AEFW Advice/Suggestions

walvis

walvis

New member
It is unfortunately to find out I have AEFW on about 1/3 of my colonies.
Certainly they don't like CoralRx, which I been dosing 1.5 x the recommended strength.
Eggs are my biggest concern that are hard to see.
I don't have a separate QT, however, do have an refugium.

Question:
Does anybody know how long it takes for eggs to hatch? so I know how often to dip effected corals.
I'm thinking of using some camel shrimps, and keep them in the refugium were I can easily treat the effected corals for that short period of time.
Does anybody out there have a good experience with those shrimps?
How about the corals that look good & healthy & colorful, would you dip those as well? Problem, those are stuck/encrusted to rock work.
I need a good plan of attack to eradicate these little bastards:furious:

Thanks,James
 
What do you mean they "don't like Coral Rx"??? Are you saying they are coming off the corals when you dip in Coral Rx?? Coral Rx should at least stun them so they are easier to baste off the corals but it wont kill them. I have heard from a reliable source that they have a 21 day life cycle...not sure how long the eggs hang out before they hatch. A recent article was just published in a journal regarding these little beasties. Unfortunately I didn't want to pay the bucks to sign up for access to the article. I hope to get a copy down the line from some scientist friends. It should be some excellent reading. I cannot comment on the camel shrimp plan...hopefully someone with some experience there can chime in.
 
Thanks Slojmn,
I meant CoralRx works great, but didn't know it wouldn't kill them, certainly they come off the coral.
Do you think it would be stressful if dipping every other day?

Curious to find out from other reefers there experience with camel shrimps.
At this point, will try anything to hit them hard :uzi:
 
I think you are going to have to dip often as you are not quarantining the corals...so the life cycle will just continue. I did get the article that was just published and did a pretty quick read through. The embryonic cycle is 21 days...so eggs take 21 days to hatch. Not sure how long it would take for AEFW in the system to die without a food source but you will just get an ongoing cycle if you don't leave your system fallow for a specified amount of time. Many folks do live with them and use a baster to get them in the water column as certain fish seem to enjoy eating them when they are free swimming. To truly get rid of them removal of all acropora from the system into quarantine where, initial egg removal and regular dipping can occur. Once no AEFW are present on the acropora and no eggs have been observed for well past the 21 day mark, tank has been acropora free for 6-8 weeks, then a slow return of the acropora and regular dipping of these early returning pieces to make sure there are no signs of the pest is really the only thing I have heard actually work to eradicate completely.
 
Interesting..
Is there a misconception on certain wrasses eating these pest?
It sounds like these pest need to be waterborne first before consumed, and like they will look for pest on corals.
I have both a melanarus wrasse and yellow coris and don't see them scouting around corals...
 
There are a lot of anecdotal reports of wrasses and other fish eating them when they are blown off the corals. There also seems to be some reports that some fish will look like they are pecking something off the corals, but who knows what. In the article it talked about the AEFW ability to blend in very well with the coral. Some fish may not even know to look for them or be able to see them. Individual fish preferences need to be taken into account as well. Someone else may have a yellow coris wrasse that loves to eat them. I think the biggest thing from the article is that this appears to be a never before found species...kind of cool. Though these beasties are not cool at all.
 
reefer11 said:
What acros are affected by aefw? Do they attack birdnests? millis? slimers?
Click to expand...

As far as I know (and my experience) they attack all acroporas which would include Acropora Millipora and "slimers" as they are acropora corals. Birdsnests are are not Acros so they are not affected.
 
I've been dipping with Coral RX and putting acros in a quarantine tank. All acros fragged and removed from my display and dipped.. what a pain!
 
I just started replacing SPS to my display last week after a long battle with AEFWs.

To finally beat them here's what I did:

I fragged all my acro colonies tossing the bases in the trash (14" diameter tables right in the trash) :( ;

Moved the frags to one tank within my system (I had assumed I needed a systemic treatment at this point, so I gathered them together to remove FOOD for the AEFWs from the rest of the system and make it easier to dip and inspect SPS) ;

Dipped constantly for a few weeks to be sure all AEFW breedrers were gone; and

Treated the system with Levamisole at 5grams/300gal system water, once a week for three weeks to be sure all hatching AEFWs were vanquished. Buy a electronic scale to weigh the Levamisole it is worth every penny to be accurate! STAPLES sells them for like $15. I took one liter of RODI water and dissolved the 5 grams of Levamisole in it, then used this solution proportionately through out my system.

A treatment means this: Apply the dose at 5 grams/ 300 gallons system volume, keep all system water flowing as usual. You should shut down air to your skimmer, pull your GAC & GFO, as well as change any mechanical filters (socks or pads). Circulate for 4-5 hours, then you can fire the skimmer back up (be prepared for lots of foam) and add back GAC. In a day change the pads or socks again (They will be full of dead mini brittles, pods & AEFWs)

I'm still dipping to check as i am PARANOID! But so far, at least three weeks since the last treatment, I'm AEFW free!

DO NOT OVER DOSE THE LEVAMISOL!

I did at first and nearly killed the entire system.

A note on critters: SPS were just fine; The few zoas & LPS I have were fine; Fish were fine; I do not currently have a nem, so IDK; Clams closed up but were OK after a day or two; Fire Shrimp, hermit crabs & snails disapear & hide, but come back out after a day or two; Your mini brittles & pods take a hit, but mine have come back; Be very cautious about stars, I would remove Sea Stars & larger Brittle Stars during the 4-5 hour treatment and for at least a few hours following the restart of the skimmer and adding the GAC.

What would I do differently? If there is ever a next time, and now that I've established much better dipping & QT regimen for all incomming SPS, there should not be a next time, I'd go right to systemic treatment with the Levamisole along with dipping. I would not move right to chopping up my beloved colonies. However, I would treat for 4-5 weeks to be sure to out treat the life cycle of potentially hidden eggs, or the eggs that are layed after the first round of treatment by surviving adults.

Where to get Levamisole:
Levamisole hydrochloride is much easier to aquire than say, Interseptor is as it does not require a script. It is readily available on line through live stock supply web sites. It is the primary constituent of Pig, Goat, and Cattle dewormers. The one issue is, there are tons of products. You want a very pure, soluable Levamisole product. The one I used is called PROHIBIT Soluable Drench Powder. It was sold as a goat dewormer at a site called cattlestore.com, shipped for about $25 and ther's enough to treat your whole club's worth of tanks.

How did I overdose?!?!
A) I am stupid!
B) Levamisol has been used in the fresh water trade for a while to treat worm and fluke parisites and rid tanks of neusance snails. The dosage used in FW is tripple that for marine applications. Remember in FW most inverts are bad! I accidently dosed at FW rates, as I did not scroll down far enough in my reference article. I've posted the correct SW dosage here, follow it exactly.
C) I'm really stupid! :headwallblue:

All this said, the best way to control AEFWs in this hobby is for everyone, that's all of us, who want to keep SPS to DIP AND QT ALL INCOMMING SPS. Assume everyone you aquire frags from already has AEFWs, Red Bugs, Sea Spiders, cooties, and an STD or two!!!! Everyone! Your bestest fragging buddy, your local coral farmer, your favorite LFS, your Mom! Everyone!

I have discovered pests on frags from all of the highly respected LFS in my area. ALL OF THEM!

Stop the madness! :deadhorse: OK .... I am done :fish2:
 
Only problem with this is that Product has since been taken off the Market and can not bo found anywhere. A Vet told me it was a felony to posess this chemical as it was banned by thr Feds! They said it no longer worked for it original purpose any longer. FYI
Bill
 
I beat acro flatworms years ago by utilzing the only known 100% effective method. You simply take any acro that even has so much as a bite mark, and throw it outside. I know its painful, but it is far more efficient in the long run in terms of time wasted. I was forced to throw away large colonies as well, but I was able to reacquire most of what I lost. Now, years later I have some nice looking colonies again. The "throw it all away method" seems drastic, but it is far better than wondering "for sure" if you got them all. What if you do a series of dips and there are a couple flatworms that survived? What if you thought you got them all and added hundreds of dollars worth of new frags? What if they came back? No thanks. Hope this helps.

-Ed
 
Poolkeeper

That's good to know. When did that happen? I ordered mine in March or April? Glad it came in a big pouch! (Don't tell the Feds I still have some!)

Ed

That is still an option and very close to what I did. I went from several tanks full of SPS to a 2' x 1.5' egg crate sheet of frags instantly!
 
Islander84 said:
Bax....Where did you find the levamisole hydrochloride?
Click to expand...

I ordered it from cattlestore.com you'll find it under goat dewormers. Or at least the PROHIBIT was still up on the web site a couple of days ago. Poolkeeper says it being discontinued, but IDK?
 
Thanks Bax. were trying to figure some crazy mess out with these bugs noone has ever seen or heard of....but we have a friend and those bugs were the only red handit bandits that he could pinpoint to being the problem of his mass destruction
 
All I have left is a small tray of frags. I removed all SPS from the display and started sawing away...;( I've been dipping weekly.. how long do I have to wait for any AEFW in the display to die without a food source?
 
Damn AEFW!!

Damn AEFW!!

Here's a pic of whats left... I've been using coralRX to dip.. Is that a good product to use?
 

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