Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Invertebrates; Morphology, Ecology, and Behavior – by Dr. Ron Shimek / what is the translucent thing? / Latest Posts

RE: what is the translucent thing?

Reefski — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:49:53 GMT

thanks Dr. Shimek.

i have several rocks that do have peanut worms in them. one came out when i first put the rocks in the new tank and eventually it got sucked onto my intakes for the closed loops and died. i have since enlarged the surface area to several times the surface and hopefully it won't happen with any other critters.

i now know what those things are that come out at night.

how many does it take to form a peanut gallery? i have one rock that has three, other rocks only appear to have a single worm. there may be a dozen overall, does that count?

RE: what is the translucent thing?

Ron Shimek — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:12:57 GMT

Hi Carl,

You may be right on your guess as to the "translucent thing," it does look like a snail egg case.

The small acoel worms (planarians are something else ) are harmless. It appears that several varieties persist in all of our systems and are part of the "unseen" and "unnoticed" food webs in our tanks. They really don't seem to have much affect one way or another.

Brenda,

I would LOVE to get a "Peanut Gallery." All I need is: 1) the money to so, and 2) a way to do so.

RE: what is the translucent thing?

Telgian — Sun, 11 May 2008 05:27:58 GMT

''the other question is what if anything to add for more algae control?''

Well, I know when the Doc gets back he is going to love this answer...
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Get yourself a nice liverock with a good population of 'peanut worms' in it (ie. a visible population of twelve or more).

Place the liverock beside the object to be cleaned, maximum distance of about an inch, since you want the lil'uns to be able to eat.
Or, if the object is small, put it on top of the populated liverock (hereafter refered to as Peanut Gallery) unless this will compromise what lives on the outside of the Peanut Gallery.

Object to be cleaned can be liverock to macroalgae. Then move on to the next area.

Having a Peanut Gallery in your tank is a wonderful way to manage small scale problems that would otherwise leave you with an urchin skeleton adorning the bottom of you aquarium and dynos. on your macroalgae.

They are especially fun to watch cleaning up GHA.
(Tug, tug, tug, tug...gulp)
Assuming that you don't have critters in your tank that make 'em hide during the day.

So get yerself a Peanut Gallery!!!

I've seen the occasional flatworm on the glass like that in your picture.
They were occasional sightings that never resulted in a problem.
They seemed to be happily munching the 'biofilm' on the glass.
(I always rotate some pasture on the front glass to see these types of critters.)
Your critters, of course, could be different, but I hope not.

All in my limited experience, of course.

RE: what is the translucent thing?

charlesr1958 — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:06:44 GMT

I would go with the sailfin first, although I have had those also yet nothing can beat a scopas when it comes to tidying up the house. Have even caught mine siphoning up dinos off the top of the sandbed when other pickings are slim. As you can tell, I am a huge fan of this fish, which for me, says a lot as I generaly ignore fish.

I have the same flatworms in my refugium yet they either can not handle going through the sump's pump or there is something in my display tank that eats them as I have never found one in that tank. On the rare occassions that I do a water change now, I just siphon out what I can of them and ignore those left behind.

Chuck

RE: what is the translucent thing?

Reefski — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:23:43 GMT

oh, Chuck, i too don't like the idea of chemicals added to the tank which may disturb the balance of tank, even if it doesn't kill the corals.

these flatworms must have been in the rock that had been in a separate holding tank for months. i suppose must is too strong of a word as i have added stuff to the tank from other places, including my hands on a daily basis.

RE: what is the translucent thing?

Reefski — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:19:47 GMT

after reading an article by Dr. Shimek, i think the translucent thing may be eggs laid by the Strombus maculatus snails i have in there. at least i think that is what they are.

i have a bunch of herbivore fish in my other tanks and really don't want to get another. not that i can catch any of them until i break down the tank but they are
Sailfin Tang
Hippo Tang
Kohl Tang
Naso Tang
Foxface

they have all been together for years and most are 6-7" now.

if i could catch one which one would be good to put in first?

RE: what is the translucent thing?

charlesr1958 — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:08:47 GMT

Hey Carl, Have no clue what the transluscent bugger is, and the flatworms, well, I think thats just something we all have to learn to live with at one time or another as I know of no bio control and the chemicals used in those so called "reef safe" fixes tend to not be so reef safe, unless reef safe is applied only to corals, which this hobby tends to think of in terms of "reef".

But anywhooo, for algae control, this is THE best and I will not ever have another tank without at least one of them in there.

That and a good assortment of snails (clean up crew page)

Chuck

what is the translucent thing?

Reefski — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:35:27 GMT

no FTS. working on the infrastructure.

i haven't cleaned the viewing pane in a week. it has got a good coating of algae, with other things growing in it. you can see very small tube worms, there are very small pods, and then the other things in the photo.

some kind of flat worm, looks like Planaria in the photo but in person they don't look red or green at all, just a kind of dark brown/grey.

they don't seem to be on any of the corals, they are on the sand bed .
the corals all seem fine.

what is it and what do i do about it?
flat worms. probably hundreds of them. what if anything should i do? what will eat them, biological control.

the other translucent thing is about 1/4" in diameter and has things growing inside i think. it was suggested by a friend that it is snails. there are some 1/2" snails in the tank. i don't know what else it could be. the only other things in the tank are two Diadema urchins and a lawnmower Blenny that hang at at that end of the tank.

the other question is what if anything to add for more algae control?
most of the algae appears dead but still in place, you can see both forms below.