HELP! SPOTS all over CORALS! What the devil are these things?!?!

eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
Hi there. There are these odd spots all over my corals! I thought that they were from my flame angel nipping and was going to remove it until I noticed these spots can be removed from the coral! They are like little organisms! All over my corals! Please help. Are they dangerous? Are they killing my coral? How do I get rid of them?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by Eaglephot
http:///forum/post/3182777
Hi there. There are these odd spots all over my corals! I thought that they were from my flame angel nipping and was going to remove it until I noticed these spots can be removed from the coral! They are like little organisms! All over my corals! Please help. Are they dangerous? Are they killing my coral? How do I get rid of them?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Can you post a picture?
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Ah, as I thought, FLATWORMS. Do some searches on them to decide which ones you have (since it looks like your pics were taken under actinics or have a blue tint to them I don't want to id the wrong type). Siphon out as many as possible
 
eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
Oh dear. Thanks for the id. Maybe my flame angel isn't nipping on the corals after all. Might just be picking at the flatworms. Anything else I can do besides siphoning them?
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by Eaglephot
http:///forum/post/3182793
Oh dear. Thanks for the id. Maybe my flame angel isn't nipping on the corals after all. Might just be picking at the flatworms. Anything else I can do besides siphoning them?
There is a chemical on the market for them, but honestly, I'd avoid it unless you can't get rid of them.
I had a mandarin and a sixline wrasse who ate all the worms I could not siphon out. I was siphoning all the time and it took about two weeks, morning, afternoon and twice a night to get them all out, plus the fish eating them. Some varieties of flatworms are worse than others so make sure you properly id what you have before doing anything other than siphoning. Get as much off your coral as possible, they can smother the coral and prevent it from getting light which will cause it to die. My flatworm outbreak was responsible for killing a lot of my soft corals (they seemed to be especially fond of non-ricordia mushrooms and zoos).
Good luck
 
9supratt4

9supratt4

Active Member
Wow!! You sure do have worms!!

They look like Red Planaria. AEFW you can't see when on the coral, so good guess is Red Planaria.
I didn't have that many...but unlike BTLD stated...I used Salifert Flatworm Exit...it worked great!! My zoo's and paly's didn't like it too much but they were fine the next day. I'm glad to say since I treated I haven't seen nearly as many as I used to. I used to see them all the time...maybe 5-10 in a 1 foot area...now i'm lucky if I see one!!
If you do go the chemical route...just be sure to follow the instructions exactly as they are written!!
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by 9supratt4
http:///forum/post/3182807
Wow!! You sure do have worms!!

They look like Red Planaria. AEFW you can't see when on the coral, so good guess is Red Planaria.
I didn't have that many...but unlike BTLD stated...I used Salifert Flatworm Exit...it worked great!! My zoo's and paly's didn't like it too much but they were fine the next day. I'm glad to say since I treated I haven't seen nearly as many as I used to. I used to see them all the time...maybe 5-10 in a 1 foot area...now i'm lucky if I see one!!
If you do go the chemical route...just be sure to follow the instructions exactly as they are written!!
You're one of the few people I've heard that have had good results from that stuff. I think it's because the majority of people don't follow directions, so I just stopped recommending it to people. I had even more than what is posted in those pics, WAY MORE, and was able to get rid of them all naturally. Trust me, if I couldn't get rid of them, chemicals would have been next.
 
9supratt4

9supratt4

Active Member
Originally Posted by BTLDreef
http:///forum/post/3182901
You're one of the few people I've heard that have had good results from that stuff. I think it's because the majority of people don't follow directions, so I just stopped recommending it to people. I had even more than what is posted in those pics, WAY MORE, and was able to get rid of them all naturally. Trust me, if I couldn't get rid of them, chemicals would have been next.
You are soooo right!! People do not follow directions!!

When I treated, I followed them EXACT!! I didn't lose any corals or any of my shrimp or other inverts!!
 
mskillerreef

mskillerreef

Member
Yucky! At my boyfriend's aquarium store, there was an awesome 12 gallon nano well stocked that was overrun with flatworms in no time. We put a Red Scooter Dragonette in the nano and within two weeks he had 90% GONE! Just plucked one after the other. There were still a couple left, but that can be treated with chemicals, orrr like BLTDreef said, you can put in a mandarin, like a target mandarin, to pluck em all out- the only thing with mandarins and dragonettes is after the worms are gone, they must have plentiful food, and they are very picky...
 
eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
BTLDReef, THANK YOU for your help. With lots of siphoning, my Sixline, Mandarin Goby and I took care of them. My corals have opened up and they are happy again!
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by Eaglephot
http:///forum/post/3191880
BTLDReef, THANK YOU for your help. With lots of siphoning, my Sixline, Mandarin Goby and I took care of them. My corals have opened up and they are happy again!

YAY! Glad I could help and that it worked out. :) They are such a pain!
 
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