Help ID a ?flatworm??

[Lucas Kane]

Help ID a “flatworm”?

Hey all

I have been working on upgrading tanks so I pulled my live rock and put it in a bucket overnight. Woke up and found this flat slug/worm thing crawling up the side of the bucket. Any thoughts as to what it could be? Only thing I found close was some kind of polyclad flatworm which I am not familiar with. Any insight would be wonderful.

Thanks.

 

[tolawdjk]

Not a SW guy, but I love a good "what the frack is this?" as much as the next guy.

Looks like a Purse Shell flatworm.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/in...r-Flatworm-Pictures/Purse-Shell-Flatworm-.htm

Found this as well.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=18103209

Looks like its good you were able to seperate it out. You most likely don't want it in your tank.

 

[Lucas Kane]

Ya looks just like that guy in the 2nd link. Thanks tolawdjk.

A Reticulated Flatworm huh, been keeping tanks for years and it still surprises me what comes crawling out of the rockwork.

It is kinda cool looking so I think I 'm going to try keeping it in a little tank all it's own. If anyone has done this before I would love some insight. It would seem they eat mollusk flesh, think it would eat the frozen stuff? Also I don’t know how often they need to eat, any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Ace25]

Bad thing to have from what I remember. If it were my tank it would get flushed. I don't mess around with flatworms, too many bad ones. Seems like a waste to put it in its own tank because more than likely you will never see it.

 

[Lucas Kane]

Ya it is for sure not going back in my display tank.

The idea I have for it's own tank is something small and simple. Thinking a large betta bowl type container so I can have 360 view and give it a magnified look. Put black livesand so the flatworm stands out and one column-esk chunk of live rock in the middle. I would just keep it on my desk. My only concern would be if it needs any kind of flow. Could probably drill a hole in the liverock and put in a little pump or something.

 

[tolawdjk]

Some of the pictures I saw...well this one is certainly one of the uglier varieties out there. Of course, that's probaly why it hid so well.

 

[Lucas Kane]

Yah there were some pretty ones listed but, I don’t know, I find this little guy to be kinda cute in its own way.

 

[greech]

As Ace mentioned, don't play around with that guy. Polyclads are nasty bugger. That is a predatory Pericelis species and they will attack and eat just about anything including small fish, snails, shrimp (really whatever it can latch onto). Make sure you don't have any more and when you handle them try not to rip them as they reportedly can reproduce that way.

Too bad because they are really cool!

 

[Lucas Kane]

Yah I will be closely examining my rocks during the rest of the move, that is for sure. Thought I think I got lucky when it came to spotting this guy

Anyway wanted to share some photos of the quick, little and most importantly cheap setup I made to house this little beast. Could not fit a pump so I put the fan on top to move the water and keep it cooler, as it is getting pretty warm here.

I tried to feed him a clam on the halfshell but he did not touch it and it polluted the water up so that seems to be a no go. On to plan B I bought 2 cheap snails at my LFS and tossed them in. Will just have to wait and see. I don’t know how often they need to eat but it must have been several days now without anything so I hope he eats.

The first two photos are his under side, freaky stuff. Oh and that’s the old tank I had him in. I use it for acclimating. In the last photos you can see him under the rock near the snail. I want to say he is stalking it, biding his time to strike but that is probably wishful thinking on my part.