Red planaria

TerraVlog

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Hi everyone,
Lately I've noticed that Red Planaria flatworms have started appearing on the front glass of my aquarium. The tank is almost 3 years old and everything else seems fine. What should I do about them?

I also have two questions:

Why are they so fragile? I wanted to observe one under a microscope, but they are quite mobile, so I tried to kill one first. However, when I put it in tap water, it “burst.” When I tried to deprive it of water, it also burst.

When I finally managed to observe one, I noticed it was made up of a transparent membrane and something that looked like tiny hairs. It also released an orange fluid that looked like a clump of cells (microscope photo below).
(Idk why but admins changed the way you can upload pics so its the only way i could do it)

As for their presence—should I be worried? I have a mandarin dragonet, but it ignores them and doesn’t want to eat them.
 

Crabs McJones

Regional Reef Manager (AKA Revhtree's Boss)
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Gotta be careful with red planaria, when they die they release toxins.
Manual removal when doing water changes it best, suck them up with the hose.
Otherwise flatworm x and run carbon and monitor the tank
 

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