Identification of brown thing

A

Angryfly

I have seen a few of these popping up lately. I have tried to identify it from Marc's i.d. page and am hoping it's not a flatworm. Any ideas?
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I guess ARGH? Why are they so bad/what do they do? Also, are there any natural predators for these? I have never used any chemicals on this tank and don't want to start.
 
This is not hard and fast gospel, but just my experiences... I had some brown flatworms in my refuguims, but have never seen one (Knock on wood) in my dispaly tank... I have three Mandarin's in my display...

When I got my newest Mandarin, she was a little on the skinny side (Okay, let's face it, she looked like a WWII Death camp refugee :( ) so I put her in one of my refuguims to fatten up on the copious pods in there. After a week or so in each of my refuguims, not only was she nice and plump, but I now can no longer find any flat worms at all...

No, I didn't actually see her eating any flat worms, but I had some in there before she was placed in there, and I don't now, and nothing else was added to the refuguims...

Also please note, I'm not advocating adding a Mandarin unless the rest of your tank can support one, as I'm sure you know they have specific non-standard requirements... And, I might just have had a fluke that liked flat worms, it might not be a common dietary habit of theirs...


As to why they're considered bad, they can multiple BIG time, to the point that your tank looks more like a glass|acrylic box full of moving flat worms. Not only is this unsightly, but they can smother corals that they're covering...
 
I think a mandarin is out for me (it's only a 10g). Although I could try it and put it in my 55 if it eradicated them although I think a 55 would be cutting it close also.
 
Depends on the 55 (How much live rock, how long it's been running, any other 'pod predators, is there a refuguim) but yeah, a Mandarin would prolly not be your best option...

If you haven't already read it, here's Marc's page about eradicating flatworms (Using Flatworm eXit)...

http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html

And yeah, I understand your concern about using chemicals in your reef, I'd be very wary of it as well, but from what I've read (Never used it myself, never had the need), if you strictly follow the directions . Flatworm eXit seems to have a decent track record...

And, personally if you're going to act I'd recommend doing it while there's only a few rather than waiting until it reached plague proportions...
 
Right, treating now while you have only a few is the perfect time and it will avoid toxic levels that occur in heavily infested tanks.
 
I was at a LFS and saw hundreds of flatwoms in this lady's show tank.

I said "oh no you have an invasion!"

She says, "Oh, well. They haven't seemed to cause me any trouble before. I'm not worried."

Looks like I'm not buying any coral/anemone from her.
 
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