Any idea over ID?

[patlansky]

Hi everyone, I noticed this this morning while cleaning the tank. It looks like it has some kind of mouth. It was attached to the glass and I accidentally knocked part of it loose, but it reattached itself again afterward.

Right now I have some zoas, mushrooms, xenia and yesterday I added a hammer coral from another hobbyist. I also have 2 trochus snails and 2 nassarius snails.

Does anyone know what this could be?

 

[tbrown]

It looks like a flatworm. Did you dip the hammer before adding it to the tank? It kind of looks like a small Polyclad flatworm which are predatory towards hammers, torches, etc.

 

[Tahoe61]

A lot of different types of Polyclad FW. Typically the hobbyist sees Tridacna and Snail parasitic FW, and unfortunately Euphyllia. Polyclad are mostly nocturnal.

 

[patlansky]

After some research, I’m pretty convinced these are definitely flatworms. I also saw one moving on a zoa. I removed the two I found, but I’m sure there are more or maybe even eggs. Unfortunately, I didn’t dip the hammer coral, so they probably hitchhiked in with it.

Should I be worried? The tank is small (about 60 liters), and it’s only 1.5 months old. What would you recommend? Is it enough to remove them whenever I see them, or should I use a specific treatment/product?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Looks like a Waminoa flatworm to me; it probably came in with the hammer:

Waminoa flatworms are photosynthetic (much like corals, they have symbiotic dinoflagellates living in them) and reportedly feed on coral mucus (not the corals themselves), so they tend to live on our corals - they're essentially harmless, but in mass numbers can basically smother the coral by blocking the light from getting to them.

Looks like it may be a Waminoa sp. - they are known to feed on the coral mucus rather than the coral itself of corals in the family Euphylliidae, as well as mushroom corals. Theoretically, in large numbers these guys could cause problems for corals like stated in the quote* below:
"Apparently, acoels can harm corals by smothering them, which may hinder their respiration, feeding and sediment shedding capacities."

*The link the quote was taken from:

Tissue loss in corals infested by acoelomorph flatworms (Waminoa sp.) - Coral Reefs

link.springer.com

Edit: Also, I have no idea why I didn't get the notification from Erin1971Texas' tag - sorry for the delay.

The only confirmed effective method of removal that I'm aware of is a repeated dip and cleaning method (pull any infected corals from the tank, dip them, scrape off any worms/eggs that stay on through the dip, repeat as needed). It may be more effective if you can to dip, scrape, and then put the corals in a different, uninfected tank to wait out the starvation of any eggs/worms in the infected tank, but this may not be possible. The link below has some other ideas you can explore if you'd prefer, but I have no idea if they're effective or not:

EEFW infestation (euphyllia eating flatworms)

Dip them using coral revive. They peel off in seconds using it. I’ve tried other stuff but nothing works even close as good as revive. They spaz right out in seconds and come off the torches Flatworm exit doesn’t work on these at all...

www.reef2reef.com

Edit: Also, here's a link that shows some more known host corals (I would assume these will host on just about any coral they can get too to be honest).

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Photographs-of-Waminoa-specimens-and-their-hosts-a-Specimen-18-host-Echinophyllia-sp_fig2_324516348

 

[StartingATank]

Flatworm or stomatella snail to me. On it's back, does it seem to have some sort of a plate. If so, then its a stomatella.

 

[patlansky]

There wasn’t any kind of shell/plate on the back. It was really jelly like. I removed the two that I found from the tank, and I haven’t seen any more since then. I think it really was a flatworm.