AEFW experiments and study

[markalot]

The first 6 or so pages of this thread document how long adults lived without food and how long they laid eggs. It was pretty depressing.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2346292&page=6

or post 127 starts documenting as they die off. 15 days is what was observed, but they will lay eggs so the actual time will be longer. The younger ones did die quick without food.

 

[Vidofner]

I dipped my corals for 12 week. Was going to be 7 weeks but at week 5 i found new aefw so i had to restart the process. Looks like im aefw free now though and all the affected corals are looking great now

 

[BradR]

Okay, thank you guys

 

[Osama]

Following for my own info as recently my 500g DT got infested by nudibrands that have destroyed five super big montis ...

 

[StevieK]

Happy New Year

Hoping that 2016 is the year of AEFW secret dip killer

S

 

[Volcano1]

+ alot of zero's on that.

 

[JPMagyar]

Folks likely to read this thread may be looking for hope. I can't give any clear answers, and I don't know what the future holds, but I can say that living with AEFW is possible. My tank is infested, but through some combination of predation and maintenance they seem to be staying in check. I have zero scientific proof and can not be sure of which if any of my natural livestock additions helped, but here is what I have in my tank, the combination of which seems to be effective:

1) a dozen Peppermint Shrimp
2) half dozen emerald crabs
3) Hoevens's wrasse
4) turkey basting when I see bite marks.
5) 5 skunk cleaner shrimp

At the moment I see no signs of the worms, but I can not say if or when the problem may reappear. As a long run solution I am setting up a 180 as a separate system and intend to frag every coral I have, and put the frags through a multi-week dipping regimen. Then once I am certain I have healthy growth from all the frags, I plan on tearing down my display and starting over with the hopefully clean and worm free frags.

It will be a long slog, but that is the only answer I see to not losing my huge investment in corals.

Here's a shot from yesterday . . .

 

[reefmutt]

Joe, I'm curious.. Why go to all of the trouble and expense to execute your plan if your tank is thriving despite having aefws?
I also have aefws and have 2 dozen peppermint shrimp. I think they are extremely effective aefw egg eaters..
I will follow your above aefw maintenance protocol as I do not have a tank tear down in me. It might drive me from the hobby..
There was a totm write up by Oldude a couple years back.. He mentioned in his write up that after discovering aefws, he added a small army of peppermint shrimp and never had a problem again...
Yes.. All anecdotal .... No proof here at all.. But...

 

[JPMagyar]

Joe, I'm curious.. Why go to all of the trouble and expense to execute your plan if your tank is thriving despite having aefws?
I also have aefws and have 2 dozen peppermint shrimp. I think they are extremely effective aefw egg eaters..
I will follow your above aefw maintenance protocol as I do not have a tank tear down in me. It might drive me from the hobby..
There was a totm write up by Oldude a couple years back.. He mentioned in his write up that after discovering aefws, he added a small army of peppermint shrimp and never had a problem again...
Yes.. All anecdotal .... No proof here at all.. But...

Great question Matt. Actually, there are many reasons driving the decision besides the presence of AEFW not the least of which I'm always looking for a reason to start a new tank Seriously though several other factors. 1) my current tank is approaching a decade old and it's from Glass Cages and there were issues early on with the seals that were self induced (put water in before the recommended curing was complete) 2) I love being rimless, but I splash water down the side every time I clean the glass so I'd love a tank with a "euro braced rim". 3) I have several other pests and my dream is to have a system created pest free and diligently keep it that way with a serious quarantine process. The list of pests include aiptasia, valonia, vermitid snails, and brown palythoa. 4) I'd like to make my next tank and in-wall type where I can only view one side and I'd like to make it huge with enormous "negative space". I'm thinking 500 gallons but only have two small bommies and then space my colonies out so they can grow enormous. Anyways, I think you get the idea

As to the pep's I really do think they're the ones doing the job. I haven't seen them actually eating anything because I almost never see them accept if I sneak up on the tank at night. Sadly like anything else I think it's a trade off because something is eating my frogspawn and I think it's them. Fair enough trade, I guess. :lolspin:

Bottom line: AEFW are just the excuse. The truth is I WANT a new reef. Certainly no rush though, as I suspect it will be 2 - 3 years in the making and may even have to wait until my son starts college and we move to a smaller house. . . we'll see . . .

 

[UTCReefer]

For having AEFW your colors are really really good. My corals faded in color and then started to stn from the infestation. I am finally rid of them now after setting up a QT for all my sps and starving the suckers out of the DT while the acro's were dipped weekly and all new eggs were super glued over. I actually enjoyed gluing over the eggs knowing that when they hatched there would be absolutely no way to escape. It took 3 months but i made it.

Ive always said that if i get them again i will throw in the towel but your post makes me wonder if i wouldnt unleash 20 peppermint shrimps in there just to see if it worked.

Thanks for sharing.

Folks likely to read this thread may be looking for hope. I can't give any clear answers, and I don't know what the future holds, but I can say that living with AEFW is possible. My tank is infested, but through some combination of predation and maintenance they seem to be staying in check. I have zero scientific proof and can not be sure of which if any of my natural livestock additions helped, but here is what I have in my tank, the combination of which seems to be effective:

1) a dozen Peppermint Shrimp
2) half dozen emerald crabs
3) Hoevens's wrasse
4) turkey basting when I see bite marks.
5) 5 skunk cleaner shrimp

At the moment I see no signs of the worms, but I can not say if or when the problem may reappear. As a long run solution I am setting up a 180 as a separate system and intend to frag every coral I have, and put the frags through a multi-week dipping regimen. Then once I am certain I have healthy growth from all the frags, I plan on tearing down my display and starting over with the hopefully clean and worm free frags.

It will be a long slog, but that is the only answer I see to not losing my huge investment in corals.

Here's a shot from yesterday . . .

 

[bvaughn7]

I dipped my corals for 12 week. Was going to be 7 weeks but at week 5 i found new aefw so i had to restart the process. Looks like im aefw free now though and all the affected corals are looking great now

Did 12 weeks do the job? Any update on what you found?

 

[Montireef]

Any update? This is an awesome thread!

I few days ago I came across a couple mariculture acros that were infected with aefw. I dip them in Coral-RX and got 8 adult amakusaplanas which I quickly transferred to a small plastic container with clean aquarium water. They were healthy and firmly sticked to the walls and bottom. I decided to try Herbtana (Microbe-Lift) in a small quantity, I poured about 1 ml in 1/2 USG and in less than one hour they were all dead.

Has anybody tried something similar? I wonder if it might work in a reef tank, as I know that Herbtana is a reef-safe product

 

[StevieK]

looking for an update !!

 

[Rickyrooz1]

Any update? This is an awesome thread!

I few days ago I came across a couple mariculture acros that were infected with aefw. I dip them in Coral-RX and got 8 adult amakusaplanas which I quickly transferred to a small plastic container with clean aquarium water. They were healthy and firmly sticked to the walls and bottom. I decided to try Herbtana (Microbe-Lift) in a small quantity, I poured about 1 ml in 1/2 USG and in less than one hour they were all dead.

Has anybody tried something similar? I wonder if it might work in a reef tank, as I know that Herbtana is a reef-safe product

Interesting, the Herbtana is used to treat against flukes which a few years ago some reefers were treating their SPS corals with levamisole which is also used against flukes. Have you tried your solution on SPS yet or just the flatworms themselves?

 

[Montireef]

No, I have never tried in any of my tanks as I do not have aefw. But if I get any infected acropora I dip it in a Herbtana solution and aefws, detach and fall from the tissue.

For anyone with this problem I think it would be worthwhile to give it a try in the tank as it is reef safe

 

[Cesarravan]

Tagging along. Would love to see updates on this.

 

[csilverio]

Tagging along. Would love to see updates on this.

So do I.

 

[jjoos99]

Two weeks ago I found the buggers on one of my acros, I destroyed anything that had eggs on it and have been dipping the remaining coral. Tonight I found one of my milli had them also, both corals were fairly close together on my rock work. I have been dipping with coral rx and it really doesnt seem to do much. Like one of the previous post they were still stuck to the bottom of the bucket that I dipped it in. I had vigorously swashed the coral around in the dip water to get them to release. I just ordered the Microbe-Lift Herbal Actives Herbtana and will post any findings I come up with.
Jeff

 

[Volcano1]

I always had best luck with bayer. It is a tough battle.

 

[jjoos99]

I used bayer the last time I had an outbreak and I felt it worked well other then you cant see into the bucket to tell what if anything was killed and even though I rinsed my corals some of it got back into the display and killed all my shrimp in a matter of minutes.
Thanks
Jeff