AEFW experiments and study

[Allmost]

why does watching the AEFW suffer makes me smile ? lol

how do you remove them from the acro ? turkey baster ?

 

[tektite]

how do you remove them from the acro ? turkey baster ?

Yes, as gently as possible. They can hang on ridiculously tightly for such little things!

 

[markalot]

I believe egg laying even in the absense of a host might mean something. Predation must be high so they lay eggs, and a lot of them, regardless of conditions. Perhaps eggs get smaller as the parent begins to starve. /shrug

Anyway great work, I looks for new posts almost hourly.

 

[rogerwilco357]

out of all the acro I have had the green slimmer acro was the choice acro. It had the most eggs clusters and the most aefw . Luckily this acro is common and can be found easily in colony size ..

 

[Koralcrazy]

another thing that may get the wheels turning....i had (may still have) a problem with AEFW....I was living with them by weekly maxi-jet blasting parties and hungry chromis...

Anyways, several weeks back, I accidentally left my dosing pumps on all night...woke up and my tank was snow white, return pump and powerheads were barely moving as precipitation was everywhere. Rock was all white, etc....corals looked bad, real bad, but as time passed they all eventually recovered....took about 4-5 weeks.

Ever since then, when I go to baste my colonies, I can't get a AEFW to fly off....perhaps this is just a coincidence, or perhaps AEFWs are like cancer...you practically have to kill the coral to eradicate the pest...

 

[shih87]

Recently, I got some nice frag from friends. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=22074429#post22074429

However, they come with surprise....

Dip frags in CoralX solution with recommended drops for 5 minutes and then ....

After adding a few more drops of CoralX, it died completely

Then I careful examed these frags for eggs, brush out whatever I suspected. Unfortunately, I don't have a qt tank, so these new frags directly to my main tank right after. Luckily, so far these frags are health enough from my view point.

 

[sahin]

Short video, sped up 4x. The flatworm wasn't happy with the compartment, it had just been moved from its host acro, and was holding itself up trying to find something other than the plastic to grab onto:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/r2UTZHAnxqY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Can you please say to one of these FW's: "This is for Sahin"...and then squish it! :uzi: :angryfire:

 

[Fail_sh3d]

Can you please say to one of these FW's: "This is for Sahin"...and then squish it! :uzi: :angryfire:

lol'd

 

[tektite]

Day 7, Experiment 1 (Nov 11th)

Compartment 1: 2 new egg clusters (14 total to date), all remaining 5 AEFW present
Compartment 2: No change (9 total egg clusters to date), all remaining 6 AEFW present
Compartment 3: 1 new egg cluster (10 total to date), all 10 AEFW present
Compartment 4: No change (1 egg cluster to date), all 10 AEFW present
Compartment 5: No change, all remaining 9 AEFW present


Notes:

Egg laying slowing down

Waterchange performed at 10am and 10pm

 

[tektite]

Day 8, Experiment 1 (Nov 12th)

Compartment 1: No change (14 total egg clusters to date), all remaining 5 AEFW present
Compartment 2: 1 new egg cluster (10 total egg clusters to date), all remaining 6 AEFW present
Compartment 3: No change (10 total egg clusters to date), all 10 AEFW present
Compartment 4: No change (1 egg cluster to date), all 10 AEFW present
Compartment 5: No change, all remaining 9 AEFW present


Notes:

No deaths of AEFW of any size for the last 3 days

Waterchange performed at 10am and 10pm

 

[Allmost]

so none of the eggs have hatched yet ?

thanks for the update

 

[reefingnoob]

so none of the eggs have hatched yet ?

thanks for the update

It will be a very interesting news if eggs are not hatching. thanks for doing this.

 

[tektite]

so none of the eggs have hatched yet ?

thanks for the update

No, it takes 3 weeks for eggs to hatch per Dr. Rawlinson's study. Still got about 2 weeks to go before the first laid eggs will hatch.

 

[psidriven]

Any chance you will be able to confirm velvet nudibranchs will eat aefw?

 

[tektite]

Velvet nudibranches are predators of a different type of flatworm, I doubt they would go after AEFW. It MIGHT be possible to check in the future to know for sure, but in general I'm very against buying anything with such an incredibly specialized diet, as they are guaranteed to die when their target flatworm population runs out.

 

[psidriven]

thanks, did a little research and found out red planaria flatworms and aefw are in completely different orders. the common name of flatworms threw me off. i hate it when that happens.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Have you thought about the feeding of flake food or pellet food to see if they eat it?

 

[tektite]

They won't, live acros are their only food.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Well they have been alive a long time with no food just asking

 

[tektite]

Day 9, Experiment 1 (Nov 13th)

Compartment 1: 2 new egg clusters (16 total egg clusters to date), all remaining 5 AEFW present
Compartment 2: No change (10 total egg clusters to date), all remaining 6 AEFW present
Compartment 3: No change (10 total egg clusters to date), all 10 AEFW present
Compartment 4: 3 AEFW dead (1 egg cluster to date), 7 remaining AEFW
Compartment 5: 4 AEFW dead, 5 remaining AEFW


Notes:

Smaller AEFW hit a wall today, many dead, the remaining hardly moving at all

Waterchange performed at 10am and 10pm