Euphyllia-attacking flatworms??

[PicassoClown04]

Hey R2R! I’m in desperate need of y’all’s help. When I was a brand new shiny reefer (like two days in) a friend of mine gave me a colony of green hammer. I saw little pink blotches and thought it was the coolest thing ever... fast forward to today and I now realize that they’re probably flatworms and they’ve colonized every euphyllia in my tank! I see they on all of my hammers, torches, and even on my goni... I tried to get good pics for y’all. Can anyone give me a positive ID and a solution? I’ve read that some flatworm meds are bad for euphyllia so I’m hoping for a specialized response. Is a FW dip going to help? And if it will, how should I go about performing that? They don’t seem to physically hurt the coral too much, mostly prevent it from opening all the way and crawl around grossly on it. You can see them the best on the green hammer colony

 

[r20crazy]

I'm not seeing flatworms, but i'm seeing massive amounts of bubble algae. maybe that's what you are referring to? please circle what you are referring to for confirmation,

 

[nex64]

OP’s talking about the red planaria that are photosynthesizing on the tissue of his euphyllia.
Tell that friend you are no longer friends.

 

[Devin6871]

There is definitely flatworm action in that tank. Dipping the corals and hitting any flatworm you find around the tank with a siphon is a good start. There are almost certainly more about your tank.

 

[GlassMunky]

I’d take them all out and dip them
In Bayer.
euphyllia eating flatworms suck.

 

[GlassMunky]

I'm not seeing flatworms, but i'm seeing massive amounts of bubble algae. maybe that's what you are referring to? please circle what you are referring to for confirmation,

 

[PicassoClown04]

Yep that’s what I’m talking about

 

[r20crazy]

ahhhh… yea, sometimes it sucks being color blind. hard for me to distinguish some things. Bayer dip as stated, and flatworm exit for tank... just read up on treatment

 

[PicassoClown04]

As you can see, the green one especially is infested. So, they’re red planaria? What’s the best course of action? FW dip followed by a bayer dip?

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Yeah, I'd pull it all out and give all your frags a dip. That's a bad infestation

 

[nex64]

This frogspawn has the same problem.

 

[nex64]

Everyone has their own course of action and recommends what they do.
But I’ve beat and continue to beat red planaria with much less stressful measures.
You can manual remove and research adding a wrasse to keep them at bay.
Or you can go the for sure predatorial route and get a blue velvet nudibranch.

if you want to dip your corals and kill off the ones on the corals, you’re more than welcome to. However, there are still probably thousands in the tank if they are already on your coral tissue, which means you won’t be doing much to stop the population.

There are also nice tools you can use to siphon out the masses. Melevs Reef discusses this tool and his routes to erradication. Flatworm Exit has reported to not work on several occasions for reefers as well. So I’d research that before you go throwing it in your tank.

Red planaria aren’t harmful to corals until they start suffocating corals like they are attempting to do to your euphyllia. So I’d start getting to action ASAP.

At any rate, good luck with your battle.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Thanks everyone, I’m going to need it. I considered adding a wrasse but after research, I decided against it because my tank is bare bottom, has no lid, and only 20 gallons. I think I’m going to try a manual removal and dip combo because I can easily remove the affected corals to perform a dip outside of the tank. I did notice the suffocation y’all are talking about, which is why I finally decided to do something about it and have a course of action. Thanks!

 

[TriggerFinger]

Hey @footgal i don’t think the coral can handle a freshwater dip. May want someone else to chime in before you do that.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Hey @footgal i don’t think the coral can handle a freshwater dip. May want someone else to chime in before you do that.

Thanks, I will. Do you think there’s anyone specifically that I should mention about this? Like the HumbleFish of corals and pests?

 

[TriggerFinger]

Lol ummm....there’s probably a few but I can’t think off the top of my head. Just to be safe, dip them in Bayer or coral rx mixed in your tank water. This is going to be a regular thing for you for a while...

 

[TriggerFinger]

@nex64 @Chefwheredyougo ! Do you know if corals can be dipped in freshwater??

 

[Jordan pitts]

Bayer dip I have the same problem as you and being that your bare bottom and only 20 gallons I would do a fw exit as well but have a 50% water change ready and some carbon after the die off happens

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

@nex64 @Chefwheredyougo ! Do you know if corals can be dipped in freshwater??

I've done my euphyllia in them before, but it was literally less than a minute. They were ticked off for a few hours, but they came back fine. I did it with acans the same amount of time and they never came back. So, I don't want to recommend it just based off MY experience.

 

[TriggerFinger]

I think you should stick with the dips mixed in your tank water @footgal