Weird worm like creatures (in invert QT)

[PotatoPig]

I have a number of these little worms scooting around my glass in my invert QT. They may have been there earlier, but I only noticed them after adding a batch of snails and crabs. They’re a little under 1/8” long.

/tank is kept with plenty of algae for the snails, etc to munch on, hence the kinda dirty glass.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Those are flatworms - depending on the kind, the can be neutral or negative/harmful.

 

[PotatoPig]

Those are flatworms - depending on the kind, the can be neutral or negative/harmful.

Is there any ready way to identify them, or can they be too similar for a reliable ID.

Given they’re, at best, neutral, are there good ways to screen these off the snails/crabs when I move them from QT to the DT?

 

[Spare time]

You might want to run flatworm exit in the invert QT.

 

[PotatoPig]

You might want to run flatworm exit in the invert QT.

Reading up on this is sounds like these worms release toxins that need to be mitigated. For this would a next day water change be adequate if I don’t have carbon?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Agree with flatworms

 

[Spare time]

Reading up on this is sounds like these worms release toxins that need to be mitigated. For this would a next day water change be adequate if I don’t have carbon?

I would think both to be ideal but I would imagine a very large water change would also fix it.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Those are aceol flatworms, and are benign for the most part. I have heard a few stories of them irritating coral at high population densities, but it's very rare. They're a natural part of the reef environment.
Only worry about eliminating them if you find red ones; those are planarian flatworms and are the type that nuke tanks when they die. As someone who has lost a lot to those buggers, get them out of you see them. But aceols are totally harmless.

 

[Spare time]

PS there are some fun fish like scooter dragonets that should eat them if they do make it into the display.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Is there any ready way to identify them, or can they be too similar for a reliable ID.

Given they’re, at best, neutral, are there good ways to screen these off the snails/crabs when I move them from QT to the DT?

There might be ways to ID them relatively easily once you know what to look for, but I don't know those ways at this point (I haven't looked into these kinds of flatworms too terribly in depth yet). Most I personally can only ID generally (such as determining this one is an Acoel flatworm), but a few I can narrow down to the genus level.

As mentioned, Flatworm Exit may help, otherwise you could pick the snails/crabs up and rinse/baste/scrub them off to remove any flatworms/eggs before adding them to the DT.

As was also mentioned, this kind isn't particularly harmful unless you have an enormous population of them, and things like wrasses reportedly love to snack on them.

 

[PotatoPig]

Thank you all, I’ll hold of nuking them unless the bad guys show up.