Tiny Flatworms

[Gettin Tanked]

Welp, looks like I have flatworms. Typical brownish redish kind that we all seem to be familiar with. I've had them before in previous tanks. Except this time, they are TINY, I mean seriously you can barely even see them on the rock, but DEFINITELY brown flatworms.

My current tank is a nano tank, and has been set up for two years now, aquascaped with dry rock with no rock from the previous tank, just the corals, which were flatworm free when I transferred them to the new setup.

Not sure where these guys came from, but it there doesn't appear to be a ton of them. Unfortunately I'm thinking there could possibly be a lot more than I can see, especially with how small they are and the fact that there basically a few here and there throughout the tank.

I'm a bit concerned here, I have flatworm exit and know the deal about syphoning them out with airline hose, but the problem is I can barely even see these guys, they are less than half the size of the previous ones I've dealt with. Anyone ever deal with the tiny ones?

 

[KJ]

Flatworm - Acoel
Brown Flatworms

Suitability: Watch Them!

Diet: Detritus, algae and copepods.

Remarks: Read More!

Look like this?

 

[sawdonkey]

I've had these and still see one from time to time. They don't seem to bother anything and the population never really grows. I ran FWE a while ago and didn't see them, but now I see them from time to time. They don't worry me and I plan to just roll with it.

 

[Justiful]

I have one of those... I have only spotted one but I will keep a lookout for more.

 

[Gettin Tanked]

I've had these and still see one from time to time. They don't seem to bother anything and the population never really grows. I ran FWE a while ago and didn't see them, but now I see them from time to time. They don't worry me and I plan to just roll with it.

cool, I'm hoping for either them not being a problem or just to go away all together lol. I do have a possum wrasse who pecks on the rocks sometimes, haven't seen it eat a flatworm yet though

Bur yeah they're the classic brown flatworm just like the pictures. Only much smaller than ones I've dealt with in the past. I can't imagine trying to siphon them out since they're so hard to see. Just gonna try to remove all the ones I can see and treat with some fwe then just keep an eye on things for now.

 

[Gettin Tanked]

Hey sorry if I had the wrong forum

Just an update, I attempted my first syphoning with airline tubing today, I got quite a few but there are many that are unreachable because they are so small. Got a closer look at them, and they are actually barely bigger than the size of a pinhead. It makes me wonder how many I can't see.

just wanted to see if anyone's dealt with this kind of flatworm before? I'm thinking of just doing a fwe dip on everything outside of the aqua scape and then fwe treating the tank with a 50% pwc following that. Good approach?

 

[Gettin Tanked]

Or, I'm wondering if due to their size I should even worry about em them or not

There seems to be quite a few of them but none on any corals, or so it seems. Sorry for the ramble I'm just trying to get some input on how I should proceed from here

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Hi there, I have these in my tank (the teeny ones, so small I can't even get a picture but they look just like the image of the acoel flatworm). It's been about 4 months or so since I first noticed them and they don't seem to bother my SPS corals.

 

[Gettin Tanked]

Hi there, I have these in my tank (the teeny ones, so small I can't even get a picture but they look just like the image of the acoel flatworm). It's been about 4 months or so since I first noticed them and they don't seem to bother my SPS corals.

Awesome. That's not a bad sign. They seem far to minuscule to ever be a problem, hopefully anyway. I only noticed them when I added a couple pieces of dry rock rubble that I attached some frags to. Since the rubble was white that's where I discovered the flatworms. I can barely see any others, otherwise

Thanks!

 

[Fuel1976]

I've got them and not happy!!! They attach to the tentacles of my green torch and sit on top I mushrooms. Guessing they are also in the rock work. My six line doesn't touch them. Syphoning is impossible because they are on the corals. Begging for ideas. Already reduced feeding and increased flow. No changes. Afraid to use FWE. UGH

 

[Wiz]

Have had these since the start. My fuge has a bunch. Population has never exploded. They don't cause any issue in my tank

 

[Gettin Tanked]

EDIT: hold on, I hit reply on accident. dang phones. Full response will be up shortly

 

[Wiz]

Are you sure they are acoel and not pumpkin flatworms or some other type. Cant be sure, but your description sounds like pumpkin worms.
Flatworm - Waminoa sp.Pumpkin FlatwormsSuitability: Watch Them!Diet: Detritus, algae and copepods.

I've got them and not happy!!! They attach to the tentacles of my green torch and sit on top I mushrooms. Guessing they are also in the rock work. My six line doesn't touch them. Syphoning is impossible because they are on the corals. Begging for ideas. Already reduced feeding and increased flow. No changes. Afraid to use FWE. UGH

 

[Gettin Tanked]

I've got them and not happy!!! They attach to the tentacles of my green torch and sit on top I mushrooms. Guessing they are also in the rock work. My six line doesn't touch them. Syphoning is impossible because they are on the corals. Begging for ideas. Already reduced feeding and increased flow. No changes. Afraid to use FWE. UGH

Yikes I hear you, flatworms caused me to give up on my last tank and start over. They were way out of hand

So I started over with dry rock and have used a coral dip along with ro dip on every coral I've gotten since then, and two years later I discovered flatworms again. It's frustrating

FWE is great! Just gotta act fast and do big water changes immediately to dilute the toxins from the dying flatworms

but if you need advice, in additional to the standard syphon+FWE+PWC, my main input would be that I always hear about a lot of hobbyists getting most of them out but never getting rid of them all. I would want to get them all, but that would take a few drastic measures. If you're willing to take a few more drastic measures for the sake of efficiency (including dismantling your aqua scape), here is what I would do:

If you have a a huge tank with a lot of live rock, this will be hard, but maybe you can get someone to help you. small or medium size tanks you can knock it out in a day:
1) Syphon flatworms out for several weeks until you barely see any.
2) get some sort of large clean tote or totes and fill it with with saltwater and treat the water with FWE. Put a power head in the tote.
3) begin removing your live rock and corals, and basically all movable objects from the tank. Make sure none of your fish are hiding in the Live rock when you move it! (I've learned that the hard way)
4) wait for the FWE to do it's job and see some flatworms dying in about 30-90 minutes (or somewhere around that time, I believe). while you are waiting, I would do a decent size PWC on your tank and take this time to do some serious siphoning, because chances are you stirred up a bit of detritus when you removed your rock, don't give yourself a nitrate spike in the midst of this.
5) after the FWE bath on your rock, swish your rock around, and place it back in your tank. have plenty of water on hand for additional water changes
6) wait a few weeks and do a follow up treatment of FWE on your tank. i think that should wipe them all out

why do i think dipping your rocks is better than treating the tank right off the bat? it seems more thorough to me, mainly because when you swish the rock around, a lot of dead flatworms can fall off into the tote, rather than your tank! and you can dose a more concentrated amount of FWE and not have it in your tank, this will also help you to remove your corals and other life out of the toxic water from dying flatworms faster. and get a lot of detritus off of your rock too, which would definitely help the flatworm situation as well.

this is just what i would do, i think that covers it. any thoughts of what could go wrong?

 

[Gettin Tanked]

The ones that I have are the brown/red ones that you typically see people having problems with. Except they are less than a fraction of the size that they were the last time I dealt with them. I am choosing to do nothing for now.

 

[Wiz]

I have had aefw, planaria, pumpkin worms, and I still have acoel and Amphiscolops (white). I like having the acoel and white. They are good aditions to my tiny "bug" population. The pumpkins didn't bother me but I've heard they can cover corals and block light.

 

[Fuel1976]

The ones that I have are the brown/red ones that you typically see people having problems with. Except they are less than a fraction of the size that they were the last time I dealt with them. I am choosing to do nothing for now.

Awesome advice. Great idea treating the rocks remotely. Definitely going to try this.

Thought I read somewhere of people dosing small amounts of FWE as a preventative and to minimize the chance of them coming back. Does anyone have thoughts on periodic dosing to control flatworm populations from increasing?

 

[Gettin Tanked]

Thought I read somewhere of people dosing small amounts of FWE as a preventative and to minimize the chance of them coming back. Does anyone have thoughts on periodic dosing to control flatworm populations from increasing?

I've never read that anywhere, and I don't see how smaller doses would be effective at all. I'd be concerned about it being ineffective, and the flatworms building up a tolerance to the FWE.

If it were me, I would make it my goal to use any kind a treatment as a last resort. The flatworms I'm dealing with are too small to syphon. i cleaned the tank up, cleaned the filter and pumps and added chemipure blue to filter out any excess nutrients that may be in the water (i've been skipping chemical filtration for awhile, i think that's when the flatworms appeared possibly). it's been a couple weeks and the flatworms seem to be fewer now. hth

 

[Fuel1976]

I've never read that anywhere, and I don't see how smaller doses would be effective at all. I'd be concerned about it being ineffective, and the flatworms building up a tolerance to the FWE.

If it were me, I would make it my goal to use any kind a treatment as a last resort. The flatworms I'm dealing with are too small to syphon. i cleaned the tank up, cleaned the filter and pumps and added chemipure blue to filter out any excess nutrients that may be in the water (i've been skipping chemical filtration for awhile, i think that's when the flatworms appeared possibly). it's been a couple weeks and the flatworms seem to be fewer now. hth

Now that you mention it my ChemiPure is probably spent. Time to replace it. LFS here I come.

 

[Susan Dense]

I've got them and not happy!!! They attach to the tentacles of my green torch and sit on top I mushrooms. Guessing they are also in the rock work. My six line doesn't touch them. Syphoning is impossible because they are on the corals. Begging for ideas. Already reduced feeding and increased flow. No changes. Afraid to use FWE. UGH

Did you ever get rid of them? I feel the same way as you, don’t want to use FWE and sounds like it doesn’t totally get rid of them anyway. Looking into getting a wrasse but don’t have fine sand.