Excuse me, what the heck are these??

[MuddyPeaks]

Hello! I'm fairly new to reefing, just made my first year this month, and I have a 10g and 5g that I have recently been finding worms in 

http://imgur.com/gallery/uOv3Vrx (edit: pls scroll down after the video. I am asking for two IDs here of worms) 

And what I initially thought was the Tigger pods I had added about a month or so back...but now am suspicious of being brown flat worms 😕 ((bec I was looking thru critter guide for the worms and found these matched my little guys instead)) 

Does anyone know what the worms are and confirm or not about the brown flat worms? 

 

Also, if they are bad, how do I get rid of them? 

 

[Break]

Definitely not a flatworm.

 

Looks like a bobbit worm to me - they can get pretty huge and will eat even fish. I'd remove it with either long tweezers/forceps or a trap.

[MuddyPeaks]

14 minutes ago, Break said:

Definitely not a flatworm.

 

Looks like a bobbit worm to me - they can get pretty huge and will eat even fish. I'd remove it with either long tweezers/forceps or a trap.

Wait just so Im sure there's not a misunderstanding about the two different creatures I'm trying to confirm IDs for 

You're saying these are not brown flatworms, is that correct? 

 

Also oof if you're right about it being a Bobbitt I feel like I've got a big problem on my hands bc it's not just one or two..it's a bunch of little ones all over 😬 

[Break]

11 minutes ago, MuddyPeaks said:

Wait just so Im sure there's not a misunderstanding about the two different creatures I'm trying to confirm IDs for 

You're saying these are not brown flatworms, is that correct? 

 

Also oof if you're right about it being a Bobbitt I feel like I've got a big problem on my hands bc it's not just one or two..it's a bunch of little ones all over 😬 

My apologies! I thought you meant the creature in the video - it's the first thing that pops up when you click that imgur link. Those ones on the glass in that picture on are definitely flatworms.

 

I am not qualified to make a guess at what species those are, but there is a variety of flatworms and they eat different things. Some straight up eat hard corals, some smother corals to death, others are pretty much harmless. Sometimes their population will drop off and you don't need to worry, Sometimes it goes the other way and they will cause issues.

 

If they do cause issues, you can get a wrasse or similar fish to hunt them (not always possible in smaller tanks) or use a product like Flatworm Exit to try and kill them off. Flatworms can release toxins into the tank when they die though, so if you go this route it's best to remove as many manually as you can before dosing.

 

I would watch and see if they are causing any issues first. If you feel the need, you can always start siphoning them out when you do water changes.

[Frag Factory]

Most flatworms are harmless and eat algae, the fact these are on your glass and not your corals probably means they are friendly.

 

You can simply siphon them out or wait for them to die off, they tend to grow rapidly then the population crashes and you never see them again.

[MuddyPeaks]

45 minutes ago, Frag Factory said:

Most flatworms are harmless and eat algae, the fact these are on your glass and not your corals probably means they are friendly.

 

You can simply siphon them out or wait for them to die off, they tend to grow rapidly then the population crashes and you never see them again.

Mnh I hope you're right... I'm gonna read up on them and keep an eye out

My 5g is a macro dominant tank, with a lone mushroom and setosa, so that one I'm sure they're loving right now 😅

[Tired]

Those look like one of the harmless types of flatworms. You'll probably have a population surge of them, then they'll die out and you'll have about 2. 

 

But the worm in the video, you need to keep an eye on. It does look a bit like a bobbit. It's probably not, they're pretty rare. More likely to be some sort of scavenger. Still, best to keep an eye on it.

[Tamberav]

+1 - probably not a bobbit. Many worms look like bobbits when small but are not bobbits at all! 🙂 (did that rhyme?) It's probably a different type of eunice worm. Bobbit is just one example of a eunice worm.

 

Those look like algae eating flatworms to me. Free fish food!