AEFW Chronicle
- Thread starter Gondore
- Start date
Mike de Leon
New member
Congratulations. I have been following your thread.
What was the obvious signs in the beginning when you first
had this problem?
Something's been bothering some of my corals for a while now. At least six months but no signs of anything except a couple of RBs that I saw a while back but no longer.
Would AEFW exist this long and not totally destroy everything?
What was the obvious signs in the beginning when you first
had this problem?
Something's been bothering some of my corals for a while now. At least six months but no signs of anything except a couple of RBs that I saw a while back but no longer.
Would AEFW exist this long and not totally destroy everything?
When you say "bothering" what type of signs are you seeing? I would say that six months is a substantial amount of time and you would most likely be seeing pretty obvious bite marks on at least several of your corals, if not the lose of several frags/colonies. It really sort of depends though. I know that there are some individuals who have been able to get by with AEFWs in their tanks. If you have fish that consume the worms to some degree it may be possible to slow the damage caused.
Mike de Leon
New member
I actually have a Mandarin Goby that could be eating them.
One particular milli will get white spots here and there then will dissappear and do well. I have not lost any corals lately. I lost a few in the summer when the heat got out of control.
Lately it's been okay. But since I am doing an upgrade I was wondering if there's any preventative measures I can do now...
Mike de Leon
New member
Thanks...I will do this.
Dip number seven has just been completed and I am very excited to announce that I discovered no worms or eggs on any of the frags for the second week in a row! This leads me to conclude that I am now AEFW free!!!!
Treating for these worms has been quite the experience and there were times that I just wanted to toss everything out and start from stratch. Looking back now I am glad that I stuck it out because I gained a wealth of knowledge. Hopefully this knowledge will prevent me from ever allowing these worms to enter my system again and will also help others prevent/treat for these worms in the future.
Based on all the reading that I did on this topic, I believe this thread is the first to prove two things. First, Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure is the only dip that you need to eliminate these worms. I know others, such as Dejavu, have used mainly TMPCC for treating their corals, but also added in Levamisole for a single dip to make sure he killed the worms. I think this is a great strategy, but if you have problems obtaining Levamisole then you can feel safe going with just TMPCC. I also found it interesting in several posts where people were stating that TMPCC is harsher on corals that what Revive is. This may be the case but I only lost 1 frag (I actually fragged it and there is a good chance it will live) out of 28 during this entire ordeal. Secondly, I didn't find any resources online that stated how frequently these worms lay their eggs on dead portions of the coral. I know many people simply cut off the bases of new corals and remount them to eliminate the risk of eggs. I would challenge these individuals to more thoroughly inspect the coral if it contains any dead portions on it because it appears in some cases these eggs may end up in more places than just the base of the coral.
I will be returning all my acros to my display tank this week. Even though all evidence strongly points to the fact that I have eliminated these worms, I will continue to be doing monthly updates on this thread to confirm this. I believe if I can go roughly six months with absolutely no signs of the worms then I can say for 100% that I am AEFW free.
I know this post is getting a bit long, but I wanted to say thanks to Rob for letting me borrow his 29 gallon and equipment. Thanks to Brian (Dejavu), waynesreef, mpoletti, and melev for a wealth of information on how they treated for AEFWs. Thanks to everyone else who has followed along on this thread and contributed!
Treating for these worms has been quite the experience and there were times that I just wanted to toss everything out and start from stratch. Looking back now I am glad that I stuck it out because I gained a wealth of knowledge. Hopefully this knowledge will prevent me from ever allowing these worms to enter my system again and will also help others prevent/treat for these worms in the future.
Based on all the reading that I did on this topic, I believe this thread is the first to prove two things. First, Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure is the only dip that you need to eliminate these worms. I know others, such as Dejavu, have used mainly TMPCC for treating their corals, but also added in Levamisole for a single dip to make sure he killed the worms. I think this is a great strategy, but if you have problems obtaining Levamisole then you can feel safe going with just TMPCC. I also found it interesting in several posts where people were stating that TMPCC is harsher on corals that what Revive is. This may be the case but I only lost 1 frag (I actually fragged it and there is a good chance it will live) out of 28 during this entire ordeal. Secondly, I didn't find any resources online that stated how frequently these worms lay their eggs on dead portions of the coral. I know many people simply cut off the bases of new corals and remount them to eliminate the risk of eggs. I would challenge these individuals to more thoroughly inspect the coral if it contains any dead portions on it because it appears in some cases these eggs may end up in more places than just the base of the coral.
I will be returning all my acros to my display tank this week. Even though all evidence strongly points to the fact that I have eliminated these worms, I will continue to be doing monthly updates on this thread to confirm this. I believe if I can go roughly six months with absolutely no signs of the worms then I can say for 100% that I am AEFW free.
I know this post is getting a bit long, but I wanted to say thanks to Rob for letting me borrow his 29 gallon and equipment. Thanks to Brian (Dejavu), waynesreef, mpoletti, and melev for a wealth of information on how they treated for AEFWs. Thanks to everyone else who has followed along on this thread and contributed!
JCR's Reef
New member
Great job!! Usually you dont here of a good outcome when alot of coral is infested. Most people only treat a new frag or two. You beat the odds though.
Got some questions:
Are you going to stick with TMPCC only for dipping new frags? or any other medications?
Did you see any new growth on your frags with all the stress they went through? I would doubt it but you never know. Did they show any polyp extension?
Did you feed, or dose anything to the tank while they were in QT?
I'm just curious because usually the only thing I check and dose for is PH. And in a bare, and steril tank things dont stay in check as easy. You had alot of coral in that holding tank so I didnt know if the balance would swing more or not?
Got some questions:
Are you going to stick with TMPCC only for dipping new frags? or any other medications?
Did you see any new growth on your frags with all the stress they went through? I would doubt it but you never know. Did they show any polyp extension?
Did you feed, or dose anything to the tank while they were in QT?
I'm just curious because usually the only thing I check and dose for is PH. And in a bare, and steril tank things dont stay in check as easy. You had alot of coral in that holding tank so I didnt know if the balance would swing more or not?
LOVETHISHOBBY
New member
Awesome...I'm so happy that you could save all your corals except for one especially when you were anticipating up to a 30% loss. Thanks for documenting this process as it will help many reefers in the future. And you're welcome for the tank as at least someone could get some use out of it. It was just collecting dust at my house.
Great questions Josh! I do plan to stick with just TMPCC for all dipping except for Red Bugs, which I will be using Interceptor for. Some corals did grow while in the QT and some showed great polyp extension; however, all of the corals browned out. I imagine it will make months to get the colors back in my display tank. I did not feed or add any fish to the QT. I wanted to do my best to keep nutrients under control. I changed roughly 20% of the water weekly as a means to export nutrients and replenish trace elements. I initially thought this would be enough to keep Alk and Ca in check, but I was seriously wrong. As I mentioned in my thread, my Alk took a nose dive. I started dosing two part each day and this took care of the problem. It is definitely more challenging to maintain stable parameters in a tank that is a small volume of water and totally sterile, but it can be done with a little trial and error.
Mike de Leon
New member
I will be dipping some corals and even live rock as I suspect a few may be hiding places.
The instructions only said a few minutes of dip. How long should I leave the corals in it? I will use Revive btw.
The instructions only said a few minutes of dip. How long should I leave the corals in it? I will use Revive btw.
I haven't used Revive before so I can't really tell you a good duration for dipping. I would suggest going a bit longer than the recommendation though. From past reading I know that Revive is suppose to be very mild and a bit longer in the dip is very unlikely to harm your corals.
Mike de Leon
New member
Thanks again. I will start the dipping this weekend. My corals are now doing okay but I will not take a chance...
spsfreak
Premium Member
Glad to hear things have worked out for you.
On a side note about the yellow clown goby - the reason they hang close to SPS (particularly Acros) is they like to eat\nip the polyps.
EDIT: I should clearify, some do not all. My yellow clown goby is fine if I feed him well, but he still sits on all of my sps in my 3g pico - on a rotation it seems.
On a side note about the yellow clown goby - the reason they hang close to SPS (particularly Acros) is they like to eat\nip the polyps.
EDIT: I should clearify, some do not all. My yellow clown goby is fine if I feed him well, but he still sits on all of my sps in my 3g pico - on a rotation it seems.
Fireworm
New member
I did notice that mine seemed to if he was not getting fed enough. I think if you have a establishede enough mature reef, like a TOTM style tank, then the addition of 1 or 2 clown gobies will not make a difference, but since most of mine are frags or even some large frags, that he would have soon stressed it to the point where he killed them.
He liked to live in the overflow I guess because he kept going in there. Even made it into the sump, through the fuge, and back up through the return one time. I have not seen him in a week or two now. I assume he is in the sump or found his way to the carpet heaven
Fireworm
New member
I did notice that mine seemed to if he was not getting fed enough. I think if you have a establishede enough mature reef, like a TOTM style tank, then the addition of 1 or 2 clown gobies will not make a difference, but since most of mine are frags or even some large frags, that he would have soon stressed it to the point where he killed them.
He liked to live in the overflow I guess because he kept going in there. Even made it into the sump, through the fuge, and back up through the return one time. I have not seen him in a week or two now. I assume he is in the sump or found his way to the carpet heaven
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