Looking for ID. Safe or Not?

[seitzjh]

 

[DSC reef]

Looks like red planaria flatworms. I believe they can release toxins in the aquarium but never personally felt with them. I'll give this thread a bump for you.

#reefsquad

 

[seitzjh]

Looks like red planaria flatworms. I believe they can release toxins in the aquarium but never personally felt with them. I'll give this thread a bump for you.

#reefsquad

Cool! Thanks

I'm still learning.

 

[JaimeAdams]

yeah planaria. While they don't "eat" coral, they can certainly irritate it. They are toxic while dying. You can kill them off with flatworm exit. Just follow the directions to the T.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

With that many in the fuge , if you don’t see them in the DT , somthing is already eating them.

 

[KJ]

Convolutriloba retrogemma

 

[seitzjh]

With that many in the fuge , if you don’t see them in the DT , somthing is already eating them.

Don't see them in the DT. I have two fuge's and only see them in the fuge with the cheto.

 

[seitzjh]

What about a Blue Line Nudibranch?

 

[rkpetersen]

That nudi will eat them enthusiastically but once they're gone it'll quickly starve to death. Another option is a Halichoeres wrasse like the melanurus; it'll also attack them with gusto and won't starve when they're gone but will also munch on small shrimps and snails which you may not appreciate.

 

[garbled]

So I've personally had two outbreaks of these things (in different tanks), (NOT the AEFW, just the normal boring algae eating ones) Here was my fix:

First, I dosed no magic chemicals, or anything crazy into the tank.
I kept this regime up for 6 months.
At the end of 6 months, they, like most plagues, died out all on their own, naturally, slowly, and didn't kill all my fish or corals or anything.

Like diatoms, or any other tank stages, sometimes this is one of them. They come, they overpopulate, they are everywhere, they eliminate their food source, they slowly starve and die out.

 

[Big G]

Another option is a Halichoeres wrasse like the melanurus

+1 ^^^ this ;)

 

[seitzjh]

I had them probably in August. They disappeared. I started noticing them again maybe 3 days ago.

 

[Maritimer]

I've got a target mandarin who thinks they're just the tastiest snacks . . .

~Bruce

 

[garbled]

I feel like they like diatoms, or one of the follow on algae or bacteria populations that comes in right after, as they seem to show up somewhere after the diatom phase of a new tank cycle. I've found them in tiny populations in well established tanks I've kept, long after the plague phase, and they just seem to be part of the general population of whatevers. The initial plague of them is terrifying at first, but I think people do more harm than good trying to kill them down. They eat something that grew out of control before they did. After you dose your tank with death and then get all the toxins they release out of the water, you are still left with whatever they were eating.