What are these?

[ELwirePros]

Please help ID these. The photos are greatly magnified. These appear to be about 1 to 2 mm in length. They are a light brown to light rust in color. They are on the glass right at the top of the sand. They are also throughout the sand. When I try to manually remove them, most of them disappear back into the sand rather quickly. I was able to get quite a few off of the glass.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Look up flatworms and see if it matches.

 

[ELwirePros]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have been researching for a few days now...and all of the other flatworms that i am seeing have the tell tail 3 points on one side. These seem to be much thinner when they move on the glass. I will try to get some better photos.

 

[ELwirePros]

I tried to upload a video, but it is not working properly. Please see the video here:


Any help on the ID would be greatly appreciated! I will add a few more pics as well

 

[Lionfish Lair]

There's no link for the video. I swear I saw a facebook link as I was scrolling down, but it's not just a picture that says it's unavailable. It does indeed look like a flatworm of some description from that picture.

 

[ELwirePros]

Gotta love technology!

 

[Lionfish Lair]

This is all I see. You can only click on the "learn More", but that brings you to a general Facebook page.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Is there a privacy setting to change maybe?

 

[ELwirePros]

Lets try again...

 

[ELwirePros]

Video should be working now. You may have to change the quality to 1080p

 

[ELwirePros]

I have done weeks of research on these critters and I am still without an ID. I had a guy from my LFS come to see them personally and he had never seen anything like this in his 20+ years of his tank maintenance business.

*Update* These little guys are now numbering in the thousands and are within every square centimeter of my sand. They look like tiny rust spots on the sand. If you disturb the sand, they instantly disappear, just to return in a few seconds. They are only in the sand, and a few are still on the glass right at the top of the sand. None at all on any corals or live rock. i am now considering "Flatworm Exit"... Any help on this would be wonderful!!!

 

[ahiggins]

+1 on Lionfish lair for flatworms. I have a few in my tanks-thankfully the wrasses keep them in check.
Be VERY careful with flatworm exit if you have living things in your tank. Once flatworms are killed they release toxins, which in large numbers, could easily crash a tank.

Maybe @Lionfish Lair remembers-recently someone was talking about a way to "stun" them so that they can be blown around and picked up via mechanical filtration or filter sock but wont kill them.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have done weeks of research on these critters and I am still without an ID. I had a guy from my LFS come to see them personally and he had never seen anything like this in his 20+ years of his tank maintenance business.

*Update* These little guys are now numbering in the thousands and are within every square centimeter of my sand. They look like tiny rust spots on the sand. If you disturb the sand, they instantly disappear, just to return in a few seconds. They are only in the sand, and a few are still on the glass right at the top of the sand. None at all on any corals or live rock. i am now considering "Flatworm Exit"... Any help on this would be wonderful!!!

a curious question. Why do you want them out?
I dont believe its a flatworm btw. just a worm. if the introduction of these to your system was recent its more than likely the population will die back once they clean your sand.
And yes the FWE would be tough w a population that high. see melevs reefs he has a brilliant write up.
WHat kind of fish do you have? any wrasses or sand sifters?

@Wiz any Idea what that is?

 

[Wiz]

No idea. cool though. I wouldn't ditch em unless they cause trouble. Ill be following and researching

 

[ELwirePros]

Thanks all! Just a few answers for your questions…

I want them out because I consider any unidentified, (unidentifiable), worm as a potentially bad thing. Just being cautious.

As far as fish go I have 1 six line wrasse, 1 Bengali cardinal, 3 Bartlett's Anthias, 1 tail spot blenny, 1 diamond goby. "CC" are blue and scarlet hermits, tiger turbos, peppermint shrimp, nassarius snails.

 

[ELwirePros]

I think I may have finally found an ID on these little guys. The consensus seems to be "Red Planaria"

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I think I may have finally found an ID on these little guys. The consensus seems to be "Red Planaria"

hmmm. get another pic. I have some red planaria in the sump. a planaria is acoel and has a split tail.

i love your mystery. There's a guy Ron Shimek. Check out his worm pages.

if you were to go fwe. I think you'd have to spend time vacuuming your sand. Like every weekend for a month at WC before you administered it.. its weird nothing seems to be eating them.

 

[ELwirePros]

I saw Ron's page, but i did not agree with his explanation. I believe that I have "True" Planaria, no split tail.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Red Planaira are these. Commonly.
http://www.melevsreef.com/critters/red-planaria-flatworms
Im sure your having the same prob that its a common name not scientific.
Yep. You have a true planaria. a really common one. a detrivore.
ron studied worms for 40 years, what did you not agree with.

 

[ELwirePros]

Red Planaira are these. Commonly.
http://www.melevsreef.com/critters/red-planaria-flatworms
Im sure your having the same prob that its a common name not scientific.
Yep. You have a true planaria. a really common one. a detrivore.
ron studied worms for 40 years, what did you not agree with.

I may have misspoken. It is not that I disagree with Ron. I very highly respect his work. What I disagreed with was the term "Red Planaria" that he used for his photos. I understand that the flatworms in his photos are not "True Planaria". I am just saying the ones in my tank are "True Planaria" and are not the same ones in his pictures. Maybe I have "Brown Planaria". And the plot thickens…


I did send Ron an email with my photos and a request for his expertise a week or so ago, but I have not heard back from him as of yet.