Latest Shots of Acropora Killer - Help Me ID

To me, they look like the brown acoel flatworms to me. The giveaway is the forked tail.

They look identical to the acoel listed on the Hitchhiker site. The good news is that it would seem Flatworm Exit is more likely to work on this variety.

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker.shtml

 

I am thinking they are not acropora eating flatworms, but rather brown acoel flatworms. Although they seem to have multiple by the hundreds overnight and are pretty much everywhere in the tank, I don't see any bite marks on any of the many acropora frags I have in the tank. I believe my lokani was probably damaged by their appetite for zooxanthellae or other activities. I will have Flatworm Exit to try tomorrow.

 

They don't eat zooxanthellae. They eat algae and detritus.The only thing they can do to corals is block light from reaching the coral.

 

Well, I'm at a bit of a loss. I can't get a positive ID on these flatworms so I don't know how harmful they are but it seems like there's a pretty direct correlation between the time they showed up and the damage to my lokani. They are hanging out on other acros as well, but so far I don't see any ill effects. The damage to the lokani seems to be related to formation of an egg sack.

I will be receiving Flatworm Exit in the mail today, and my sense is that I should use it while the population of flatworms is small. Although I've read horror stories about using this product, they seem to be related more to massive release of toxins from large populations. Frankly, I would rather lose fish than coral, if that ends up being a choice.

 

I guess the other option would be to get a blue velvet nudibranch, but I don't know anything about the care of those creatures and I understand they will starve once the flatworms are gone.

 

Use flatworm exit. Have plenty of water mixed for mutiple small water changes while treating. Please dont get a nudibranch. Be patient and go slow.

 

How do you know when it's time for the water change? Is it usually a matter of minutes or hours after treatment?

 

Treat it and wait. If things start to look dismal, do a water change. There is no set routine.

 

Got it, thanks for the response. We shall see.

 

When you start to see dead fws follow civics advise and run fresh carbon.