ID: Odd Green Life Form

[Lofty]

There were hundreds of these in my display glass today when I cleaned it... The look like some sort of Pod... there were also thousands of other... normal copopods and anthropods... but these were something I had never seen. I have attached a MS paint redering of them... as I could not take a pic... size about .5 mm.

[dela]

Looks like a flatworm to me. I know the red flatworms will take on a green tint sometimes. Do a search for red flatworms or convulotaria retrogema (sp?). The ones that don't breed out of control are fine. The ones that do, like the red ones, are a problem as their tissue carries toxins. Also, some like to smother corals...

[Lofty]

I have confrimed that this is the culprit... Flatworm - Acoel Planaria. http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...-planaria.html

So does anyone know if this is a hermless, or harmful species... on a side note.. some of my zoas look a bit more retracted than usual (Usually full blown).

Thanks folks!!

[Lofty]

Okay... more research and it seems that Flat Worm Exit is the Ideal fix for my situation as I currently see maybe 50 or so on the glass.... and there are no fish in the tank as the few that I have remaining are in QT. I would probably wait a few days until I started seeing them on the glass again... then siphon as many as I could... treat... then do a 50% water change...... I just did a 20% but Im due for a big one, so it would be ideal...
I have had various algea bloomes over the past few months, so some algea blooms are not gonna be of concern... my main concern is, my remaining fish (4 bg chomis, 1 oc clown, 1 neon dottyback and 1 golden wrasse) are coming out of QT in about 3 weeks. At that time I am going to clean the QT, re set it and put a kole tang and hopefully a diamond goby, or starry blenny in the QT for addition in another month... Do youall think if I treat with flatwrom Exit... I will be ready to move my current fish back in 3 weeks from treatment?

Thanks Guys...
Sorry for Sp.... having a few millers tonight

[Lofty]

Bump for more ideas here

[Lofty]

I am reading several threads on this and one solution that I Ilke is to go completely lightless for 2 days.... this guy is saying that he has seen 100% success rate several times with other's tanks. It depletes them of Oxygen through Photosythisis and suffocates them. However you must Siphon the dead out, heavy water change and treat with massive amounts of carbon afterwords.... Anyone here heard of, or had an successw doing this. I would rather not use Flat Worm Exit.

[mshaq]

FW Exit is not bad for your tank or its inhabitants, it's the toxins from the dead flat worms that generally cause disasters so 2 days of no lights doesn't seem to have any advantage.

[Lofty]

The advantage is not using chemicals to do something that a natural cure can accomplish. I think I am going to try the no lights option and see if that works.... last resort use chemical.

[hillscp]

I see clear ones on my glass from time to time. I think my six line and my copperband like to eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner when they show themselves LOL. I see them in my fuge mostly, hanging out in the chaeto.

[dela]

Turning off the lights does not fix the problem. These flatworms are photosynthetic, but they also eat.

You want to kill them completely or don't even bother trying. Just don't share them!

[Lofty]

Originally Posted by dela

Turning off the lights does not fix the problem. These flatworms are photosynthetic, but they also eat.

You want to kill them completely or don't even bother trying. Just don't share them!

Well, I havnt noticed any serious problems.... Once, by Fish Come out of QT I am plaaning to QT a couple new fish. My pod pop has exploded since the fish have been in QT (about 1.5 months) I maybe should consider adding a fish that has a sweet tooth for these things... any suggestions. I seen in other forums and threads, Mandarins, Copperbands, 6 line Wrasse (probably not good with my golden wrasse) Some Gobies.... etc.

Thoughts...

Oh... BTW... I found this pic online and it looks almost exactly like what I saw on the glass... although this one appears to be floating

[captjab]

It sounds like acoel planaria. I had a tank full of them taking over all the space and suffocating my corals. I had just about given up and for some odd reason I caught two sergeant majors at the marina i dock my boat at and threw them in my tank. It was amazing at how fast they cleaned my tank out and never bothered any of the corals I had left. The only negative was the sergeant majors were aggressive towards my other fish and I had to catch them back out of my tank and release them back where I caught them from. By the way they were not easy to catch in the tank. Any way I had the same tank for 4 more years and never saw another flat worm in it.
It could have been a fluke and never work again, but it saved my tank. Being that they were wild caught might of had something to do with it to.
Here is a picture showing what I had.

and here is a pic of sergeant major

[Lofty]

Originally Posted by captjab

It sounds like acoel planaria. I had a tank full of them taking over all the space and suffocating my corals. I had just about given up and for some odd reason I caught two sergeant majors at the marina i dock my boat at and threw them in my tank. It was amazing at how fast they cleaned my tank out and never bothered any of the corals I had left. The only negative was the sergeant majors were aggressive towards my other fish and I had to catch them back out of my tank and release them back where I caught them from. By the way they were not easy to catch in the tank. Any way I had the same tank for 4 more years and never saw another flat worm in it.
It could have been a fluke and never work again, but it saved my tank. Being that they were wild caught might of had something to do with it to.
Here is a picture showing what I had.

This exactly what I have in my tank. How big is your tank and how long before you niticed them did you nitice problems with your corals?

Does anyone know if the Golden Wrasse has a taste for these things?

Thanks Capt. Jab. I may have to temporaily house a couple (I'll check my LFS that I know QTs and treats all thier fish so I can get em in the tank sooner than later) that way if they erradicate the problem, I can take them out without stressing the others out too much as they still have 3 weeks in QT. Then I can take em back to the LFS for Credit.

[Lofty]

Any luck catching them in a trap BTW? This is how I got my dottyback out.

[captjab]

My tank at the time was a 55 gal. This was 12 years ago. I took a break from reef keeping after I got married and I have just got back into it. I had been watching the planaria for a few weeks and they took off. I really couldn't find any info on them back then and had tried a few different kind of wrasse, vacuuming them out and fresh water dipping the rocks with no luck. It seemed the more I did to get rid of them the more I had until the sergeant majors.

[Lofty]

Well, I talked to a reputable LFS who had no Sargent Majors... but after talking to him, discovered that my current fish in QT... namely the Goden Wrasse (Coris) and a Neon Dottyback could start to whittle down these pests. So, since they had been in QT for over 1.5 months and the DT had been fallow all that time I have decided to move them back to DT. The wrasse is already picking at the glass... I cant confimr he is eating the planaria yet, but he seems interested in the life forms on the glass, so that is kind of good news... I will monitor it for now and If I have to I may have to chemical treat the DT...

[Lofty]

The Flatworms have been hacked down to very few left here and there on the substrate and in some crevices of the rocks and My Dotty back Looks like a Guppy. Put 2 & 2 together

[hillscp]

How's it going? I like fish niche solutions.