Moving Dots on my Mushroom!?!?

[RcToners]

I have noticed some pinkish dots on my purple mushroom. They move around fairly quick at times. Very strange.

Here is a before picture when there weren't any:


Here it is now:


What are they?!

[lordofthereef]

Flatworms. If you see them on your corals you probably have a ton you don't see. They aren't really a threat until they smother your corals. I had a nice colony of frogspawn bite the dust from being smothered. Don't wait like I did. Use flat worm exit NOW. Some go with the natural predator approach but that seems to be very hit or miss.

[cloak]

You might want to start siphoning out as many as you can with some airline tubing right before a water change. It's kind of tedious, but it does help.

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by cloak

You might want to start siphoning out as many as you can with some airline tubing right before a water change. It's kind of tedious, but it does help.

IME if you don't get at all of them they will just come right back. Plus once they start "perching" on corals like that it can be a nightmare to siphon off depending on the delicacy of the coral (such as in my frogspawn example).

[garygonzales]

+ 1 on flatworms....get em out.........

[cloak]

Originally Posted by lordofthereef

IME if you don't get at all of them they will just come right back. Plus once they start "perching" on corals like that it can be a nightmare to siphon off depending on the delicacy of the coral (such as in my frogspawn example).

Yeah, but I've heard that the solution you mentioned is not always 100% effective. I figure as long as you've got your hands in the water, you might as well pick of a few here and there. Fighting an army of 90 is always going to be better than fighting an army of 100.

How come you didn't just give your frogspawn a quick freshwater dip? I did this to an elegance coral one time and problem solved. You might not get all of them on the first try, but there's no shame in letting the coral calm down for a day or two back in the DT/QT and then doing it again.

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by cloak

Yeah, but I've heard that the solution you mentioned is not always 100% effective. I figure as long as you've got your hands in the water, you might as well pick of a few here and there. Fighting an army of 90 is always going to be better than fighting an army of 100.

How come you didn't just give your frogspawn a quick freshwater dip? I did this to an elegance coral one time and problem solved. You might not get all of them on the first try, but there's no shame in letting the coral calm down for a day or two back in the DT/QT and then doing it again.

Not disagreeing with you, just saying that siphoning off the way you mentioned isn't going to solve your problem. Might alleviate it a bit I guess. IMO if the FWE doesn;t work the administrator either did something wrong or used an old bottle. Assuming you diagnosed the problem correctly as flatworms and are dosing properly with a fresh bottle it shouldn't only work "sometimes".

As far as the coral, this was during a time when I was working 50 hours a week and going to class full time. No excuse, but the tank basically got nothing other than top-off and feeding done to it for about three months.

[greenbean36191]

These are harmless commensal acoel flatworms, usually identified as Waminoa. They are NOT the same as Convolutriloba which are the common rust-colored flatworms that become a plague. If you want to manually remove them, you can, and it would be pretty easy to do since those that you see on the mushroom are probably all there is, but there really is no need to do anything.

[irieef]

just get a melanarus or sixline..either wrasse will keep their population down or may just get rid of them completely..

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by greenbean36191

These are harmless commensal acoel flatworms, usually identified as Waminoa. They are NOT the same as Convolutriloba which are the common rust-colored flatworms that become a plague. If you want to manually remove them, you can, and it would be pretty easy to do since those that you see on the mushroom are probably all there is, but there really is no need to do anything.

Interesting. So do these guys just not reproduce as fast as the rust colored ones? My understanding is the rust colored ones kill by starving the corals of light. I take it these don;t do that then?

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by irieef

just get a melanarus or sixline..either wrasse will keep their population down or may just get rid of them completely..

I tried this. The sixline had PLENTY of specimens to pick from. I never saw it eat one.

[irieef]

well maybe u got that one out of 100 that doesn't do what it's supposed to..

[lordofthereef]

Originally Posted by irieef

well maybe u got that one out of 100 that doesn't do what it's supposed to..

Definitely not my friend. Even when I got it everything I read said "hit or miss". Mine was a definite miss. It's like a clwon hosting an anemone. I have seen more clowns host everything BUT the anemone.

[irieef]

sucks for u..IME its mostly hit..both with the sixline and melanarus..did u give it a chance to establish itself and get acclimated before u gave up?was it wild caught or tank bred?tank bred fish lose all of that natural instinct, thats why u see those clowns hosting powerheads, leathers, and everything else but a nem..