Aefw can live on other corals

[toothman]

Just thought I would share my war against aefw. I really want to eliminate them from my system. I personally have decided that you can not live with aefw's. Any coral with a out break shows very poor pe and some stn. I am in the process of redoing my tank how I do not know yet. I have been dipping acros in bayer for several weeks now, to my surprise I noticed some on a sun polyp, pictures of the affected sun polyp and after just shaking it in a bowl of untreated tank water a hundred plus aefw. After seeing this I may be convinced that the only way to remove aefw totally is to break the tank down and start with frags from my system.

<a href="http://s382.photobucket.com/user/eralff/media/sunpolypaefw.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo268/eralff/sunpolypaefw.jpg" border="0" alt="sunpolyp aefw photo sunpolypaefw.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s382.photobucket.com/user/eralff/media/sunaefwbowl.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo268/eralff/sunaefwbowl.jpg" border="0" alt="sunpolyp bowl aefw photo sunaefwbowl.jpg"/></a>


I will be very dissapointing to have to break up the large colonies.<a href="http://s382.photobucket.com/user/eralff/media/photo17-1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo268/eralff/photo17-1.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo photo17-1.jpg"/></a>

 

[rovster]

Are you sure those are not just regular red planaria? Just a thought.

 

[tektite]

Those on the sun coral don't look like AEFW. You have a different type of flatworm there.

 

[Bigcefa]

+1 looks like red planaria , they are too dark to be aefw

 

[Moser]

NOT AEFW on that sun coral, which begs the question…. do you actually have aefw or some other.

Don't break down those beautiful corals until you know for sure. Have you had acropora damage?.


Mo

 

[bsagea]

my 2cents

my 2cents

if that is a recent tank shot I can't see any AEFW signs, the sun coral looks like red planaria IMO

 

[BrentH]

I hope u only have red planaria ????

 

[reefcoco]

Your tank looks great, please think twice of breaking it down you might not even have AEFW

 

[toothman]

They are definitely aefw they may be a retracted because the sun coral was out of the water for 15 mins. Seems to be skepticism and problbly will not change the mind of those who think they are simple flat worms that flat worm exit will remove. But they are aefw, I am unfortunately too familiar with them after removing 4 viladia corals with 100 or so on them. The dream would be "If I could only kill the eggs."

 

[madkeenreefer]

They totally look like AEFW... And yes I have seen also AEFW on other LPS corals including candy canes, frogspawn and Duncan coral..

For what reason they were there I will leave that alone.
I have also seen them on the glass FWIW.

Good luck

 

[tektite]

I still don't think they are truly AEFW. There are very similar looking flatworms that go after LPS, they look close to AEFW but are not. Same round shape, similar patterning, but not the same species.

I've gone to several homes where people swear they have AEFW, only to find they are not Amakusaplana acroporae but another type of flatworm.

toothman, if I send you a small vial, can you put a few flatworms in it and return it to me? I can show them to Dr. Rawlinson, a flatworm expert, when she visits my place soon. She will be able to tell for sure.

 

[toothman]

I really do do see from my picture how anyone could make much of a opinion of what they are but what ever.

These aefw's are a nightmare, in my case a weeks worth of nightmares.

How about some nice juicy eggs.<a href="http://s382.photobucket.com/user/eralff/media/aefweggs.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo268/eralff/aefweggs.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo aefweggs.jpg"/></a>

 

[BrentH]

How'd u get them in such a mature tank? Do u have any ideas ?

 

[Moser]

You must have two types?.. I agree that those are AEFW eggs.
The ones on that sun coral are not AEFW. You probably know how difficult AEFW are to see?. They just look different....

Mo

 

[sahin]

I agree those on the acro are AEFW's and their eggs. But the ones on the Sun Coral looks to be a different species of flatworms...

Also, if anyone here should know a thing or two about Acro Eating Flatworms it would be Tektite. Tektite is doing a study on AEFW's with Dr Rawlinson.

 

[toothman]

How'd u get them in such a mature tank? Do u have any ideas ?

I remodeled about 1/3 of my tank last march taking out all caps, birdnest and other super fast growers, with new frags.

 

[toothman]

I still don't think they are truly AEFW. There are very similar looking flatworms that go after LPS, they look close to AEFW but are not. Same round shape, similar patterning, but not the same species.

I've gone to several homes where people swear they have AEFW, only to find they are not Amakusaplana acroporae but another type of flatworm.

toothman, if I send you a small vial, can you put a few flatworms in it and return it to me? I can show them to Dr. Rawlinson, a flatworm expert, when she visits my place soon. She will be able to tell for sure.

pm me your address.

 

[toothman]

I agree those on the acro are AEFW's and their eggs. But the ones on the Sun Coral looks to be a different species of flatworms...

Also, if anyone here should know a thing or two about Acro Eating Flatworms it would be Tektite. Tektite is doing a study on AEFW's with Dr Rawlinson.

thanks for the input. What ever type are in my reef they are very parasitic to acropora. I did look again at the flat worms in the blue bowl,( apparently I ran off to work and left the bowl in the laundry room, my wife reminded me that there is some nasty looking stuff in the laundry room) they really look the same as the ones that I found on acropora. The picture probably does make them look different. I am trying to send some to tektite.

 

[sahin]

thanks for the input. What ever type are in my reef they are very parasitic to acropora. I did look again at the flat worms in the blue bowl,( apparently I ran off to work and left the bowl in the laundry room, my wife reminded me that there is some nasty looking stuff in the laundry room) they really look the same as the ones that I found on acropora. The picture probably does make them look different. I am trying to send some to tektite.

I came across a flatworm that came in with a gorgonian I bought more than 10 months ago...I was on the phone to my Coral Aquaculture guy right away: he explained that it was just a harmless flatworm...the flatworm was MUCH larger than any AEFW that I ever came across. My guy is also a Marine Biologist and I believed him. I did get rid of the flatworm as I didnt like the look of it...but my SPS corals are fine.

I suppose we only come across a few species of reef flatworms, but there must be so many more species out there...you might just have recieved two here: the type on the Sun Coral and the usual suspects the AEFW's.

The two occassions I had AEFW's...ONLY Acropora were affected. All my other SPS; Stylos, Seriatopora etc were fine.

I really wish we knew an easy to keep natural predator for AEFW or at least had a good reef safe medication for killing AEFW's.

 

[DopeCantWin]

If they are indeed Red Planaria then Flatworm Exit will kill them. You could follow the instructions and if you still have them a month later, they're AEFW.