White tape worm in my torch coral?

[canyon15]

Ok. My torch has been having problems with one head dying and another on its way out. All water params are good. I thought I would try spot feeding and all of a sudden a white very flat worm,looked to be almost the same texture as the coral, made its way out on the tenticles. I tryed to garb it with tweezers and when i pinched I missed and it moved faster than i thought it would and i could'nt get another chance. I could find my camera in time,sorry. Any ideas of what this could be and is it harming my coral? TIA.

 

[Fluff]

Sounds like a flatworm. How big was it. Really need a picture if he happens to show back up. It may or may not be what's wrong with your coral but certainly sounds suspicious and I would remove it if you can find it again.

 

[canyon15]

It was about 1/2" wide and 2-3" long. I saw it again, fiance had camera, and this time i got a hold of it but when I pinched it and pulled it ripped in two and then went into the rocks.

 

[Fluff]

I would continue to try and manually remove it. Here are two sites that may help with IDing it.

http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu6/index.html

http://www.seaslugforum.net/

 

[canyon15]

That is what it is. Now how bad are these to have and what is the best way for removal? TIA!

 

[Fluff]

If it's on the coral, I'd remove it. Even if it's not harmful it could be irritating the coral and causing issues. Since it is a larger worm, I'd continue to try to manually remove it. Or maybe syphon it off with some airline tubing. HTH