New Discovery - Flatworms?

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » Thu May 11, 2006 9:24 pm

At the store today I was trying unsuccessfully to describe a recent new discovery. They are almost transparent (like a jellyfish), rounded at the front with two pointed tail like shapes in the back. They are about 1/16" to 1/8" long (expand and shrink) and have no skeleton. The rounded front appears to open like a mouth and has one small white dot along the leading edge. There is also a small area that is less clear midway between the front and back. They seam to hide in the rocks and only come out at night. The ones on the glass appear to be cleaning it or eating what I believe to be copepods. I found a web site with a picture that labeled them as Acoel Flatworms. Another site (no picture) said they multiply by splitting. Am I right in assuming they are not a problem? I have several now. Will they multiply rapidly? If they need to go is there a natural (say fish) way to rid the tank of them?

Thanks in advance.

Post by **Gerwin** » Fri May 12, 2006 8:28 pm

are they red in color or even slightly? if they are then they are undesirable. they will reach epidemic proportions. If clear than most likely the same little flatworm family and in a closed system can get out of control. Try a mandarin goby, I put one in my reef tank and it all but annihilated these pests.

The good news, I have seen reef tanks so thick they look like diatom algae on the sand, yet no problem with the corals. Ultimately 2 mandarins took care of the problem there as well. So not so pretty, yet I have not seen die off because they are in the tank either.