Parasitic Acro Flatworms Destroying my Tank

[tucc185]

Coral Magazine (April/May 2004) had an article which reported that Hardwick's wrasses (Thalasomma hardwicke) may eat parasitic turbellarians. "In another experiment, aquarist Alexander Girz placed a Hardwick's wrasse in a tank with turbellarian-infested Acropora. He observed that the fish stayed around the affected colonies all day, continuall 'pecking' at the corals as if they were specifically looking for these worms"

 

[tucc185]

It also mentioned that coral banded shrimp (Stenopus hispidus) may be helpful.
"they would travel from Acro to Acro, probing each one thoroughly from top to botom. This occurred only at dawn when the lights in the aquarium were still switched off. The shrimp followed the same routine every morning, and interestingly, the corals they visited showed no signs of turbellarian infestation."
Hope this helps, they may not do much good but it should be worth a try anyways. If anything, I would look into the wrasse, because it seems that they pick the worms right off the coral, saving you the trouble of basting them off. Hope it helps,
Mike

 

[~Flighty~]

It would be interesting to try a flatworm eating mandarin on them too.

 

[Aquaman_68]

Chuck, Check out the other flatworm thread.
B

 

[clamm]

chuck can you take frags from high up on the corals and put them in a seperate system just incase worse some to worse. I know that these seem to lay and say toward the bottom and work their way up as the destroy the coral. One thing i have noticed is that a quick fresh water dip make them very easy to remove but does nothing for the eggs. Seems you dont have an issue removing them. I don't know what else to say...I feel for you...it seems if i get any acros soon its going to be either from greg as you pointed out. I think im going to wait though

 

[~Flighty~]

In unrelated news, Greg Hiller just trippled his acro prices
(joke)

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Thanks to everyone for all of the kind words. I need them right now.....

To answer Jake, I never had these worms until early this year. I removed the "infected new" colonies around two months ago (don't hold me to exact timelines please!...my short term memory is not what it used to be!) and did not see any problems with any existing colonies in my tank. Then, a month ago I added the wave box. That was when the Green Polyp Table Acro started looking funny.....no polyp expansion, and whiter skeleton, although not dead. Since this happened exactly at the time when I added the wave box, I thought that the colony simply did not "like" the new flow, since the output to the wavebox was close by. So I did not look for worms. Then last week my Larry Jackson and Prostrata started looking funny. The prostrata had a dead snail on it and I thought that this was the cause for it looking funny. So I turkey basted it and all this "white stuff" went everywhere....I thought it was "snail parts" so I wasn't worried about flatworms again. The Heniocus went crazy over the "snail parts". Then last night I was cleaning out some hair algae and just happened to turkey baste the Green Polyp Acro (5 years healthy) to get some algae out of it. I saw the same "white stuff" fly of it and also the Heniocus went crazy again trying to eat every one of the pieces. So then I put 2 and 2 together and realized what I thought was snail parts from the prostrata and what I am now seeing from this colony are one in the same. Fearing the worst, I syphoned one piece out and put it in a clear jar. Then, I realized for the first time what I was looking at....It must be a parasitic flatworm since it moved around and was definitely not dead snail tissue. This is the first time I observed one of these. Previously I have observed only the eggs but never really knew what to look for as far as the worms themselves.

Well my plan of action is not to remove all my corals....they are pretty much heavily encrusted. So I will continue the turkey baster treatment, letting the heniocus eat the worms in the water column. Then I will set up the QT and take frags from every colony from the healthy tips. I will turkey baste the frags heavily with tank water, dip them in Sea Chem Coral Disinfectant and then place them in the QT. Then I will move my frags from the frag tank, that seem not to be affected yet, into the QT and hope for the best. I may also try to get some six lie wrasses but they never do well in my system...they seem to dissappear probably into the Haddoni. I might add some six line wrasses to the QT just in case I miss a few worms.

Once this is over, one way or another, I will quarantine each and every new coral for a period of at least 4 weeks. If I find flatworms after that period, then at least it will just be one coral and not affect my whole tank. Another reason to quarantine. Quarantining is much cheaper than losing all of your prized acros. Especially the ones that have grown into large colonies or the rare stuff that costs you $80 or even $100 for a small frag!

 

[clamm]

sounds like as good of a plan as any. good luck.

 

[Aquaman_68]

Just in case you didn't read this on the other FW thread.
Chuck
If your going to the meeting or you know someone who is close by to you that is I will bring a few tabs for you to try on them. Sorry bout your dilemma too!!! Sucks real bad & I feel for you!!!

Brian

 

[~Flighty~]

Any thoughts on hanging the frags in the qt to isolate them from each other (f the worms are not n the swmmng phase)?

 

[maurod]

I was never infected. That was a qoute from Chucks post. Let me state for the record - I have never even seen these things in person. I just was wondering how long Check had gone without seeing these in his tank.

I am very sorry Jake, I misread your post as it was not quoted, I apologize humbly.

M.

 

[Matt L.]

Along FLighty's Thought Line

Any thoughts on hanging the frags in the qt to isolate them from each other (f the worms are not n the swmmng phase)?

Chuck,

Here's an idea. Take another tank, and set it up next to your display tank that is infected. Pump from your main display tank, but through a filter sock, which should have orifices that are too small to allow these flatowrms to pass. Then aloow the overlfow to return to your main display tank. You'll need some (or to borrow some) MH lighting. Take your acro colonies out of your main tank, inspect them thoroughly for eggs or perhaps just take frags to be on the safe side, and transfer them to this other tank. Once your main display tank is devoid of Acros, the worms cannot complete their life cycle.

If you don't want to set up another tank, you could use semi-rigid meshing to create a box near the surface in your main tank, and transfer Acro frags to there. The meshing I'm thinking of is the stuff they use in tank dividers.

Matt

 

[starrfish]

Oh Chuck, I was horrified to read this post. How frustrating. Just when you get your tank looking so awesome, something like this happens. I'm really sorry. I wish I could offer some good advice, but I've never seen these buggers before (thank God!). I think your plan for the future with a QT is a sound one. Good luck.

Daire

ps...FU (did I get you to smile??)

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Good Plan!

Hey Matt!

Great idea that leads me to another idea: Empty out my frag tank and put all
frags in a temporary bin. Wash frag tank with bleach and water to sterilize it.
Then scrape any and all eggs off of each frag, if any (so far my frag tank is still looking good). Then refill frag tank, with frags, inspecting each one and blasting each one for the worms...also perhaps doing an iodine dip or flatworm exit dip to get the buggers to fall off.

My frags seem unaffected for now but this would insure that at least the frag tank is fW free. THEN, I could cut more frags from my mother colonies in the display tank and scrape and/or blast them and put the frags in the frag tank. I could use your idea and run the frag tank return through a filter sock, or nylon sock. This would eliminate having to set up a totally seperate system. The only thing that worries me is the size of the hatchlings. I read somewhere that the larval form is plantonic and hence really small. Small enough perhaps to go through a nylon or filter sock.....I don't know.

Does anyone know the size of the larval stages of thes worms and an approriate filtration material that would be 100% impervious to them?

Chuck,

Here's an idea. Take another tank, and set it up next to your display tank that is infected. Pump from your main display tank, but through a filter sock, which should have orifices that are too small to allow these flatowrms to pass. Then aloow the overlfow to return to your main display tank. You'll need some (or to borrow some) MH lighting. Take your acro colonies out of your main tank, inspect them thoroughly for eggs or perhaps just take frags to be on the safe side, and transfer them to this other tank. Once your main display tank is devoid of Acros, the worms cannot complete their life cycle.

If you don't want to set up another tank, you could use semi-rigid meshing to create a box near the surface in your main tank, and transfer Acro frags to there. The meshing I'm thinking of is the stuff they use in tank dividers.

Matt

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Thanks Daire!

Thanks for the humour...you did mak me smile and I really need that now!
PSFU...hee hee hee

Oh Chuck, I was horrified to read this post. How frustrating. Just when you get your tank looking so awesome, something like this happens. I'm really sorry. I wish I could offer some good advice, but I've never seen these buggers before (thank God!). I think your plan for the future with a QT is a sound one. Good luck.

Daire

ps...FU (did I get you to smile??)

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Does anyone know if UV sterilizers would be effective against these? Combined with natural predators and turkey baster blasting, maybe a UV filter could help out. Especially if the flatworms are continually blown off the corals and kept in the water column by daily maintenance.

 

[One Eye]

I posted this the last time these were discussed. These flatworms made it from one tank to another tank that were sharing a sump. They had to get through, pumps, skimmers, UV steralizers and ozone in order to get pumped up into the other tank.

I would think they split like anenomes or earth worms even. If you pull 1 earth worm in half you get 2 live worms. I think going through pumps and such is just causing more worms.

 

[denvig]

How about running the supply from the main to the frag tank through a diatom filter and return back to display by way of an overflow.

 

[Matt L.]

Great idea that leads me to another idea: Empty out my frag tank and put all
frags in a temporary bin. Wash frag tank with bleach and water to sterilize it.
Then scrape any and all eggs off of each frag, if any (so far my frag tank is still looking good). Then refill frag tank, with frags, inspecting each one and blasting each one for the worms...also perhaps doing an iodine dip or flatworm exit dip to get the buggers to fall off.

My frags seem unaffected for now but this would insure that at least the frag tank is fW free. THEN, I could cut more frags from my mother colonies in the display tank and scrape and/or blast them and put the frags in the frag tank.

Chuck,

I know these methods sound drastic, but that is a very good approach. Explot the weakness of a parasite: their connection to their food source. If you separate a parasite from its food source, then you've got it beat.

Bleach should be very effetcive at sterilizing your frag tank. I usually recommend a bleach solution followed by a vinegar solution. After going through this process, you can assume that the frag tank has no flatworms in it per se. All the rest must be on rock and the colonies.

Meanwhile, in your main tank, without the acro colonies, the flatworms can't survive to complete their life cycle.

If you can divide up the acro colonies outside the tank, this would be even better, as in case you miss the ggs on one colony, the other colonies don't stand a chance of being infected.

I like to think of this as divide and conquer. Lighting would be a pain, though, for that approach.

Matt

 

[One Eye]

I'm really watching this thread now. I found 3 infected frags in my qt...But I found them after I had already given a clean bill of health to 3 other frags and placed them in my main tank....another qt lesson, when qting multiple frags, inspect all before placing any in the display!!