Oh noes.... flatworms? (awesome pic included)

[tclipse]

Hey all, just joined up a couple of days ago, been reefkeeping for almost a year now after 10+ years of FW and a few years of breeding poison dart frogs. I was digging through my 20G reef this morning and found what I'm guessing are flatworms... so obviously I threw a fit and ran around the room screaming for a while.... and then I drew you all a picture :nerd:

In case my paint skills aren't good enough, they're grayish-white, two teardrop shaped black appendages on one end, (shaped differently from the "acoel" pics I've seen, they're not pointy and aren't part of the main body mass), spade-shaped on the other end with "eyespots," and a little pointy dorsal appendage.


Click to enlarge-

I searched google images and a few flatworm ID sites, but couldn't find one like these.... based on similar body shape my best guess is that they're from the family Pleurobranchidae which seems to be mainly sponge eaters, but I could be totally off. They're all on the same rock (so far), I picked about 10 of them out so I'm sure there are plenty more.... but I haven't seen a single one on my corals yet. Has anyone seen this type before and how worried should I be? Should I just go grab some FWE now and stomp the little suckers out as a precaution?


Thanks in advance.

 

[tclipse]

Bump, could really use some help IDing these or finding out if anyone has even heard of light gray ones since I can't find a darn thing about them on google... only red, yellow, brown, and clear.

I ordered some FWE as a precaution, but I'd still like to know what I'm dealing with/up against.

Another question- If they are coral eaters, will they take long to find the corals in groups? I still haven't seen a single one on or even near my corals, I've taken most of the loose frags out and checked them. They're usually on empty spaces of LR, maybe they're after coralline/sponges/tubeworms or something else? Or does it take them a while to find the corals and start munching?

 

[secretreefer]

heheh not doubting your paint skills but maybe a pic might help more.

 

[AquaWorldPSC]

THey sound like Acro Eating Flatworms, if so than FWE will not kill them, you have to dip all your corals and manually remove all the eggs. Revive works well for this.

Use a turkey baster and suck some up and put them in a cup with FWE and see what happens. FWE will not kill AEFW IME... Goodluck

 

[tclipse]

heheh not doubting your paint skills but maybe a pic might help more.

They are pretty darn small, like 1/4-1/3 a grain of rice I'll see if I can snap a shot with the new (hand-me-down) 100mm, or maybe siphon one out and see if I can't get a better pic. They really do look just like the paint picture :xd: Really though, it's pretty accurate for a 2 minute paint session.

THey sound like Acro Eating Flatworms, if so than FWE will not kill them, you have to dip all your corals and manually remove all the eggs. Revive works well for this.

Use a turkey baster and suck some up and put them in a cup with FWE and see what happens. FWE will not kill AEFW IME... Goodluck

Good thing I don't have any acros... can they survive on other corals or are they totally acro specific? If they're AEFW, I'm not sure how they'd be reproducing without any food.

Would I know it if they were munching out on my corals or do you just see them moving around the tank by day and then find random damage after a night of feasting? Like I said, I haven't seen a single one on a coral yet, only on "empty" LR... and they hardly move at all until I move in with the tweezers.

Thanks for the help guys, in almost a year of reefing this is my first pest (or probable pest) experience besides the occasional wayward aiptasia... I also ordered some lugol's and already have some revive and will be dipping from now on. I've always been the type to learn the hard way *facepalm*

 

[OceanMinded]

siphon them out for the next few days before you dose anyting in the tank. Took me almost a year to siphone out and kill all my flat worms. Get em while the colony is small

 

[dakotasreef]

It could also be some type of nudibranch. I doubt they are aefw since you can see them. Have you noticed them on any corals at all?

 

[tclipse]

None on the corals. I was thinking that they could possibly be nudis as well, but after looking at a flatworm ID site for like 2 hours I found a few varieties with VERY similar body shape

EDIT- WOW.... I FEEL INCREDIBLY STUPID. I just went back to the "flatworm ID site," which happens to be called "The Sea Slug Forum." I should probably start dosing my brain's tank with some gingko. A lot of the nudi pics on the site are flat as all hell and look exactly like flatworms, and the google search that led me to the site was for flatworms, but I guess I never read the title bar. No justification for that one. I'm really not an idiot, really. No really.

So yes, they are probably nudis.... the body shape is exactly the same as the black one labeled #3 on this page, except they are light gray with the markings in the MS paint pic- The Sea Slug Forum - Berthella martensiLike I mentioned in the first post, they're most similar to the species listed as Pleurobranchidae (which are SEA SLUGS, NOT FLATWORMS..... frick.), I literally spent hours scrolling through those species listings and not once did it occur to me.... to my credit, most of the family/genus I was checking out at looks more like flatworms than nudis (i.e. The Sea Slug Forum - Berthella ornata and The Sea Slug Forum - Pleurobranchus albiguttatus ). Still......... *SMH*.

Had to be my first thread here too :crossedlips: Does that help the ID at all? They're obviously not the typical zoa eaters.

 

[tclipse]

On the bright side though, FWE takes care of nudis pretty well, doesn't it? I've seen a couple of sites showing pictures of it dissolving the zoa-eating species at the very least.. I would assume this translates fairly well to other species, though I'm sure the toxins (and thus their immunities) vary between species.

 

[AquaWorldPSC]

I take my comment back, def. not AEFW since you have no acros.

 

[tclipse]

These are the best I could do, I just started working with macro lenses and haven't quite gotten the hang of shooting through glass... also these things are really small (again, about 1/4-1/3 a grain of rice).

 

[tclipse]

Honestly, I think my MS paint pic was more useful :xd: