Are flatworms good or bad?

[jethro]

I may have a problem here.

I am reading that flatworms are parasitic. Are they good or bad to have in a tank?

 

[danmhippo]

Not good.....not unless you prefer to have your corals smothered of lights.

 

[jethro]

I don't have any corals. I have a fish only with live rock and one button polyp.

If flatworms are bad. How do I get rid of them?

 

[slojmn1]

There are some types of non parasitic forms of flatworms. In a lot of newly established reef systems you will find a non parasitic flatworm that really does not harm a thing and is an indication of things running along smoothly. It is a transparent whitish color wiht a round front end and a forked anterior end, reminds me of the Starship Enterprise.
What do your flatworms look like?

 

[Iron]

In a fo or a fowlr they aren't bed except for looks. heard some fish get poisoned from eating but dunno. The red planeria is poisonous. They can kill sps with there makeup. i had a cvarians that pee-ed???/ red stuff like they were made of and killed the part that hit the sps. But it ate almost all of them

 

[jethro]

These are oval shaped, and raise in the middle. They are light brown to almost transparent around the edges and darker brown in the middle. The color of a piece of wet oatmeal.

They look like little tiny suction cups.

The strainer I have set up for the water before it goes into my sump is a great breading ground for amnipods. I think they are amnibods or mysis shrimp. The flat worms are showing up in the strainer too.

 

[slojmn1]

Flatworms are distinctive in there look, very different from amphipods and mysis shrimp. your description of a flat suction like round worm definetely indicates that you probably do have flatworms. I have never had the parasitic form(knocking on wood right at this moment

) but have seen them at my lfs, in other reefers tanks, and in pictures on the boards. I would do a search ont he board and pop in the word flatworms and I think you will have a plethora of info

 

[jethro]

Will there be an outbreak of them in my tank?

 

[jethro]

bump

 

[jethro]

Thank you very much Leldon.

I am wondering if I should get something that will eat them. Right now they aren't too bad. I have only spotted a few of them. They seem to be on the glass and may actually be eating stuff I don't want.

I wonder if my hermit crabs would eat them if they can get them.

I have a Yellow Tang, a Singapore Angel, and a Cinnimon Clown. Would any of those guys eat them?

Thanks to all for your help

 

[chris_h]

My hawkfish eats flatworms.

 

[esmithiii]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

increasing the specific gravity above 1.022 can rid you of them (but would be bad for certain corals).

1.022 SG is a myth. 1.0265 is the specific gravity (which corresponds to 35 ppt) of natural sea water around most reefs of the world. I am not sure where the number 1.022 came from. I run 1.0250-1.0265 regularly and my corals thrive, LPS, SPS and softies.

[ January 13, 2002: Message edited by: esmithiii ]</p>

 

[Lockart]

Some info from "The Reef Aquarium" by J. Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung: First, any of the negative impacts they discuss are with respect to corals (which you said you don't have). Second, flatworms are not uncommon in a new tank, and once conditions stabilize, they may go away. If it's an established tank, increasing the specific gravity above 1.022 can rid you of them (but would be bad for certain corals). Third, certain wrasses (six-lined, yellow, maybe others) and bottom sifting gobies have been known to eat them. Fourth, some species are attracted to light and may be siphoned off when they collect at a single light point. Finally, if they congregate on a single host (for us, it was corals), then a fresh water dip will remove them. If dipping corals, it should only be 5-10 seconds, and some recover better than others (great on our hammer, frogspawn and galaxia, terrible on our daisy- our daisy we ended up squirting with freshwater in the tank using a syringe and scooping the critter with a net). Hope that helps out with what to do to get rid of them.
-Renee