Gill Flukes? Acoel Flatworms?

[Starlight2017]

Hi everyone. I found this forum on Google while trying to search for info and pictures to try and identify what is going on in my saltwater tank and am new to this forum. So here is where I am (hope you have a large coffee or drink to get you thru this book I am about to give you).



Main Tank:

I took over someone’s 29 gallon Biocube, which had been established for approximately 10 years. The tank had only 1 coral (Green Cinnamon Palythoa) and a Pygmy Angelfish, Clarkii Clownfish, and a Serpent Starfish. Upon quickly transferring to my home, I was able to set back up the reef and replace most of the water and add fresh RedSea saltwater to perform a water change. Well, during the next 3-4 weeks, the water was in balance and I began adding tiny corals to the reef (without performing dips of any kind) and then added a Bengaii Cardinal Fish, and then a Green Mandarin (without doing quarantine). It didn’t take but 3-4 more weeks and the Clarkii Clownfish started resting on the Rhodactis Mushroom and then bashing himself against the corals. I noticed one single dot on the edge of his side fin. After research online, I saw all the info about dipping and quarantine and realized I just made a huge mistake! In the meantime, the starfish had been hidden for 4 days and didn’t come out for frozen spot feeding. So, the reef was taken apart, the fish were removed to put into the QT’s described below (and the starfish was no where in sight and I never found a single spec of bone or shell). To date, I have the Main Tank going thru it’s 76 days of fallow to try to rid any parasites or diseases. However, I have had the awesome experience of diatoms, red stringy dinoflagellates, green hair algae, and briopsis. I have also had hydroid jellyfish (these are almost all gone by dying off) and am now seeing what looks like acoel flatworms, and gill flukes. I used a portable WiFi microscope to take photos of the new creatures I am seeing while in fallow and am puzzled how the possible gill flukes are in existence after 2 months of fallow!! I am also seeing some other creature that looks like an eyeball shape that has 2 whiskers and tiny legs (almost like an ant). Anyhow, I am currently 1 week in on a Fluconazole treatment to remove the green hair algae and briopsis (protein skimmer remove fir first 5 days. Carbon out the entire time and is still out until the 14 day mark). It wiped out the green hair algae and briopsis already since there was hardly any. Any idea what these 3 creatures are and opinions on if I should use PraziPro or FlatwormExit in my Main Tank with all of my corals (I have Softies, LPS, and SPS).

I also have 2 Mexican Turbo Snails, 5 Astrea Snails, a Yellow Sea Cucumber, about 5-6 Micro Starfish, and 1 Feather Duster in my Main Tank.



Mandarin Quarantine:

The Mandarin looked fine and was eating well. Seeing online that the Green Mandarin would have possible reaction to the copper, I set up a 2nd QT for the mandarin (which I have spent almost $1500 in copepods to dose twice daily to keep it well fed!) In week 3, I added a single dose of PraziPro as a preventive for flukes, even though I saw online they tend to be disease resistant.



Fish Quarantine:

After 3 days of being in QT and more Google research, I bought SeaChem Cupramine to begin copper treatment for what I thought might be Ich. I started by raising the copper slowly until I reached the 0.50 level (checking using a Salifert Cu test kit). At 2 weeks in, my local fish store said the white dot (I showed them a video) was Flukes and not Ich. So I added PraziPro to the copper treatment. The fish took well as I raised it and then I kept the copper levels at 0.50 for 4 weeks. Towards the end, I I then noticed the Pygmy Angelfish began looking gray on the skin and the Clarkii Clownfish letting out white stringy poop. My local fish store recommended using Melafix for treatment of a possible bacterial infection and internal worms but said I need to remove both medications before starting Melafix. I did the Melafix treatment for 8 days then began water changes to remove the Melafix. Since the Pygmy Angel was still gray and the Clarkii Clownfish was still scratching and sitting on the bottom, I started API General Cure using the two 48 hour doses on the package. I then did water changes to remove the General Cure slowly. After about 5-6 days, the Clarkii Clown did not let out anymore white stringy poop, but was still scratching and sitting on the bottom. The Pygmy Angelfish is still gray but not as gray as before). I decided to re-do the API General Cure again. Today is day 2, and no change yet except the Clarkii Clown is swimming a bit more.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef! Let me try to take this point by point:

Main tank: I would suggest you post the issues about algae and invertebrates separately, as I'm basically a fish disease guy and other sections of the forum will have better reef info for you. You will never find gill flukes free in your aquarium, they will either be on the fish's gills, or as eggs that you'll never see, or microscopic free-swimming infective stage. The rule is this: if you find it living free in your tank it is NOT a fish parasite. That said, some free-living critters CAN harm your corals.

Mandarin - if its eating well (sounds like it's eating better than me!) and is full-bodied, I think it is stable where it is. If you wanted to post a picture of it, I would have a better idea as to its body condition.

Fish quarantine - I won't use Melafix, it is a botanical extract, not a proven medication. API General Cure is a much better choice, using medications that have good references behind them. Can you post a video of the fish?

Jay

 

[Starlight2017]

Hi, thanks for the reply. The 3 photos previously posted of the creatures were taken with a microscope, since it was nearly impossible to even see with a diamond loop. All three creatures were on the glass. I am most concerned with the photo which shows the creature that looks to me like a fluke because one end has a lot of tentacles and the other end has 2 points at the end. I am at the 8 weeks mark with about 16 more days to be at the 76 day fallow mark and don’t want to reintroduce fish back in if there could potentially be disease still in. I have attached two videos:
1) the Blue Pygmy Angel whose skin is grayed out
2) the Clarkii Clownfish who turns sideways constantly to scratch

 

[Starlight2017]

Here are videos of the two creatures that move

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Here are videos of the two creatures that move

Here are videos of the two creatures that move

The 3938 video is a harmless ostracod (seed shrimp). 3932 is a Acoel flatworm, some can be coral pests, but are not harmful to fish. As I said, you will not find fish parasites out and about in a tank.

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi, thanks for the reply. The 3 photos previously posted of the creatures were taken with a microscope, since it was nearly impossible to even see with a diamond loop. All three creatures were on the glass. I am most concerned with the photo which shows the creature that looks to me like a fluke because one end has a lot of tentacles and the other end has 2 points at the end. I am at the 8 weeks mark with about 16 more days to be at the 76 day fallow mark and don’t want to reintroduce fish back in if there could potentially be disease still in. I have attached two videos:
1) the Blue Pygmy Angel whose skin is grayed out
2) the Clarkii Clownfish who turns sideways constantly to scratch

The angel looks pretty good - nice feeding response. This species does tend to fade when in captivity - I caught some off Bimini years ago and the color is so much more intense when they are fresh from the ocean. The scratching clown is worrisome. I think you should do that second dose of General Cure to see if that helps.

Jay

 

[Starlight2017]

Great thanks for the info about the color. Now that I am thinking about it, the Pygmy did turn gray after I put it in the floating breeder tank which is very tiny! I put it in there because the Clarkii Clownfish began getting territorial over the pvc tubes it was scratching on and actually took a nip out of the Pygmy angelfish which removed some of the scales! I panicked it would try to kill it during the night! The Melafix fixed the wound in about 3-4 days (thank goodness)!!!

I am in the second dose of API General Cure now and the Clarkii Clownfish seems to be swimming more than last round (when it was still pooping white stringy poop). Poops seem to be normal brown now. I will keep an eye on the scratching to see if anything improves. The API General Cure says to dose 1 packet per 10 gallons, wait 48 hours, then add 1 more packet, then wait another 48 hours, and then water change 25% and add back carbon. I saw on this forum somewhere that someone had suggested doing 1 packet and wait 5-7 days, then do a 25% water change, then add 1 more packet and wait another 5-7 days. This method was to catch both rounds of the fluke lifecycle.
However, I am wondering how to accomplish that because my quarantine has no filter (only an air hose and sponge) and I have to water change no later than the 3rd day or the ammonia goes up to 1.0ppm!

 

[Starlight2017]

Thanks for the responses. Here is yet another creature I saw with my microscope, which was on the aquarium glass in my main tank.
Is this an Acro Eating Flatworm?!?
My acro looks healthy but my bubblegum digi has some white patches where no polyps are coming out. I noticed one of my Ricordea mushrooms is also half eaten!!

 

[vetteguy53081]

+1 on acoel flatworms are more of a nuisance. Try to siphon as many as you can daily. A 6 line or Lunare wrasse should eat them.
If not, salifert flatworm exit will work but be sure to siphon dead ones daily as they can release toxins.
Last pic is hydroid. They are capable of stinging coral and best removal is edge of a credit card into a net and then rinse them off the net and discard

 

[Starlight2017]

Hi everyone,

As an update on the acoel flatworms, so far...of course!!!!

I had to get pretty creative to really catch these flatworms by suctioning so I thought I’d share:

Day 1: I started out using about a 3 ft piece of airline tubing, a small plastic clamp, a knee high, a rubber band, and a small bucket. I attached the knee high to the end of the airline tube with a twisted rubber band to be used as a catch net for the flatworms. I then clipped the airline tube to the bucket edge to hold it in place and then placed the airline tube against the circulation fan in the tank to get the water to flow downwards and make suction. I gave it a test try on a flatworm and it sucked right in! However, it was very hard to find them because of them being the size of a spec of sand. The only thing helping me was that they were slightly orange in color. I also thought a knee high made of pantyhose material would be fine enough to sift the flatworms (it wasn’t!!! Lots fell right thru!). I was able to carefully pour most of my water back into the tank but had to discard a bit because of all the flatworms in the bucket. FYI: Using a clear or white bucket is helpful in seeing if any flatworms have made it into your bucket.

Day 2: I repeated the same process but this time I added an airline tube connector piece (the kind you use of you want to connect two pieces of airline together). This improved my aim dramatically since it was white in color. I then took a scissor to an empty sour cream container lid from my recycle bin and poked a hole in the middle. I poked the airline connector piece thru the hole in the center. Now, the white shield served as a white shield that I can use as a locator tool! I also went to my local fabric store and bought a 1/16 yard piece of fabric and used my sewing machine to give it a tight stitch on the sides (I didn’t bother to make it look finished or pretty). I placed it on the end of the airline tube and clipped it to the edge of the bucket. This fabric was smooth so the flatworms didn’t fall through!!!
Look at all the flatworms I caught today!! And, as an added bonus I got to pour all of my water back into the tank!!