can... 5-10 min sucking them out everyday for a week will greatly decrease their numbers... i just dumped the water back in the tank through a filter pad and it caught all of them... after a week there will be very few (visible) in your tank... at this point do a FWE

[SPS20]

BUT...they are hosting and sucking on your corals...

 

I dont like the little buggers...

 

My Exp...Got some yellow with almost red dot on their head flatworms from LFS

frag...1ST time I ever had them.

I had them in a 18 gal Nano...so toxins would be an issue if they are all killed at one time.

 

1ST...do a large water change and syphon out as many of the FW that you can.

Rest tank a day or so.

I used flatworm exit to the directions provided...including water changes.

It killed all but like 8 that stayed on a bottom corner of a base rock on a hairy mushroom.

 

Nice thing about a Nano...out came the rock work

 

FWD...is your weapon to rid the little buggers. I got lucky and had some success with

the flatworm exit...and FWD the base rock with HM with FWD...including blasting off with baster.

I made sure I got all of them. Replaced the Rock work and no more flatworms.

Keep in mind...if you ve got certain softies with the FW and can easily FWD...do it

and rid them without the risk of FWE releasing to much toxin at once.

 

Im very very careful adding anything to my 75 gal now cause it aint so easy to tear down

I actually think I just killed a free frag of Blue elk horn SPS...to worried bout red bugs and over

did it..LOL

 

Some peeps have success with Wrasse eating them...I had a 6 line in the tank at the time and

he didnt care for them.

 

Good LUck

 

Izzue

 

Hmm... well, I am very reluctant to use flatworm exit or similar products on my reef, since there are alot of desireable microfauna which I would rather not kill which I suspect would be negatively impacted. As for a FWD, that sounds like a last resort to me. I really really don't want to rip my rockwork apart if I can possibly avoid it. Most of the corals are epoxied or grown onto the base rock, so it would be a serious disturbance to my reef to take it all apart. The flatworms have been there for a long time, and so I am going to take a "wait and see" approach. I'll definitely be watching them very carefully from now on. I have yet to see one on a coral, but that doesn't mean its not happening.

 

Perhaps a predator would be the best approach. Apart from a 6-line, what is the best fish to use for flatworm control? I don't care if I kill every last one of the flatworms; keeping the population low through predation would be acceptable for me. (Keep in mind this is a 20L tank, so large fish are out of the question)

[SeeDemTails]

Red Flatworms do nothing to your corals. They are detritus eaters and are actually photosynthetic also. You will notice they gather in areas where they can get the most light. This is sometimes on top of your corals. They dont eat them, but can block their light.

 

They best way to get rid of them is to syphon them out. Also a great excuse to do water changes.

 

Melevs reef.com has a great article on how to get rid of them. They will go away over time(a few months) on their own if you vaccum them out.

 

I have never seen a fish eat them, although I have heard about it.

 

In the day time they gather in mass on certain rocks to get light. You can knock them out 50 at a time with the syphon. I used to get hundreds each time I syphoned. Eventually they went away a few months later.

 

I wouldnt reccomend FW eXit. Use it at your own risk.

[Atlantis Reef]

I have a six line wrasse that ate them like candy. I had a small patch of them before I purchased him and now I have 0.

[Izzue]

^^^ See dem tails...

 

Ok Im not gonna argue with the red ones...never seen them...or had them...

 

But if they are rust with red spot...I have to totally disagree and Im out of this

thread...

 

Ive tried to help the reefer with nothing but negative comments (infestation and rock glue and no way

to take the time to syphon_)

and misleading info...unless we are talking about a different FW.

 

Straight from FS...

 

Rust Brown Flatworm

The first and most common type of flatworm can become a nuisance quickly in the home aquarium. These organisms are tan, brown or rust colored with a red dot, and reach a size of up to 1/4" in length. They are oval and slightly elongated with two tail-like appendages at their posterior. This brown flatworm has been identified as Convolutriloba retrogemma, and will proliferate rapidly in aquariums with elevated nutrient levels. The populations of these pests can increase to a point where they will actually perch on corals, and block the light from reaching the corals' tissue. Some experts believe that the flatworms actually feed on the zooxanthellae from coral tissue, thus damaging the corals themselves.

 

Not to mention the experience of watching corals decline due to the FW...

 

Happy New Year...FW

 

Izzue

[clifford513]

I have them too. Just syphon out what you can when you do water changes and they will remain in check. They are super easy to syphon off rockwork with 1/4" air line. They pose no immediate threat in great numbers unless they die and release toxins. They could damage corals if allowed to cover them and deprive them of light.

[SaltyVT]

Just remember there is at least two more for every one you see. They hate high flow so they hide in spots where you can't see. When I used FWE I doubled the dosage and did it twice in a row. I would not advise doing it but it did work to eradicate them. Unfortunately the came back again because some of corals I bought I suspect might have had a couple on them and they returned a year later. I would double the dosage, wait, add carbon, and do a large water change. Seem to work after three or so dosages to really work, but it did work.

[PurpleUP]

Josh, I dosed my tank earlier this week. Plenty of them died, but I believe my population count was lower than what you are experiencing in yours. Every day, I still see 2 or 3 baby FWs crawling about the glass, which are squashed on sight. Next week I plan on dosing double the amount to hopefully eliminate the rest of em. So long as the FWE itself is not toxic to corals, I don't mind giving it a 2nd shot especially since most of them were surely wiped out the 1st time.

[Rubicon06]

I got some on a Mushroom Rock I bought, wasn't a big deal either until a couple months later, then the sight of them bothered me. I bought 2 velvet nudis to help eradicate along with routine siphons of them, which kept them in check but didn't eliminate them to my liking, so I did the FWE eventually...

 

They didn't bother my corals at all to my knowledge, but most of my corals were Lps...

[jsw]

I've had them for 5 months in small numbers in my SPS tank... never even thought about treating the tank to get rid of them. They don't seem to bother anything and I hardly ever notice them. The population stays fairly constant with a tendency toward decline. I've yet to see one on a coral.

 

They're not a problem in my tank. With decent husbandry we're probably not going to get a population explosion of them. With that said I'm ok with them until they get outta control (which I doubt they'll ever do).

[joewhitefish]

I had them before I added any fish to my reef (20H), I added a sixline wrasse and watched him proceed to eat them all, along with every pod he could find. People have mixed results, but it worked for me. From what I have read, FWE will work, but there are concerns that if they are not completely eradicated, they start to become immune.

[supreme_spork]

i've had rusty colored flatworms in my tank for a few months and they don't seem to be multiplying quickly or hurting anything. they came-in on a mushroom rock i think, and pretty quickly migrated to the glass in low-flow areas of the tank where they seem to spend most of their time.

 

i'll keep my eyes peeled, but so far i've just considered them part of the ecosystem.

[GoingPostal]

I've had the red flatworms for a while now, I did flatworm exit but only once and they came back, now I just don't worry about it really, they seem to go in blooms in my Aquapod but there's not much for flow in there and they aren't really seen in my other tanks, as long as you have good flow they shouldn't be an issue, sixline will usually munch on them as did my mandarin when in the Aquapod for a weekend, but they will repopulate after the predator is gone. I siphon them out if they start to build up enough to be seen easily.

[Shoot Me_I Explode]

I've had the red rust color flatworms in my aquapod for a few months now. They have not caused any problems and spend the day on the rocks or the glass. Never see them on any of the corals. I just suck them out befor my water changes and it seems to keep the population in check. I will have to do something before I move to a new tank, either flatworm exit or maybe a freshwater bath, mushrooms can surive freshwater for a few minutes right?

[Weetabix7]

i've had rusty colored flatworms in my tank for a few months and they don't seem to be multiplying quickly or hurting anything. they came-in on a mushroom rock i think, and pretty quickly migrated to the glass in low-flow areas of the tank where they seem to spend most of their time.

 

i'll keep my eyes peeled, but so far i've just considered them part of the ecosystem.

 

x2.

BibleSue got a six-line wrasse and he gobbled up all the flatworms she had.

[abe]

So, I have been reading various threads here and there which imply that if you have small reddish rust-colored flatworms, you have a pest which will eat or otherwise kill your corals.

 

Well, I have, and have had for some time, lots and lots of little rusty flatworms in my 20L. My corals, so far, are doing great, growing well, have good color, etc. Should I be worried? Alot of people here seem to be of the impression that having these critters in your tank is cause for immediate action, such as flatworm exit, or a 6-line to eat them. Will they eventually reach plague proportions and turn on my corals? Do they secrete some kind of toxin? Or, are there multiple species that look similar, and I just happen to have the harmless ones?

 

This has been nagging at me for a little while, but I always figured that if my corals look ok, I shouldn't worry too much. Well, now I am worried, but I am not sure if I have a good reason to be. (my corals still seem unperturbed, but I do have bajillions of little rusty flatworms)

 

Can somebody fill me in a little bit about what I am missing? Do I need to worry, or should I assume that the flatworms are not interested in eating my corals?

 

- Josh

flatworms eventually turn your tank into a hideous heap of orange, try a scooter blenny to get rid of them.