Possible flat worm killing green torch only

[Mike Yaniz]

Hi everyone.. Newbie here. I added a couple of snails and believe i also got flat worms along with it. I noticed my green torch looking bad and actually lost a head. Saw something flat on it that moves actually two. But only on the torch. I took out the coral dipped it. The flat worms came off. My torch is doing better and i have yet to see another one through out my tank. In addition all my other corals are doing great.
So my question is, if i have yet to see another flat worm in my tank are the chances that i eradicated them good?
I was also thinking to add a melanarus wrasse. I researched that this fish can help eradicate them.

Thanks again to all.

 

[rock_lobster]

dont think it was the flatworms unless you saw hundreds of them covering it.

 

[Mike Yaniz]

thanks rock lobster it looked exactly like the picture i posted

 

[RyanCSGO]

just caught one of these on my new Torch, watched it crawl directly into the head, torch looked incredibly unhappy.
removed the frag, bayer dipped. worm came off and died, torch look happy and healthy now.

how long did you have the torch in the tank before you noticed it and removed the worm?

 

[rock_lobster]

wow that is one monster flatworm. Im sure that guy could be a pretty big irritant.

 

[RyanCSGO]

Everything I was able to read on them, they seem to be a member of the "polyclad" family and typically feed on snails and clams.
hopefully others can/will chime in with additional info.

the one I removed was about an inch and a half long

 

[Mike Yaniz]

Thanks ryan. So my question is if i killed the two that i physically saw on the torch could there be more or can we assume i am safe.

 

[rock_lobster]

Thanks ryan. So my question is if i killed the two that i physically saw on the torch could there be more or can we assume i am safe.

most likely there are more. For each one that you see there are probably at least 10 hiding.

 

[RyanCSGO]

how long was it in the tank before you noticed and removed them?
if they were in the display tank for any amount of time then honestly there is a possibility there could still be more

 

[Mike Yaniz]

Great.. Going to add a melanurus wrasse and see if that helps

 

[Mike Yaniz]

how long was it in the tank before you noticed and removed them?
if they were in the display tank for any amount of time then honestly there is a possibility there could still be more

The torch has been in the tank for 5months. I added some snails from my buddies tank that he broke down and believe it appeared then.

 

[Tahoe61]

Everything I was able to read on them, they seem to be a member of the "polyclad" family and typically feed on snails and clams.
hopefully others can/will chime in with additional info.

the one I removed was about an inch and a half long

Great.. Going to add a melanurus wrasse and see if that helps

I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen this Polylcad type. There are documented cases of a Polyclad type eating or being parasitic to Euphyllia but it's rare. I have never seen reports or threads of this Polyclad becoming invasive. They are active at nigh and repeated manual removal might very well be sufficient. This is a big flat worm, the wrasse would probably have to be a decent sized fish. Consider also that your typical flat worms are found on the surface of media, tank sides, surface of corals. It appears these are dining within the branches, not as easily seen or able to access. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
Please follow up with results.

 

[Tahoe61]

Here is a recent thread.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/need-some-help-to-identify-these-killing-my-torch-coral.309740/

 

[RyanCSGO]

I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen this Polylcad type. There are documented cases of a Polyclad type eating or being parasitic to Euphyllia but it's rare. I have never seen reports or threads of this Polyclad becoming invasive. They are active at nigh and repeated manual removal might very well be sufficient. This is a big flat worm, the wrasse would probably have to be a decent sized fish. Consider also that your typical flat worms are found on the surface of media, tank sides, surface of corals. It appears these are dining within the branches, not as easily seen or able to access. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
Please follow up with results.

I wont lie, I did not dip the torch I added, which was a bad and rare move on my part.
I glued the frag onto a rock, put the supplies away went back to look at it and noticed what looked like white glue rolling down the frag, I gasped but by the time i grabbed the tweezers, i watched is slip away into the rock :mad:
started researching flat worms for the next couple hours, and came up with the polyclad result. looking at the tank again, i watched it crawl back out onto the branch and straight up to the head, when I tried to remove it with the tweezers it darted straight into the head of the Torch. went ahead and removed the frag, ran a Bayer dip which worked immediately. rinsed the frag and re glued it back into the tank. has been looking very happy ever since. been looking closely at the tank (both lights on and off) and have not seen anything further.

 

[Mike Yaniz]

Hi everyone. Just an update. So I found that my green torch had tiny brown eggs everywhere. I looked really well all over my other corals and did not see any signs of eggs or flat worms. I went ahead and trashed the torch (it only had four heads and they weren't looking to good). My question is what are the chances I have more eggs somewhere else. Do they tend to stay together on the torch and why only my torch and not attacking other corals?? Thanks

 

[aquatony]

Ive had them on my mushroom, my hammers. No frogspawn though. My lower flow corals seem to make the worms more visible. Turn up the flow and the disappear.. my corals don't seem to mind them unless splitting is a bad sign [emoji849]

 

[aquatony]

couple of them here.

 

[Kmsutows]

My torch had exactly the same worms... I scraped off as many as i could and scraped the rock absolutely everywhere to be sure I got any eggs then dipped the torch and it's been good ever since

 

[Vincent100]

This look like the flat worm you found
Found this in my other tank the other day , it's full of corals from a friend's tank and there's 2 torch and a frogspawn which were looking worse for wear
Wonder if it came off of one of them

 

[ReeferAdrian]

Once i had these guys on my frogspawn with eggs beneath it, my gosh i was worried. Frogspawn was irritated nontheless, took it out, RO dip and remove the eggs and flatworms (2 of them) with brush and tweezers manually. Frogspawn recovered well after. this was 2 months ago.