View Full Version : Brown Flakes ID Please
Hey all, please have a look at the picture. The red arrow indicates some brown flakes that have appeared. They seem to be spreading. Any IDs would be welcome.
http://www.westendtrains.com/aquarium/Brown flakes.JPG
Do they move? They look like red flatworms, but it's hard to tell without a close-up.
actually they do move but not while I am watching. I think they are actually multiplying. Hard to describe. There seems to be a few more every day. All the same size. Also, they seem to get smaller at nite with no lights on. Here is a closer view:
http://www.westendtrains.com/aquarium/Brown flakes2.JPG
Fishieness
02-27-2007, 10:03 PM
it is hard to tell
at first i thought it was a type of macro algae that is getting nibbled, but if it is moving, there goes that theory.... lol
they do look like red flat worms, but they are fast enough for you to notice them moving... are they only in that one area of rock? or everywhere? are they plastered against the rock or are they stickign up out of it?
they lay flat against the rock. looked again and I don't see any movement. most are just about the same size. pretty much started in one spot but are now spreading out.
Germanman
02-27-2007, 11:53 PM
they are flat worms....they will harm or kill corals while they eat them....u could pic them off or get a sea slug that eats them up real good...the only problem is they die after they eat all the flatworms and usually get sucked into filters and get chopped up. there are also some wrasse that will some times eat them but i cant remember which.
here is the slug Chelidonura varians
Fishieness
02-28-2007, 12:16 AM
but red flatworms USUALY move fast enough to at least see. also, red flat worms do NOT eat corals (although there are some types of flatworms that do, such as acro eating flatworms, but these look much different). they have a fan that the scoop the water and the area for detritus and copepods and the like. the only harm red flat worms can do is if there are too many of them, they can block out photosynthesis enough from yoru corals (am im sure you can imagine how many that would take. lol)
also, although they move fast enough to see, they are often much less active during the day. try to see if they are moving around at night.
suck up all you can with a turkey baster and try lowering your nutrient levels.
SOME six line or even 4 line wrasses have been reported to eat them. but not all will do this. i have even ehard many repors of mandarins eating them as well. but once again, not all, and in this case, not even as many as the 4 or 6 lines.
one question though as far as an ID: do they have a forked tail?
Germanman
02-28-2007, 12:24 AM
we had ones that looked exactly like that at my old work and they would attach and stress mushrooms and the zoos. they also killed of xenia somehow...i never said they were red flatworms or the acro eating now did i Christian?:) lol
I had another look at them this morning. No tails. They are quite simply flat little rectangles and they get smaller at nite so I guess that rules out macro algae. The turkey baster sounds like a good idea to try and suck them up but I think I am going to have to find a natural predator for them. I see myself removing them only to have them reproduce over and over. They seem to stay off most of the corals for now but I can see a proliferation causing some major grief. Keep up with the good input and I will add more info. Thanks again!
Germanman
02-28-2007, 7:41 PM
the baister doesnt work that well they may look like they are gone but they com back usually. the nutibranch is the best natural predator.
Any down sides to the nutibranch or can I just drop him in and let him do his work? Just spent a couple of hours rescaping to accomodate a second frogspawn. Gotta get BIGGER tank! There's just too much cool stuff out there.
Germanman
02-28-2007, 10:06 PM
i posted about the nutibranch in my first post its the one in the picture.
Fishieness
02-28-2007, 11:27 PM
IMO, it isnt too responsible to buy a nudibranch, or any other creature with such a special and restricted diet because once all your flatworms are gone, it is vertain death. even if you find someone else with flatworms, you never know if they are going to find someone else, or if they will even try. it just encourages the market for these animals that are just dieing in our tanks.
also, they are pretty light and can easily get sucked up by powerheads and such.
but trust me when i say that sucking all up you can see and lowering your nutrients helps. replace yoru carbon more often, do alrger, frequent water changes, skim more, feed less. get some phosban if you can or something. i had a HUGE outbreak of the white ones, pretty much the same thing. without the nutrients in the tank, and with me sucking them up, after a little while, they were all whiped out. just spend as much time as you can at night sucking up them all until you cant see anymore. it isnt as hard as it sounds
Germanman
02-28-2007, 11:33 PM
IMO, it isnt too responsible to buy a nudibranch, or any other creature with such a special and restricted diet because once all your flatworms are gone, it is vertain death. even if you find someone else with flatworms, you never know if they are going to find someone else, or if they will even try. it just encourages the market for these animals that are just dieing in our tanks.
also, they are pretty light and can easily get sucked up by powerheads and such.
but trust me when i say that sucking all up you can see and lowering your nutrients helps. replace yoru carbon more often, do alrger, frequent water changes, skim more, feed less. get some phosban if you can or something. i had a HUGE outbreak of the white ones, pretty much the same thing. without the nutrients in the tank, and with me sucking them up, after a little while, they were all whiped out. just spend as much time as you can at night sucking up them all until you cant see anymore. it isnt as hard as it sounds
he has a point and i did state some of those things in my other posts...but now i feel i should make it clear that the nuti should be a last resort.
I recently renewed my phosphate remover and reinstalled my carbon. Skimmer is running and water tests are all clear. Nutrients must be under control since I have no algae issues what so ever. I agree, purchasing the Nuti, only to have it suffer a slow death is cruel so I will try the removal thing first and see how that works. Thanks for the help and advise! Always appreciated.
If sucking them out becomes too difficult and the rocks / corals they are on are easily removed, you can do a fw or Lugol's solution dip to get rid of the red flatworms. I do this to all new corals after nearly infesting my tank with red flatworms that hitchhiked along with some mushrooms we bought from the LFS. I've also used it on corals we've bought from tanks that we knew were infested with them. No red flatworms in our tank.