What are these things killing off my torch??

ReefHomieJon · Jan 29, 2020

Obviously they’re some sort of flatworm, right? I see 4 on the torch. They’ve been slowly killing it. I knew the torch was slowly dying but didn’t know why and now I do. Whatever they are I HATE THEM

stanleo · Jan 29, 2020

Have you tried a coral dip to get rid of them? I don't know what they are but they don't look like something you want that's for sure.

Gestables08 · Jan 29, 2020

stanleo said:
Have you tried a coral dip to get rid of them? I don't know what they are but they don't look like something you want that's for sure.

I agree .. I would try dipping and see what happens . Good luck !

ReefHomieJon · Jan 29, 2020

There were four of those on the outside. I don’t have dip but I took the torch out and manually removed 3 and the forth one tried to retreat inside the torche but I got that sucker too. They looked like giant flatworms of some sort. I lost one Tonga torch that was right next to this one(both used to be glued to the rockscape and they did great for like 3 months then the Tonga started dying so I thought it was lack of flow so I moved it. But to no avail so then this one started showing the same signals of distress about 3 weeks ago. I moved it to the sand bed closer to a low flow power head for an added gentle flow about 4 days ago but when I came home tonight I seen those thing all over it and one sucking on the tentacles smh. Now that I got those things off I’m gonna leave it on the sand bed and see if I find anymore of those(I’ll go get some dip tomorrow too), dip it and monitor it and hope it recovers.

Waynerock · Jan 29, 2020

I had 2 huge ones I had to grab it when it was out of the head. Torch recovered great kill them quickly and Mercilessly! They will spread to other torches very fast. Nasty guy was even starting to change color to match its food source

ReefHomieJon · Jan 29, 2020

Waynerock said:
I had 2 huge ones I had to grab it when it was out of the head. Torch recovered great kill them quickly and Mercilessly! They will spread to other torches very fast. Nasty guy was even starting to change color to match its food source

U know what they are? And why they seem to only mess with torches??

Willu · Jan 29, 2020

They are usually referred to as euphyllia eating flat worms, so it’s possible to find them on all euphyllia. It’s just more common to find them on torches. From what I remember reading, dipping won’t kill them but it will help to get them to fall off. And I think repeated dipping over perhaps a period of a week or two while scrubbing off eggs will help to get rid of them.
I’ve never experienced this problem and this information is from what I’ve looked up online in the past, so I would suggest looking it up yourself, as there is a lot of information.
Good luck!

ReefHomieJon · Jan 29, 2020

Willu said:
They are usually referred to as euphyllia eating flat worms, so it’s possible to find them on all euphyllia. It’s just more common to find them on torches. From what I remember reading, dipping won’t kill them but it will help to get them to fall off. And I think repeated dipping over perhaps a period of a week or two while scrubbing off eggs will help to get rid of them.
I’ve never experienced this problem and this information is from what I’ve looked up online in the past, so I would suggest looking it up yourself, as there is a lot of information.
Good luck!

Thanks!