Help?

A

antman58

New Member
this is my first coral and I just noticed the critters on it and was wondering if they are good or bad and what they might be?
mushroom critters.jpg
 
Bryce E

Bryce E

Active Member
Those look like brown flatworms. They are considered pests. The main problem is that they are blocking light on the coral and some believe they are feeding on the zooxanthellae from the coral tissue. Different types of flat worms are very common. Some bad. Some not. I'd say all of them on your mushroom like that is not good. You have several options here. Natural predators for these are six line wrasse's, dragonettes etc.. in addition to good water quality. They will thrive in high nutrient waters.

They are sensitive to salinity changes.. more so than your coral. So for the immediate I'd say to pull that mushroom and give it a fresh water dip in RO water for 10 seconds and shake the mushroom around. They should just fall right off. Just make sure that your Ph and temp is as close to the tanks as you can get it.

You want to try and get all of them off if possible. Flatworms are toxic when they die so if you are using activated carbon in your system then even better.
 
Bryce E

Bryce E

Active Member
No problem. If you see this many on your mushroom then there are certainly more in the tank. So this will help for now but you're going to want an ongoing solution to the problem. Like clean water and a natural predator. More will likely show up on the mushroom again.
 
silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
Take it out and use a coral dip using water from your tank when you mix the dip to expel the worms. After you re-acclimate it and put it back in the tank, keep an eye out and see if more show up.

Just a thought.
 
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