Just found a huge flatworm

[justthewife]

I just found a huge flatworm in my sump. I have no idea why it was in my sump. What do I do now? Do you think it may have spread eggs into my tank?

[ninja66999]

get it out! and probably...

[justthewife]

Oh Great! This thing was about 1.5 inches long. At first we thought it was a nudibranch but after some research I found it was a flatworm. What do I do? Do I have to treat the tank? We had some old rubble pieces of live rock in the sump. tI may have been in there but if it was, it was in there a long long time. Should I dip the rubble or throw it all out. I use them for fragging because I don't like frag plugs.

[hogfanreefer]

Is it really thin (almost see through?) With a darker shade in the center? Sounds like a polyclad flatworm. I had two. There is a post with a pic of mine a page or two back.

[ninja66999]

jus get him out, if u end up seeing more then treat the tank

[justthewife]

Originally Posted by hogfanreefer

Is it really thin (almost see through?) With a darker shade in the center? Sounds like a polyclad flatworm. I had two. There is a post with a pic of mine a page or two back.

Yep, just looked at your post, that was exactly the same thing.

[justthewife]

Originally Posted by ninja66999

jus get him out, if u end up seeing more then treat the tank

He is out and a gonner.

[justthewife]

I also threw out all the rock in the sump.

[Anim8me2]

So here is the good and bad news.

The bad: Polyclad flatworms do not react to any known chemical treatment for flatworms.
If you try to grab one it will tear apart and each piece will become another worm.

The good (depending on your point of view):
Polyclads eat mollusks and bivalves. If you have snails or clams, remove them and you can try to starve out the worms. You can also just use a turkey baster and suck them out.

I had some in my tank (I still might have more) that I removed with the turkey baster method. They are extremely light phobic so you need to hunt them at night after lights out and total darkness. I would just wait an hour and use an LED flashlight to spot them.

[justthewife]

Originally Posted by Anim8me2

So here is the good and bad news.

The bad: Polyclad flatworms do not react to any known chemical treatment for flatworms.
If you try to grab one it will tear apart and each piece will become another worm.

The good (depending on your point of view):
Polyclads eat mollusks and bivalves. If you have snails or clams, remove them and you can try to starve out the worms. You can also just use a turkey baster and suck them out.

I had some in my tank (I still might have more) that I removed with the turkey baster method. They are extremely light phobic so you need to hunt them at night after lights out and total darkness. I would just wait an hour and use an LED flashlight to spot them.

We didn't really have any problems catching the one we had. It was in our sump My husband just scooped it right off the glass with a piece of filter pad. I am hoping so much that we don't have any more in our actual tank. Our snails are all fine. We actually found a couple whelk snails we didn't want too. I don't know where these creatures are coming from all of a sudden as we have not added anything new in quite a while.