SPS Keepers, I have BAD NEWS for you

[Armando]

New pest coming. SPS-killer flatworms.

Picture from other forum:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=469182

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=405166&referrerid=15782

 

[reefsmurf]

Time to set up that Quarantine tank folks...............

 

[Ray]

Man that looks bad

 

[marco67]

Thanks Armando,
Interesting reading.

I was just having a conversation last ight with someone about how many beautiful LPS corals there are and how it's sad that not more people go that route!

 

[Armando]

Hopefully someone will find a cure/treatment for it.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Flatworms are easy to kill even with a very short duration fresh water dip. They are not too happy about Lugol's either. I imagine that the standard 10-15 min. 5-10 drops of Lugols solution per 1 liter of tank water that YOU ALL should be doing on ANY SPS you pick up from a shop (particularly wild colonies) would wipe out the flatworms. I still have a stash of Tetra Medica Oomed that was pretty good on them too (on the standard red photosynthetic ones, C. retrogramma).

Quarantine is a good idea though, I imagine once you get something like that in your main tank it would be much more difficult to deal with. I'm extremely careful with any frags I receive from ANY one.

 

[~Flighty~]

would flatworm exit work?

 

[NateHanson]

I won a raffle of "Reef Dip" at my first BRS meeting last year. Any idea what that is? Lugols?

Nate

 

[Armando]

But Greg, do you know if freshwater or Lugol can kill those eggs?

 

[Greg Hiller]

Hmmm...don't know about eggs. Yet another good reason to shy away from wild colonies!

The Reef Dip stuff from what I can tell is a mix of Lugols plus what I don't know. I sometimes wonder if the stuff is just hospital style providone iodine used in sterilizing skin.

Flatworm exit would probably work also, but it's kind of tricky to use I hear.

 

[Mike A]

Well sadly, I'll be the first in the club to confirm the presence of these parasites in my tank.

I've lost one acro to them, it had the egg masses on it exactly like the photo in one of the links that Armando included in the first post. I pulled the entire colony out, but recently noticed two nearby acros coloring down. One was starting the stn from the base, I dipped both in seachems reefdip and found the flatworms on both. The reefdip seems effective, as in a matter of minutes it was very apparent that there were a number of flatworms on both colonies. They are invisible to the eye on acros in the tank, as they are clear. I had no idea they were a problem until the corals started dying from the base.

This is unbelievable.

 

[Kim]

Aww Mike thats awful. Seems lately the BRS members are having some major pest problems. I hope you can take care of all the eggs and worms and things start looking up for you.

 

[reefnroll]

Mike -

I've been dreading this news... from anyone. How depressing.
Without starting a witchhunt, I'm curious whether you have an idea about
how they got into your system?

bec

 

[JeremyR]

They aren't common on wild colonies.. they've been in the hobby for awhile, and people get them in trades.. there have been local people who broke down their tanks in frustration from them. I'm not saying to buy wild colonies, but you are more likely to get this at a fragswap than on a wild acro. From talking to people, it's been a problem in europe for several years, and they are also in the TMCRA books. I'm told standard flatworm killing meds that kill the reg photosynthetic ones aren't very effective on the sps flatworms, but I have not yet done any experimenting myself.

FWIW, this is just one of many pests out there. There are zoanthid eating nudis, there are montipora eating nudis, I've even seen alveopora eating nudibranchs. Every coral has it's nemesis.. much like insect pests in the plant world, some of them can be difficult to deal with and prevention via quarantine is much easier than dealing with a blown up problem.

 

[Mike A]

bec, they weren't a problem until I did the last round of Interceptor treatments. That last round killed off the remaining acro crabs in my tank, as they were nearly impossible to remove. Just a theory, but I think those acro crabs play a role in warding off these pests to a degree. Put it this way, I have an idea on where they came from, but they weren't a problem until recently - which leads me to believe that they were present all along, but now are more opportunistic because there's no predators for them in my tank. Does that make any sense ?

The infected coral has been with me for quite a while, it was gorgeous up until I treated with the Interceptor and very gradually started to decline. I quarantined that acro prior to adding it, so I really doubt the flatworms were on it when I acquired it.

 

[Armando]

Ouch Mike that sux

 

[Lam]

Oh God no!

 

[Greg Hiller]

Jeremy,

Very well said, and make perfect sense. Just like with the red SPS mites, our tanks have very few natural predators, so pests often can be more a problem in a tank than in the wild. I saw the same thing with the SPS mites, you would almost never see them on a wild collected Acro just brought in, much more likely on a frag from a hobbyist that didn't know about the critters.

I wonder if these might be more tasty to mandarins that the red photosynthetic flatworms. Mike, do you have any mandarins? I think the green mandarins were the more likely of the two to eat flatworms. Good news on these flatworms is that I'd bet the iodine baths would be better at removing them than they were for the SPS mites. I don't know if the bath would kill eggs, or even if this flatworm has an egg stage. Jeremy do you know?

Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.

 

[reefnroll]

Thanks for the info Jeremy.

Mike - that's really awful. I do understand what you mean about the pests becoming more deadly following the crabs' demise. Makes perfect, and unfortunate sense to me.

What's your plan at this point?

b

 

[NateHanson]

How long do you suggest quarantine Greg?