Brown tiny flat worms on glass? Help!

[commanderwho]

Hello,

I am about to do a water change and realized I have a lot of these tiny brownish critters. Looks like they are moving around eating algae? They are oval with 2 tails. I have not added anything to my tanks for 3 to 4 months. Super hard to take a nice photo of. Fish all seem to be fine. Thank you

 

[sfin52]

red planaria

 

[commanderwho]

red planaria

Hello, should I be concerned?

 

[Reeferjunkie]

Hello, should I be concerned?

Mostly harmless but can multiply and also eat copepods and rotifers. melanurus wrasse eat them and have heard great things

 

[sfin52]

Hello, should I be concerned?

They are pretty harmless till thier numbers get bigger. The danger is the numbers getting to large and smothering coral.

Becareful if they die in large numbers they can release toxins killing everything in the tank.

 

[sfin52]

Some of the fish that may eat them are yellow corris wrasse, melanurus wrasse, springer damsel, leapord wrasse.
There is a nudi that will eat them as well
Blue Velvet Nudibranch

 

[commanderwho]

Some of the fish that may eat them are yellow corris wrasse, melanurus wrasse, springer damsel, leapord wrasse.
There is a nudi that will eat them as well
Blue Velvet Nudibranch

Thank you!
Well my tank is only 20 gallons and I got a pair of clowns, royal gramma, and a yellow watchman goby all been doing great.
So I don’t think adding another fish would do lol.
before I saw your message earlier I ended up smashing about 30ish of them…was that a bad idea? I did it then continued my water change. So my idea is every two weeks just kill some? Let me know if that’s okay? Thanks!

 

[Reeferjunkie]

I wouldn't worry too much about them and if they start messing with coral and reducing the light they receive or overpopulating you might have to do something

 

[sfin52]

I wouldn't worry too much about them and if they start messing with coral and reducing the light they receive or overpopulating you might have to do something

Sounds like they are at that point. Use a siphon to remove as many as possible.

 

[sfin52]

@fishguy242 , @Erin O , @Lost in the Sauce @F i s h y

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

They will just reproduce and reproduce... They aren't exactly harmful, but they do Annoy coral.

Flatworm exit works but it is a process. Starting with manual removal to get as many out as you can, then medicating the tank then adding carbon, multiple days on my schedule to break the reproduction cycle. This can take us view as three treatments. It took me 10 increasing in dosage

 

[rmorris_14]

Use airline sized tubing to suck out as many as you can during water changes. The smaller tubing is the perfect size and gives you more time to get as many as you can without removing too much water quickly in the process.

 

[Amelanchier]

I don’t think they’re red planaria. Your worms look like they have a rounded pointy head whereas red planaria look more or less rectangular, and your worms only have two “tails” whereas red planaria have three.
That said, I’m not sure what yours are. They look similar to one I found in my tank a few days so I’ve also been looking for an ID.

 

[commanderwho]

I don’t think they’re red planaria. Your worms look like they have a rounded pointy head whereas red planaria look more or less rectangular, and your worms only have two “tails” whereas red planaria have three.
That said, I’m not sure what yours are. They look similar to one I found in my tank a few days so I’ve also been looking for an ID.

Yea, it’s hard to take a good picture of what I have. Also they are stuck on the glass and won’t be siphon. I don’t see any around my corals or rocks just on the glass.

 

[tinyfellows]

I’ve got the same worms in my tank. I had a little success using an algae scraper and siphoning them out but will be watching to see what other people say to do cause they are multiplying quickly now

 

[TangGang]

These are probably some sort of acoel flatworm, not red planaria flatworms. Its much to difficult to figure out what kind of acoel species this is, but usually these are definitely not as harmful as other types of flatworms like planaria. Most likely these just eat pods and rotifers. If you never see them on the coral then these are definitely not the harmful species, if you do find them on coral then I would start to look for methods to get rid of them.

 

[commanderwho]

I’ve got the same worms in my tank. I had a little success using an algae scraper and siphoning them out but will be watching to see what other people say to do cause they are multiplying quickly now

And it’s not good smashing them correct? I did that yesterday and today there seems to be more!

 

[neonreef3d]

They will go away from my experience,,, I had a bunch in my anemone tank, and they disappeared in a few weeks, nothing to be concerned about,,, just scrape them off the glass..

 

[commanderwho]

Hopefully a better picture…super hard to see

 

[commanderwho]

They will go away from my experience,,, I had a bunch in my anemone tank, and they disappeared in a few weeks, nothing to be concerned about,,, just scrape them off the glass..

When you say scrape them off the glass as in smashing them?