Is this a flatworm?

[tranceFusion]

And is it going to cause problems?

 

 

[Joevember]

Definitely a polyclad flatworm. Take it out asap. Some species are known corallivores and are also good hitchhikers. They also lay eggs very often.

 

Are any of your corals looking worse or closed up all the time? 

[Tired]

Oo, yep, flatworm. Take it out. Can't be sure if it's a polyclad from this angle, there are far too many species. Take a few good pics once you have it out. 

[tranceFusion]

7 hours ago, Joevember said:

Definitely a polyclad flatworm. Take it out asap. Some species are known corallivores and are also good hitchhikers. They also lay eggs very often.

 

Are any of your corals looking worse or closed up all the time? 

The only coral is a single head of frogspawn. I assume the worm has been there since I put the live rock in the tank a couple of months ago. Is there likely an infestation of them at this point? Since I've only seen it once it seems like it's going to be hard to find it again. Is the only way of removing them manually?

[Joevember]

1 hour ago, tranceFusion said:

The only coral is a single head of frogspawn. I assume the worm has been there since I put the live rock in the tank a couple of months ago. Is there likely an infestation of them at this point? Since I've only seen it once it seems like it's going to be hard to find it again. Is the only way of removing them manually?

There are some species that eat euphyllia, but seeing as your frogspawn isn't dead it's likely that it eats something else. I'm not sure if you will get an infestation down the line, but it's a good idea to remove flatworms when you can.

There are some chemicals that can wipe them out, but manual removal is ideal. I'd just suck him up with a turkey baster.

[mndfreeze]

Polyclad flatworm most likely.  Snail and clam eater.

http://blog.coralwonders.com/en/gusanos-polyclad-tu-peor-pesadilla/

[tranceFusion]

13 hours ago, Joevember said:

There are some species that eat euphyllia, but seeing as your frogspawn isn't dead it's likely that it eats something else. I'm not sure if you will get an infestation down the line, but it's a good idea to remove flatworms when you can.

There are some chemicals that can wipe them out, but manual removal is ideal. I'd just suck him up with a turkey baster.

Ok. thanks! I'll just keep an eye out and grab it next time I see it.

[tranceFusion]

Been watching the last few nights and still haven't seen it again.

 

Is there something I can dip my rock in to flush it out that won't kill off all the bacteria?

 

Do I need to worry about toxins from this thing?

 

If I do see it, will it suck into a turkey baster without ripping it apart even though it's a lot wider than the hole on the baster?

[Tired]

A quick dip in freshwater will likely make it dash out, along with all the other critters in it. The bacteria won't like that, but a brief dip would only harm bacteria on the outside, so the stuff inside would rebound pretty well. Just be sure to fish all your harmful/beneficial stuff out of the freshwater dip really fast, so it hopefully doesn't die. Micro brittle stars and such.

 

Toxins would only be a worry if you poisoned these and had them die in the tank. 

 

It would probably not go into the baster intact, but might stick to it. You could also just grab it in your hand, if it was on the sandbed or the wall. I don't think they have any sort of surface toxin that would be a problem for you, they just make a lot of slime. 

 

If/when you do catch it, don't kill it right off. You might be able to find someone on this forum who'd like to keep it as a pet. They're neat animals, they're just pests.

[tranceFusion]

22 minutes ago, Tired said:

A quick dip in freshwater will likely make it dash out, along with all the other critters in it. The bacteria won't like that, but a brief dip would only harm bacteria on the outside, so the stuff inside would rebound pretty well. Just be sure to fish all your harmful/beneficial stuff out of the freshwater dip really fast, so it hopefully doesn't die. Micro brittle stars and such.

 

Toxins would only be a worry if you poisoned these and had them die in the tank. 

 

It would probably not go into the baster intact, but might stick to it. You could also just grab it in your hand, if it was on the sandbed or the wall. I don't think they have any sort of surface toxin that would be a problem for you, they just make a lot of slime. 

 

If/when you do catch it, don't kill it right off. You might be able to find someone on this forum who'd like to keep it as a pet. They're neat animals, they're just pests.

Thanks! Would any of the coral dips be safe? How about club soda?

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Looks like a polyclad to me... They usually only come out after the lights are out, and when they're hungry. Have you noticed your snail population dwindling? 

 

Also, I happen to know someone that would be interested in it, if you catch it... 

 

 

[tranceFusion]

yep, my snails are dwindling, and yes I did see it at night before but only once (when I took this pic). I've been checking every hour for a few hours after lights out. I'm guessing it just comes out ones or twice a week, feeds, and goes back into the rock.

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Definitely sounds like a polyclad flat worm to me then. I'm fairly certain Chad also got a few gobies and pistol shrimps as well. We kept having missing livestock, and no bodies. They always took up residence in the same rock as the the one we found our polyclad in. 

 

The tank Chad the Polyclad was found in was set up for about 10 months, before we saw it for the first time. We ended up taking the rock out, that he was in, and putting it in it's own tank for a couple of days, and baited it out of the rock with a clam in the half shell. 

 

To answer your earlier questions, if you try to suck him out (I'm guessing it won't work), you run the risk of breaking him, and ending up with multiple polyclads in the tank. It's also worth noting, oftentimes with them, there's more than one in the tank. We found a second, much smaller one in the tank he came from about a month or six weeks later. It had been living in a different rock on the other side of the tank. 

[tranceFusion]

Yeah, at this point I am so fed up dealing with pests on a tank that's two months old, I would just like to get rid of them and not worry about it anymore. Every day I am waffling between selling all my equipment or just starting over with dry rock. If I can dip all my rock somehow, then I would go for it.

 

When you talk about baiting with a clam, you mean just from the seafood section at the grocery store? Also is that what people mean when they are referring to baiting with shrimp? Aren't there preservatives in this kind of seafood and is that a concern to add to the tank?

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Just now, tranceFusion said:

Yeah, at this point I am so fed up dealing with pests on a tank that's two months old, I would just like to get rid of them and not worry about it anymore. Every day I am waffling between selling all my equipment or just starting over with dry rock. If I can dip all my rock somehow, then I would go for it.

 

When you talk about baiting with a clam, you mean just from the seafood section at the grocery store? Also is that what people mean when they are referring to baiting with shrimp? Aren't there preservatives in this kind of seafood and is that a concern to add to the tank?

We went to an Asian market, and got a fresh, raw clam. It wasn't in the display tank, so we didn't really care if it fouled the water. With that being said, it'll only work if you sit there and monitor it (it took us multiple nights), and a few hours each night. We pulled the clam and went to bed, on the nights before we were successful. As long as the food doesn't rot in the tank, there shouldn't be an issue.