I have worms?

[F8LPONY]

I am not sure what these damn things are but they are making my tank ugly.

I looked up pics of flat worms in EB's book pg396 and they look almost like flat worms (square to rectangle, dark teaish red color, really flat) but they don't have the single yellow dot on them. These have 2 tiny tiny dots rigth next to eachother. If you were to take a rectangle and sit it so the longer end is vertical then the 2 dots are horizontal, almost like 2 little tiny eyes. They also seem more rigid than flat worms because they don't always full curve around whatever they are sticking to. Sometimes their edges hang off.

Are these bad?

If you stare at them they don't really move (I saw one kinda move once) but they are spreading across my tank.

Is there anything I can do or anything I should be worried about?

[Flame*Angel]

Sounds like flatworms. Welcome to the club, a lot of us have them. Check Dr. Ron's site to ID the kind you have:
http://www.rshimek.com/odd_critters.htm#Flatworms
Then do a search here on RC for flatworms, you'll get an idea of what you're up against.

If they are the ones most people seem to have they don't hurt anything but the ego of the person who owns the tank. I agree though, they do ugly it up somewhat.

[F8LPONY]

Thx Flame. :)

I'll check it out. Seems so far they are a type of flat worm and those tiny dots are eyes. What kills me is I know what rock they came in on too and I prbably could have done something about it had I known what they were. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess. :rolleyes:

[pcmankey]

Originally posted by Flame*Angel
If they are the ones most people seem to have they don't hurt anything but the ego of the person who owns the tank. I agree though, they do ugly it up somewhat.

I don't think it has anything to do with ego. I also have cockroaches in my house that don't hurt anything, but I hate them and want to get rid of them--it has nothing to do with my ego.

[Flame*Angel]

F8LPONY - frustrating isn't it? I got mine from a mushroom rock I got mailorder. I could have prevented this by just examining the rock closely and/or putting it in quarantine before putting it in the main tank. I've kicked myself many times over this.

pcmankey - I guess what hurts ones pride is a personal thing. Personally having cochroaches would be embarrassing to me even though I didn't do anything to cause them to be there. Same with the flatworms I guess. Oh well, keeps me humble :)

[cfockler]

Putting together a quarantine tank is fairly high on my list of projects right now. I've been waiting until I am ready to add more fish. Do you currently have q-tanks setup? I looked through your site FlameAngel, but didn't see a q-tank.

I didn't really think it was necessary to quarantine corals until reading this thread. I suppose it's good to quarantine everything.

What do you guys do with the q-tank when there's no incoming critters temporarily living in it? Could I somehow use it in my culturing plans?

[pcmankey]

Are you planning on quarantining the corals--if you are, how long do you plan on doing it and what kind of lighting are you going to have?

[Flame*Angel]

I turned my quarantine tank into a jawfish/firefish tank. Good thing I learned my lesson eh? :rolleyes:

I once felt that quarantining was the answer but my aiptasias, valonia and bryopsis came in on my live rock. It just took several months for them to pop out. I've given it a LOT of thought and I think the only way to guarantee you don't get any of the nasties is to use dead rock and sand, add any detrivores (pods, worms, etc.) one at a time after inspection with a magnifying glass, quarantine everything you put in it for at least 6 weeks (that means for corals you need at least VHOs over a quarantine tank), actually, rubber corals would be safer ... you see what I'm getting at?

I spent possibly an unprecidented amount of time researching, planning and building my system and was determined to head off problems. My tank is nearly a year old and I have pretty much all the nasties now - aiptasia, valonia, flatworms, bryopsis ... it really doesn't mean you have to let any of these problems totally overtake your tank and it certainly doesn't mean you can't have a beautiful tank that you will enjoy.

Anyway, just don't don't figure you have to tear your tank down if you see a few critters you don't like. The ocean has 'em and it's doing just fine.

[pcmankey]

Honestly, I think that every tank has had everything (bad) that you mentioned at one time or another. My tank is only 4 months old and I have had flatworms for months--I was wondering if they even came on the rock. I have purchased things only a few times--how could you buy things for years and never get any "nuisances?". I wouldn't even know there were flatworms if it weren't for many pictures and posts on this board--you cannot tell unless you know what your looking for. I have had mini instances of valonia, bryopsis, flatworms in only 4 months. I see it all as natural because the tank is new and nothing has gone haywire and taken over the tank. I realize that could happen, but now I would take it with patience. When I first read and read and read I thought the end of the world would be near if there was any of the "nuisance" flora and fauna. Now, I realize that all I read about were worst case scenarios and I take things more in stride. If I was a member of the Addams Family I would be breeding flatworms and gardening bryopsis and throwing out that nuisance blood magenta coralline and those pesky sun polyps.

[cfockler]

I finally made it through all your pics, FlameAngel, and saw your q-tank hiding around the corner from the display tank. Of all the pics on your site, I've got to say that the 3 or 4 pics showing the "bubble indigestion" are the ones that really stick in my mind. Man it is weird how these animals appear to just melt when things go wrong! And then "pull it together" in a matter of days?!

If you've still got the nuisances after all your planning and daily attention, then I'll throw in the towell on coral quarantining right here and now! I don't have to the time to be as meticulous as you are! I haven't fully thought my q-tank plans through yet (focusing on the culturing thing first) and my initial reasons were mostly for the fish; acclimating new fish to make sure they're healthy and eating, and also for treating fish for ick and such. What will you do when one of your fish comes down with ick?

pcmankey, I'm with you. My front yard has a nice selection of weeds. And my "reef tank" has a nice selection of aiptasia, and macroalgaes. I kind of like them actually. The fear obviously is that they will take over. And my fears are slowly turning into reality. I'm trying peppermint shrimp and plan to add a copperband. But I've read that copperbands sometimes don't eat well at first...so I guess I'll do the q-tank.

[F8LPONY]

I was given some stuff from Tetra that will kill the damned flatworms but I am told it could also harm my corals or the pods and such. Not really sure I am ready to nuke my tank for these things. Is it really that bad? Should I go through the effort of removing all my corals and nuke it with this stuff?

[cfockler]

Sounds drastic, F8LPONY. What if a couple sneak out with the corals and get reintroduced after the "nuking" ?

If the worms hitchhiked to the temporary tank and crawled off while waiting for the nuclear winter to subside, you could end up with worms in two tanks instead of one!

[pcmankey]

I agree, getting every single worm is nearly impossible, but if I got frustrated enough I would do it.

[F8LPONY]

I know, thats why I think it is kinda pointless.

The stuff only need to be in the tank for a few hours (6 at most) So I was thinking of putting my corals into my sump, nuke the main tank. Re-introduce the corals back to the main tank then nuke the sump (nothing really in it besides pods). But like you said, what if some are still on the rocks attachted to the corals? I'm still screwed in the long run unless I were to dip the base of the corals into a water/agent orange solution but it all sounds too risky and complicated for something that just looks ugly but wont hurt anything.

[pcmankey]

How long have you had them? Some people say they got them early on with their tank and then they went away. That's what I'm hoping for--I already have them and my tank is just over 4 months old.

[F8LPONY]

I think my tank is about 3mo old. I got them about a mo after setting up on a piece of rock attachted to a T. Reniformis. :(

[pcmankey]

Was that the only coral you had? I'm just curious how your sure that's where they came from--I don't know how I got them.

[F8LPONY]

It was the only coral I had that had any kind of rock. The others were just frogspawn and I checked the bases very well before buying them (not like I could see microscopic eggs but you get the idea) in case any had aptasia on em.

I know for sure that I got most if not all from the piece of Reniformis because I saw them as soon as I put the piece in my tank. I didn't realize they were worms. I thought it was some type of algae or something since I couldn't see them moving. Boy was I wrong. :( Plus they started multiplying on that one rock and are slowly migrating across the tank, rock by rock from that same area.

Wish I would have known then what i know know. I could have nuked that one piece and prayed it didn't kill the Reni, and if it did, it would have been better than havin worms. LOL