Flatworms on Mushrooms??

speckled trout · #1 09/06/2007, 10:35 AM

Has anyone ever noticed these on the tops of their mushrooms? Some of mine are covered with them. They don't seem to be affecting any of the other corals, as I haven't seen them on anything else. The mushrooms don't seem to be affected, either. Does anyone if they are potentially harmful to any of the corals.

I'll take a pic and post it up later-Mike

Steveabg · #2 09/06/2007, 12:20 PM

We had a bunch of flatworms on some discosoma mushrooms that a friend gave us. They didn't seem to be bothering the mushrooms, and they all disappeared pretty quickly. Either the mushrooms ate them (witnessed a ricordea doing just that) or our mandarin ate them.

rhythmicfire · #3 09/08/2007, 11:59 AM

May be flatworms (plararia sp.?) Either way, I'd just take some airline tubing and vacuum out what I can before water changes. Be wary of just smashing them as such because I believe they release toxins into the water when they die. While one may not produce a whole lot of toxins, when you use a medication (which I don't recommend) that kills large numbers of them, the toxin concentrations go up. Maybe a sixline wrasse will help you out - not promised though.

speckled trout · #4 09/10/2007, 08:34 AM

My six-line doesn't seem to notice them.

Also, I haven't noticed them on any of the ricordias. That seems strange.

cutegecko3 · #5 09/12/2007, 12:19 AM

I got a blue velvet nudi. that ate them down to nearly nothing.then i treated my tank with flatworm exit and that eliminated the rest.the last couple of times i bought a new coral i never saw any until i put a couple of drops in the bag and shook it up before acclimation.then there were hundreds of them floating around in the bag dead.good thing i did and better and cheaper than setting up a quarintine tank.

speckled trout · #6 09/12/2007, 10:16 AM

Is flatworm exit safe to use with fish and other corals. I've always been reluctant to use anything like this in my display tank.

BristlewormKing · #7 09/12/2007, 07:46 PM

In terms of harm - the flatworms will either cover the specimen so completely that the light is blocked and they die, or they will consume the flesh of the coral (depending on the coral). Afterwards, they will usually move on to the next specimen until nothing appetizing is left.

If there is anyway to remove the mushrooms from your tank, then simply do a freshwater dip and shake the mushroom. The sudden drop in salinity basically stuns and then kills the flatworms and the slight shaking will get them off the mushroom (they release within seconds of hitting the freshwater). Remember to always do a freshwater dip whenever you get in new corals (before you even put them in a quarantine tank) to get rid of alot of potential problems. At a minimum, the average coral should be in freshwater for 3 minutes (again, depends on the coral - some folks leave corals in the freshwater for up to 10 minutes but three usually works for me).

Good luck!

speckled trout · #8 09/17/2007, 01:01 PM

My tank is full of different varieties of hard and soft coral. So far, they've only shown an interest in the mushroom(not ricordias). They been on them for approx. three months without any obvious symtoms and haven't shown an interest in others, so far.

Have you actually experience them moving to different type of corals? I sure hope that that's not the case, and that they decide to move on to the others.

barjam · #9 09/21/2007, 04:44 PM

I have flatworms on my purple mushrooms only on one side of the tank. They don't move to any other mushroom, they don't multiple, they don't kill the mushroom and they have been there over a year. There is even a big red mushroom right next to them and they do not take notice.

I keep meaning to remove them but eh, maybe the worms are keeping the mushrooms in check.