Help removing Leopard Polyclad Flatworm

Eyllis · Aug 27, 2022

Hi Everyone,

Five nights ago I found a Leopard Polyclad Flatworm about the size of my hand on the back wall of my tank. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture it before it hid inside of a rock. What's the best way to get this out of my tank? Tank is a 20g AIO. It's already eaten all of my snails so catching it in the act is a no go.

Options
1. Place rocks in hypo-salinity + powerhead pointed at rocks.
2. Place rocks in hyper-salinity + powerhead pointed at rocks.
3. Staying up late to catch it in a bottle trap using a clam from the grocery store. (This is going to be difficult because I have to get up early most days).
4. LFS recommended dipping all the rocks in soda water in order to flush it out (Won't that immediately kill my brittle stars?).
5. Other?

I would really appreciate any help because between this, constantly fighting low PH and battling a bad case of GHA I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Thanks in advance.

vetteguy53081 · Aug 27, 2022

Eyllis said:
Hi Everyone,

Five nights ago I found a Leopard Polyclad Flatworm about the size of my hand on the back wall of my tank. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture it before it hid inside of a rock. What's the best way to get this out of my tank? Tank is a 20g AIO. It's already eaten all of my snails so catching it in the act is a no go.

Options
1. Place rocks in hypo-salinity + powerhead pointed at rocks.
2. Place rocks in hyper-salinity + powerhead pointed at rocks.
3. Staying up late to catch it in a bottle trap using a clam from the grocery store. (This is going to be difficult because I have to get up early most days).
4. LFS recommended dipping all the rocks in soda water in order to flush it out (Won't that immediately kill my brittle stars?).
5. Other?

I would really appreciate any help because between this, constantly fighting low PH and battling a bad case of GHA I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Thanks in advance.

If inside rock, remove rock and place in container of tank water and allow it to come out
If it doesn’t come out willingly, increase water temperature and it will

KrisReef · Aug 27, 2022

Eyllis said:
Hi Everyone,

Five nights ago I found a Leopard Polyclad Flatworm about the size of my hand on the back wall of my tank. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture it before it hid inside of a rock. What's the best way to get this out of my tank? Tank is a 20g AIO. It's already eaten all of my snails so catching it in the act is a no go.

Options
1. Place rocks in hypo-salinity + powerhead pointed at rocks.
2. Place rocks in hyper-salinity + powerhead pointed at rocks.
3. Staying up late to catch it in a bottle trap using a clam from the grocery store. (This is going to be difficult because I have to get up early most days).
4. LFS recommended dipping all the rocks in soda water in order to flush it out (Won't that immediately kill my brittle stars?).
5. Other?

I would really appreciate any help because between this, constantly fighting low PH and battling a bad case of GHA I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Thanks in advance.

I've had luck just pulling rocks and putting them in a bucket. Stuff crawls out, bristle worms, flatworms, snails, starfish. It crawls out a lot faster in fresh water. You have to rescue the good quickly but they generally seem to survive. I don't know if this harms the biological filter, but I don't think its that distructive as drying out the rock would be.

IF you have gha, it would be a great time to get the tooth brush out, dip the rock until the worms bail out, then pick up the rock, dip it in salt water,quickly, then brush the gha with H2O2 toothbrush, dip and swirl in salt water and put it back in the tank. If you are doing a water change, use the old water for the dip & swirling and put the clean rocks back in the tank for a quick win!

jabberwock · Aug 27, 2022

Following

KrisReef · Aug 27, 2022

Oh yeah, let us know how this worm invasion ends, pictures of the leopard highly coveted!

Eyllis · Aug 28, 2022

KrisReef said:
Oh yeah, let us know how this worm invasion ends, pictures of the leopard highly coveted!

@vetteguy53081 @KrisReef Thank you both very much for the advice. If I can catch it I will 100% post a picture before flushing it.

jabberwock · Aug 28, 2022

Eyllis said:
@vetteguy53081 @KrisReef Thank you both very much for the advice. If I can catch it I will 100% post a picture before flushing it.

Are they edible? Sounds big enough to make a meal of.

Kill it before you flush it...

((FORDTECH)) · Aug 28, 2022

Eyllis said:
@vetteguy53081 @KrisReef Thank you both very much for the advice. If I can catch it I will 100% post a picture before flushing it.

I’ve been having good luck by using a very large fighting conch for bait. Soon as I put him in tank within first day I seem 4 Polyclad walking around the tank searching for him. They would slide across the sand toward him and when they touch him he would thrash around and throw the worm off. Usually touching the glass with its shell to get my attention. Then I use a siphoned hose in a bucket and suck the worm out. I’ve gotten four in the past week

jabberwock · Aug 28, 2022

((FORDTECH)) said:
I’ve been having good luck by using a very large fighting conch for bait. Soon as I put him in tank within first day I seem 4 Polyclad walking around the tank searching for him. They would slide across the sand toward him and when they touch him he would thrash around and throw the worm off. Usually touching the glass with its shell to get my attention. Then I use a siphoned hose in a bucket and suck the worm out. I’ve gotten four in the past week

This is one heck of a knowledge nugget for my mental tool kit. Thanks!

LeannaBanana · Aug 28, 2022

I had two and successfully pulled them (suctioned them) with a giant turkey baster. You might have to use a bigger gravel vacuum for that monster.

Photo tax, worm in a coffee mug because I wanted to show my teenager the next morning

Eyllis · Aug 30, 2022

((FORDTECH)) said:
I’ve been having good luck by using a very large fighting conch for bait. Soon as I put him in tank within first day I seem 4 Polyclad walking around the tank searching for him. They would slide across the sand toward him and when they touch him he would thrash around and throw the worm off. Usually touching the glass with its shell to get my attention. Then I use a siphoned hose in a bucket and suck the worm out. I’ve gotten four in the past week

No luck as of yet though I did catch a tiny gorilla crab. Maybe it died from lack of food? @((FORDTECH)) I will try this as well. I can’t even imagine having 4 of them. The 1 I saw freaked me out as it is.

KrisReef · Aug 30, 2022

Glad for this update. I expect to see a sale thread post soon; "Giant Polyclad For Sale."

((FORDTECH)) · Aug 30, 2022

Eyllis said:
No luck as of yet though I did catch a tiny gorilla crab. Maybe it died from lack of food? @((FORDTECH)) I will try this as well. I can’t even imagine having 4 of them. The 1 I saw freaked me out as it is.

The ones I have caught have all been much larger then my thumb for what it’s worth so I will assume I have many more that are smaller.

((FORDTECH)) · Aug 30, 2022

I would love to know what they been eating to get so big and live for many many years unnoticed

JGT · Aug 30, 2022

Apparently, they have a fondness for snails. How's your snail population?

Eyllis · Aug 30, 2022

JGT said:
Apparently, they have a fondness for snails. How's your snail population?

@JGT All gone. Originally I thought some parameter must have gone out of whack while I was on vacation which caused problems. Then I saw this thing. The number of empty snail shells that fell out of my rocks when I pulled them from the tank the other day was not pretty.

JGT · Aug 30, 2022

Eyllis said:
@JGT All gone. Originally I thought some parameter must have gone out of whack while I was on vacation which caused problems. Then I saw this thing. The number of empty snail shells that fell out of my rocks when I pulled them from the tank the other day was not pretty.

That's your culprit.

((FORDTECH)) · Aug 30, 2022

JGT said:
Apparently, they have a fondness for snails. How's your snail population?

Gone except for the fist size fighting conch

JGT · Aug 30, 2022

((FORDTECH)) said:
Gone except for the fist size fighting conch

Yum, yum…snails..or escargot.

Eyllis · Sep 5, 2022

Well, at this point I've tried everything. Including the semi-nuclear option of completely ripping my tank apart and letting each rock sit in RO for about 10s. Worm never made an appearance. Which was super frustrating. Though I did a find a tiny flatworm, got rid of the spaghetti worms plus most if not all the Digitate hydroids that were ticking off all my coral during this process but (not surprisingly) my rock isn't doing so well. Hopefully, with the RO dip it just died but we shall see. Worse comes to worse I'll just ditch my live rock and start over with marco rock plus some seeded media. I'd rather cut my losses then provide snail snacks to something I didn't buy. Thank you everyone for your help. If I ever do get a picture I'll post it here.