AEFW, acro crabs, quarantine and dipping question

[Clawed]

Hello!

After my tank transfer from my 75g to my 120g, I noticed some of my SPS were having a hard time. At first, I thought it was the transfer itself but then, I noticed it was only my acroporas that were looking bad.

I ended up finding AEFW bite marks and AEFW themselves on some of my pieces. No eggs in sight yet but I haven't taken smaller colonies out to look underneath.

Thinking back, I dipped every new coral except 2 that came with acro crabs that I wanted to keep. That was probably my mistake.

I have read a lot on AEFW and I know what to do, including setting up a quarantine/treatment tank. I'm lucky, I only have less than 12 acro frags/small colonies to deal with.

But I still love those little acro crabs. What should I do with them while I quarantine and dip in Lugol? I don't want to lose them...

Thanks in advance!

 

[karsseboom]

Don't dip the acros in lugols. You need some bayor.

 

[Acronic]

Remove them from the coral for dips. Use a chop stick or tooth pic. Dental picks are my fav tool for this. Great for spiking bad crabs too. But i realise these arent tools everyone has

After te dip and rinse you can return the crabs to their home.

 

[karsseboom]

I don't get it just kill the crabs. There easy to come by and don't really help the corals all that much. You now have Aefw because of those little crabs...Aefw can wipe out your whole system. Not worth a few little acro crabs.

 

[Clawed]

It does make sense to put the crab's security aside to focus on my system's recovery.

I'm going to go the Bayer route if I can find it here.

Also, I'm thinking of using a 20L tank (12 X 12 X 30 inches) as a quarantine tank since I have a T5HO ramp laying around I could use over it. Will throw in a medium size cycled live rock I have as extra in the main sump and a powerhead.

Any thoughts on that?