What kind of Flatworm?

[jhadaway117]

Afternoon everyone. I wanted to see if you could help me with this one? So far this is the fourth one I’ve pulled out of the aquarium in the last few days. I’ve got a mixed reef and a few coral are starting to look off. My hammer and frogspawn are not extending like usual and my monti and anacropora are looking bad as well. This was all after I got back from vacation. My alk dropped to 7 while away, but it is back up to 9. I’m sure the parameters

have something to do with it, but was curious if this critter could have such an impact?

 

[helmsreef]

Almost looks like a ghost flatworm Amphiscolops sp, kind of questionable, I have these in my SPS/Acro system also and they dont bother them. They do however tend to attach to LPS or Mushrooms. They dont appear to be causing issues, but I did recently add a melanurus wrasse to try to curb the issue.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Afternoon everyone. I wanted to see if you could help me with this one? So far this is the fourth one I’ve pulled out of the aquarium in the last few days. I’ve got a mixed reef and a few coral are starting to look off. My hammer and frogspawn are not extending like usual and my monti and anacropora are looking bad as well. This was all after I got back from vacation. My alk dropped to 7 while away, but it is back up to 9. I’m sure the parameters

have something to do with it, but was curious if this critter could have such an impact?

acoel flatworm and while they are not harmful as red planaria, they in numbers can smother bases of coral and block the needed light for production of zooxanthellae which is their energy source.
Removal can be accomplished by siphoning them with a 3/8" tubing into a nylon stocking and discard
OR
Add a wrasse such as Yellow coris, 6 line, lunare or malanurus OR even a springieri damsel which will eat them

With the number you have, for the next 2 weeks you will have to look for eggs and scrape off as there is likely some and would be future acoels. Eggs are really tiny

 

[jhadaway117]

Will a coral dip work on these as well? I have Fritz bug out pro but I’ve never used it. Unfortunately being the noob that I am, I moved fast and didn’t dip any coral before I put them in. My zoas, candy cane, and mushroom look great. It’s just these few suffering right now.

 

[jhadaway117]

Just an update. I pulled the LPS last night and dipped them. Flatworms were present but not in numbers. After taking a closer look at the Monti’s and anacropora I noticed some fuzzy looking critters on them. I dipped them this morning as well and found loads of nudibranch on them. After dipping and manually removing around 15 between the 3 frags I put them back. Just went and took a look at them and there are more! Wish me luck with this battle!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Just an update. I pulled the LPS last night and dipped them. Flatworms were present but not in numbers. After taking a closer look at the Monti’s and anacropora I noticed some fuzzy looking critters on them. I dipped them this morning as well and found loads of nudibranch on them. After dipping and manually removing around 15 between the 3 frags I put them back. Just went and took a look at them and there are more! Wish me luck with this battle!

I was going to say, the flatworm looks like it may be a Waminoa species (if not, it's likely from the same family, Convolutidae), which definitely wouldn't cause that sort of damage - nudibranchs make more sense to me.

For the flatworms:

These aren't coral-eating flatworms (Acropora-eating Flatworms look relatively similar, but not the same as these; Euphyllia-eating Flatworms have a pretty drastically different body shape) - these are some kind of Acoel flatworm, possibly a Waminoa species.

Waminoa flatworms are photosynthetic (much like corals, they have symbiotic dinoflagellates living in them) and reportedly feed on coral mucus (not the corals themselves), so they tend to live on our corals - they're essentially harmless, but in mass numbers can basically smother the coral by blocking the light from getting to them.

Looks like it may be a Waminoa sp. - they are known to feed on the coral mucus rather than the coral itself of corals in the family Euphylliidae, as well as mushroom corals. Theoretically, in large numbers these guys could cause problems for corals like stated in the quote* below:
"Apparently, acoels can harm corals by smothering them, which may hinder their respiration, feeding and sediment shedding capacities."

*The link the quote was taken from:

Tissue loss in corals infested by acoelomorph flatworms (Waminoa sp.) - Coral Reefs

link.springer.com

The only confirmed effective method of removal that I'm aware of is a repeated dip and cleaning method (pull any infected corals from the tank, dip them, scrape off any worms/eggs that stay on through the dip, repeat as needed). It may be more effective if you can to dip, scrape, and then put the corals in a different, uninfected tank to wait out the starvation of any eggs/worms in the infected tank, but this may not be possible. The link below has some other ideas you can explore if you'd prefer, but I have no idea if they're effective or not:

EEFW infestation (euphyllia eating flatworms)

Dip them using coral revive. They peel off in seconds using it. I’ve tried other stuff but nothing works even close as good as revive. They spaz right out in seconds and come off the torches Flatworm exit doesn’t work on these at all...

www.reef2reef.com

Edit: Also, here's a link that shows some more known host corals (I would assume these will host on just about any coral they can get too to be honest).

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Photographs-of-Waminoa-specimens-and-their-hosts-a-Specimen-18-host-Echinophyllia-sp_fig2_324516348

 

[jhadaway117]

I was going to say, the flatworm looks like it may be a Waminoa species (if not, it's likely from the same family, Convolutidae), which definitely wouldn't cause that sort of damage - nudibranchs make more sense to me.

For the flatworms:

Thanks for the info. I’m new to this hobby and learn something everyday. Unfortunately I moved quick with putting corals in my tank before doing my homework. I now know to dip everything and QT my livestock. Had a run in with Ich too!

 

[Outlaw Corals]

Just an update. I pulled the LPS last night and dipped them. Flatworms were present but not in numbers. After taking a closer look at the Monti’s and anacropora I noticed some fuzzy looking critters on them. I dipped them this morning as well and found loads of nudibranch on them. After dipping and manually removing around 15 between the 3 frags I put them back. Just went and took a look at them and there are more! Wish me luck with this battle!

Brother, you are in for a long battle, those things are a nightmare, the best dip for them and any other bugs is potassium chloride you can get on Amazon cheap

 

[jhadaway117]

Brother, you are in for a long battle, those things are a nightmare, the best dip for them and any other bugs is potassium chloride you can get on Amazon cheap

Yeah I can tell this will be an uphill battle. I’ve been removing these nudibranches one by one the last few days and more seem to keep coming back. Luckily I got these monti’s and anacropora frags cheap so I’m considering just getting rid of them so these critters die off. Do you know if they’ll eat meteor shower cyphastrea?

 

[MAH]

Can you post pictures of what you have removed? There is a chance the nudis are eating the flatworms since they came in together. I have had something similar happen to me when I purchased macroalgae. I also got red planaria, but I noticed nudibranches first and killed them. Once the nudis were gone the planaria exploded.

 

[jhadaway117]

Can you post pictures of what you have removed? There is a chance the nudis are eating the flatworms since they came in together. I have had something similar happen to me when I purchased macroalgae. I also got red planaria, but I noticed nudibranches first and killed them. Once the nudis were gone the planaria exploded.

I didn’t take any pics of the nudibranch, but I stole this pic from another site. They looked just like this. If you zoom in on the green anacropora you can see them at the top of the white section. At first I thought they were polyps until I removed and dipped. In the other pics you can see the flat worms. I’ve removed about four of these manually and a couple came off the LPS when I dipped.

 

[Outlaw Corals]

Yeah I can tell this will be an uphill battle. I’ve been removing these nudibranches one by one the last few days and more seem to keep coming back. Luckily I got these monti’s and anacropora frags cheap so I’m considering just getting rid of them so these critters die off. Do you know if they’ll eat meteor shower cyphastrea?

I really am not sure