Sushi Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 Hi all, i found this little thing roaming around my tank right before my actinics turned off for the day... i did a little search about flatworms and i found this thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...light=flatworms the one i have doesn't necessarily look like that and it's more brown in color, probably longer... it does somewhat resemble some sort of planaria... anyone have any ideas that might make it more specific? Link to comment
Sushi Posted July 25, 2004 Author Share Posted July 25, 2004 it's about 8mm long... if you look closely it has a pink little thing where his butt is.. (i'm not even sure if it IS his butt..) and it also has thie little snorkel thingy, kinda like an elephant nose almost... if i ever see it again i'll try to get better pix, here's the last good pic i have of it... Link to comment
lgreen Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 that would be a red/brown flatworm Phylum: Platyhelminthes Class: Turbellaria the things we call flatworms in the hobby, are basically planaria. the snorkel thing is called a pharynx, basically a centrally located mouth. Link to comment
lgreen Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 ok in small numbers, can be like a weed though. can be sucked out, or use Salifert Flatworm Exit to remove them if you don't want them. some authors claim the may damage clams and other corals, but generally in small small numbers they are harmless. Link to comment
Sushi Posted July 25, 2004 Author Share Posted July 25, 2004 thank you. i'll keep an eye out... i've only seen 1 as of now, if i ever see more i'll be sure to keep them at bay w/my trusty airline tubing & a bucket i can't seem to find any good sites detailing this specific kind of flatworm, is it worth the extra research to find out what the hell this thing does? or should i just be careful if i see any outbreaks... Link to comment
mineralrock Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 shut off your light....shine a flashlight in the tank and all of them will creep to that spot...then suck 'em out... or buy a psychedelic mandarin and hope that he eats them. Link to comment
lgreen Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 they are just algae grazers. thats pretty much all you need to know. just keep them in control and do what mineralrock said w/ the flashlight. mandarin is optional (ha ha) Link to comment
lgreen Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 hey mineralrock, hows your mandarin doing in the 10g? I thought about getting a yellow target mandarin for my 12g. Do they do pretty good in the smaller tanks? what you feeing it? thanks, lg Link to comment
mineralrock Posted July 29, 2004 Share Posted July 29, 2004 my mandarin is doing AWESOME! He's quite a fat little fellow. Alot of people will tell you it's impossible to keep them in smaller tanks but this is simply not true. He's been in there for about 6 months now and has had no problems. The key is a refugium full of macro and a reverse photo period! I weened him onto frozen brine at my store before I bought him just in case of an emergency but i rarely feed my tank (once every two weeks). I used mandarinboy's method to ween him and it worked out well (constantly flooded the tank with frozen brine and kept a large population of live brine going while he was in there). I can't find the post that explains it more in-depth unfortunately :-/ Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 uggh, i just found planaria in my tank. i should have used a qt tank. anyways, here's hoping that i suck them all out before the plague comes. mineralrock, it think the thread that you're looking for is mandarin code cracked!!!!!!! Link to comment
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