ID? Is this good, or bad?

http://www.youtube.com/user/ecronshaw1?feature=mhee

Is that a good critter, or a bad one? Sorry for the poor camera skills.

Looks sorta like an ampihapod.

So it's a type of flatworm? Do we know what kind specifically? I found him right before I fed my tank. I shut off the pump to cease flow and noticed him inching along the sand bed. I only saw one. I'll check again later, but he is the only, and first that I've seen.

Edited by evan127 - September 05 2011 at 3:39pm

I hadn't either until today

There are hundreds, maybe even 1000's of types of flatworms. There are only a few that can become a problem in our tanks. This is a pic of the most common one of them. They are visible as retangular brown things on the snail shell and sand.


If they don't look like this, then I would not get over excited. Just watch and see so they can be handled before they start to multiply as in the pic above.

A Wrasse, especially the Sixline Wrasse likes to eat them. Mandarin Dragonettes are also good at eating them, but also decimate the bug population which can then turn into a problem with nuisance algae, so be sure, if you add a Mandarin to the tank, to add a lot of snails to keep algae under control. (A Mandarin is not recommended for tanks under 75 gallons.)

Flatworm Exit, made by Salifert works well but is very expensive.
The veterinary chemical Levamisole is the least expensive way to kill flatworms. I gave my last packet of it to Shad here on this MB, but it's not too hard to find.

Look in the Reefkeeping Tips below for the easier method of using these chemicals to eliminate Flatworms.