Help Me! What Are These?

[Pearsondesign]

ok, so i just sat and watched my lionfish tank and noticed some odd little green things on the glass.
they are tiny, about 2-3mm each, pale green with one red dot at the end i assume to be the mouth

there are lots, all over the glass front and sides. they also move quite quickly too

any ideas what they are? are they good? or bad?

these are the best pics i could get im afraid

they look a bit like tiny slugs.... any ideas?

 

[Pearsondesign]

on further inspection they are all over the sand aswell!!
literally hundreds of them!

 

[simonas]

are they deformed Asternia starfish/ I have them and they are greenish with red or orange dots on them?

 

[injektion]

me thinks you have a flatworm infestation lol - (not laughing at you specifically fyi)

 

[Pearsondesign]

oh no!
are they bad?

if so how do i detroy them all?

 

[Pearsondesign]

i found this pic on the internet too

looks deffo like that! apparently they arent bad, but can cuase corals to die due to them being smothered by these little gits and not getting light etc.

im going to try some flatworm exit, or even just syphoning them out at first
stupid things!

 

[seffieuk]

There are a few fish that eat flatworms

Seffie x

ps i wouldn't put any chemical in my reef tank

 

[Pearsondesign]

luckily its not the reef tank, its the lionfish tank which only has a small kenya tree frag, some green ricordia and some xenia in it.

i read that quick changfes in salinity can kill them so today was my tank topup day so i topped it up with freshwater and poured it over the main lot of them, but nope, they survived!!! ahhhhh

 

[nick87]

luckily its not the reef tank, its the lionfish tank which only has a small kenya tree frag, some green ricordia and some xenia in it.

i read that quick changfes in salinity can kill them so today was my tank topup day so i topped it up with freshwater and poured it over the main lot of them, but nope, they survived!!! ahhhhh

They are resilient little buggers.

Be careful with the salinity, big swings are going to affect everything in the tank.

As seffie said there are things that will eat them, six line wrasse are meant to do a good job.

 

[Pearsondesign]

yeah, but the problem is they are in my volitan tank, and id have to find a pretty large wrasse not to be eaten

any other ideas? im gonna try some flatworm exit i think, but then ill have to do a massive water change as when the flatworms die they release toxins...

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[nick87]

yeah, but the problem is they are in my volitan tank, and id have to find a pretty large wrasse not to be eaten

any other ideas? im gonna try some flatworm exit i think, but then ill have to do a massive water change as when the flatworms die they release toxins...

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Never used flatworm exit myself but i've heard of it wiping out more than a few tanks.

As this isn't a reef tank and there's no immediate danger i'd leave the chemicals as a last resort, you could try increasing flow and syphoning them out.

Have a read of this page http/www.wetwebmedia.com/pestflatwrmanthony.htm

 

[injektion]

yea even though it isn't a reef tank I would still leave chemicals to a last resort. i think the best thing to do is to patiently remove as many as you can manually by siphoning them.

here's a short article about an experiment with nudibranches, although I would steer clear of those unless you're an advanced aquarist (if this violates any external linking rules i'm terribly sorry just thought it might be a useful article)
http/www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/short.htm

 

[Harry1996]

i have read that after some time they all die because there's not enough food for them so they all just die

 

[Pearsondesign]

its funny you should say that lol
i did a water top up the other day, freshwater RO water poured into the tank at the side they were all congregating.
then i gave the sand a really good mix up because there were hundreds all over it, then today ive looked and can only see about 4 of them on the glass, none on the sand!
maybe they all got sucked up by filter when sand was mixed up

either way im happy again! and my lionfish tank looks beautiful and clean again hehe