AEFW Coral preference?.....

[rovster]

First of all, I apologize for yet another AEFW thread, but in a way, we can never get enough of these, and its hard to get a specific question answered because it gets lost in some of the bigger threads. I have a situation that I wanted some opinions on.

I am currently in the process of a tank transfer (no rush, but don't want to prolong any more than necessary).

I think its well known that those that have had AEFW (myself included), notice that they do not affect all acros. Seems the slimers and deepwaters are least affected, and milles and bushy varieties, etc, the most affected. I previously battled AEFW with dipping in bayer once a week for 8 weeks and everthing was fine for almost a year. Lately, I noticed 2 of my minicolonies may have become reinfected?? I wanted to nuke the tank with Levimasole, but at the same time, do not want to risk some of the corals that seem to be unaffected.

I have closely inspected all the corals, and have not found any eggs, but a couple look like they may have some bite marks, but basting I have not seen anything come off.

What is the risk with transferring these seemingly unaffected corals (after a long dip and basting of course). I can closely inspect with magnification and will putty the border just to make sure (I have to putty them anyway to mount in the new tank).

What do you guys think? Is this a calculated but manageable risk? Should I just nuke the tank to be sure? I have a bunch of frags and minicolonies. I did order some Levimasole powder so that will start soon anyway. Bayer definitely knocks the worms off especially if you baste during the dip. If I see any, that coral will not make the transfer. I can do them one at a time to be extra thorough. I also plan to knock them off their bases. Feedback appreciated. What would you do?

 

[Tweaked]

With no eggs, and you have gone OCD on the bases with a magnifying glass gluing anything suspect, I see this as fine. If your dipping in strong concentration of bayer and seeing nothing squirming off but the standard pod, etc., then I say your good. Can you use the current tank as a qt during the transfer and dip to be absolutely sure over the next couple weeks every 5 days?

 

[rovster]

With no eggs, and you have gone OCD on the bases with a magnifying glass gluing anything suspect, I see this as fine. If your dipping in strong concentration of bayer and seeing nothing squirming off but the standard pod, etc., then I say your good. Can you use the current tank as a qt during the transfer and dip to be absolutely sure over the next couple weeks every 5 days?

I was thinking of 2-3 dips a few days apart, and one final dip before transfer. What I want to avoid is the 8 weeks of weekly dipping and or risking crashing the tank with a tank-wide Levimasole treatment. I have transferred most of my non acros, and LPS already, so in effect, my current tank is sort of a QT tank to do what I will with it. It seems the staghorns are totally unaffected, along with my red planet and mirabilis. My 2 shortcakes loos super happy as well. All have healthy polyp extension, color and absolutely no base recession. I have gone over them with a flash light and nothing. The ones that may be affected are a bonsai, a nana/plana looking one, and one tenius (I have a few).

I don't know. I'm still considering at least one full tank treatment to kick things off. I'd just hate to crash the tank and lose some acros that were just innocent bystanders.

 

[Tweaked]

I hate these vial worms. I went thorough weeks of dipping every five days in bayer and that was now about 3 months ago. Patiently waiting and watching before I call it a success, but all looks to be doing well. Good luck my friend

 

[rovster]

I hate these vial worms. I went thorough weeks of dipping every five days in bayer and that was now about 3 months ago. Patiently waiting and watching before I call it a success, but all looks to be doing well. Good luck my friend

Thanks. I did that as well. All was good for a year. I only added frags from one trusted source in that time, and I have some local friends that also got frags from that person and no signs of worms. This was over 6 months ago, maybe longer. My theory, is that I decimated the population but may not have elimitated them completely? I think it just took a year for them to show themselves again. I did not treat in a separate QT tank, but rather just dipped and returned to the tank. I did do the 2 months of weekly dips so that should have taken care of it. Who knows for sure?

 

[dadummy]

cut a frag or two off of each colony and start over. It's easy to dip and inspect frags. Start the new tank off with no doubt in your mind. Stinks having to grow corals back out, but would really blow if 6 months down the road you were ripping them all out again.

 

[rovster]

Most are frags, albeit largish frags. Maybe 2-3 inches on average without a lot of branching. Most started out as nubs. Only a couple are minicolones. The stags don't have a large base, and are barely off the plugs, but they are easy to inspect. So I'm kinda dealing with frags. I was going to set up a large rack and just keep them on that. That's what I did when I treated last time.

 

[dadummy]

that sounds like a good plan to me, put them on a rack and dip away. Get some red bug meds and treat for them too before you move everything over. Then never introduce another acro again lol

I have the acro on racks myself, dipping and inspecting. Have to check everywhere for eggs. I find eggs on the underside of the coral mounts which leads me to believe they would also lay them on the egg crate.