AEFW Eggs revealed

[dzhuo]

Am I fooling myself into thinking I wont introduce them if I am only adding new frags other than acros.

No you are not fooling yourself. AEFW has never been observed to lay eggs far away from their hosts and has never seen to be attached to live tissue. Eggs are always very close to the host near the base either in the rock or in bare coral skeleton. Upon hatching from the eggs, they start to look for a host immediately (they are capable of swim for a short distance) and start feeding. However, when there is no suitable host they remain stationary and no one knows how long they can sustain. It's somewhat unusual to introduce AEFW through other non-acro corals. Regardless, I would do the normal dip or QT as a precaution since we still don't know enough about this pest.

This is the first and only research paper on AEFW:

Taxonomy and life history of the Acropora-eating flatworm Amakusaplana acroporae nov. sp. (Polycladida: Prosthiostomidae)

 

[Pallobi]

great queston Shayna, always a good thing to venture out from the local board for more experienced and broadened opinions and insight

 

[shayna123]

Thanks guys. I put the frags in one at a time and my wrasse gave each frag a close inspection, taking a couple of nibbles, then my tang took a turn munching any stray algae. Glad to see they are earning their keep!

 

[XSiVE]

your picture actually gave me the chills/shivers/willies, whatever you want to call it... I've dealt with those little bastards once before and I hope to never have to ever again! Good luck with your treatment.

 

[Bello]

Thanks for the really good pics!!

This will definitely help!

 

[DrHarryLopez]

No you are not fooling yourself. AEFW has never been observed to lay eggs far away from their hosts and has never seen to be attached to live tissue. Eggs are always very close to the host near the base either in the rock or in bare coral skeleton. Upon hatching from the eggs, they start to look for a host immediately (they are capable of swim for a short distance) and start feeding. However, when there is no suitable host they remain stationary and no one knows how long they can sustain. It's somewhat unusual to introduce AEFW through other non-acro corals. Regardless, I would do the normal dip or QT as a precaution since we still don't know enough about this pest.

This is the first and only research paper on AEFW:

Taxonomy and life history of the Acropora-eating flatworm Amakusaplana acroporae nov. sp. (Polycladida: Prosthiostomidae)

Excellent response.
I had purchased the journal a month back for my reef club. We're actually having a journal review via PowerPoint presentation, then a round table discussion for this month's NYReefClub meeting.

 

[lucidheights]

that gave me the chills :$

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

It seems to be common belief on aefw that they lay their eggs at the base or very near coral. If we accept this as correct, couldn't we then just dip the rocks that have acros attached? By doing this you are dipping all corals and their breeding grounds.

 

[dzhuo]

It seems to be common belief on aefw that they lay their eggs at the base or very near coral. If we accept this as correct, couldn't we then just dip the rocks that have acros attached? By doing this you are dipping all corals and their breeding grounds.

The problem is dipping would not affect the eggs. If you really can't QT, the best practice would be to dip the corals (as usual) and cut off the rock and any bare coral skeleton. You will loose a bit of base which should grow back fairly quickly. If you don't introduce the plug or LR attached to the acro and without bare coral skeleton, you significantly reduce the chance of AEFW.

 

[Bax]

Great picture Dr Harry. Ugly!!!! But none the less a great pic.

AEFWs will lay eggs in any good cover pretty far form a host. I have seen them on the underside of frag plugs. I've read posts of them deep in crevesis of rock. They are survivors! Never count them out till a large woman is singing near by!

 

[stevejrnc]

Drharrylopez

so what did you end up doing with the colonie in the picture?

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Drharrylopez

so what did you end up doing with the colonie in the picture?

Colony didn't survive. I should have never QT'd the animal, instead dip, then scape, then place back in the same tank and placement where it was originally.

IMO QT'ing it only stressed it out more then the stress it was going through. I had three QT tanks with independent filtering, flow and LED lighting, but of the three colonies that I was able to remove from the DT two died, and one is holding onto life....

Thanks for asking

 

[rogerwilco357]

after seeing those pictures I just have this sick feeling man that is about the size of my prized millepora before it was taken lost all my colonies over 6 months ..knocked me out almost a year now..good luck

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Any new advances against AEFW?

 

[macdaddynick1]

My man I feel your pain. I’m going through the same thing. I advice dipping and fragging off only the live tissue and tossing the rest. also try to use less harsh dip than coral rx. And dip for a few minutes, since you already have them in your tank so even if 1 survives it won’t change the fact that you’ll still have them, but a few minutes in a dip could be crucial to survival of an already weakened coral.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Which dip are you using [MENTION=326871]macdaddynick1[/MENTION]?

 

[macdaddynick1]

Which dip are you using [MENTION=326871]macdaddynick1[/MENTION]?

I use Bayer, but I heard melafix works on these guys too.

 

[jda]

Wormwood, or Flatworm Stop, with a strong, prolonged dose in the display will take care of them.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2670592

 

[five.five-six]

I’ve seen them get past Bayer on more than one occasion.

With melefix, even if you don’t get them all, you will be able to see some in the treatment vessel and take appropriate actions with the infected specimen.

 

[Gmerek2]

It makes me cringe to look at the pics. But I'm very thankful you posted them. It's good to know your enemies!


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