AEFW experiments and study

Great job another side of the hobby we have hobbyist who get into the breeding of fish. You have a whole new branch of the hobby the disease of and pests of SPS. keep the fire going it will be a very interesting path you have chosen I hope others become inspired to do work on other problem the hobby faces.
 
trueblackpercula said:
Looks outstanding, so what's the goal here ? Are you experimenting with what will kill them and if so what are you planing to start trying? Will it be an in tank treat ment or a dip treatment? I think you have pretty much found out how long they live without a host and the life cycle of the eggs hatching but what treatments have you tried to eradicate them?
Click to expand...

I've done just a single run of the life expectancy with no food experiment, and have been relying on Dr. Rawlinson's results of hatch time from her older observations when she first found their scientific name. Not even near to saying I've found how long they live with no host and the life cycle of the eggs. Every experiment I run will be run multiple times for proper averaging of results, and for the moment remember I only have my variety of AEFW. Different AEFW from different sources may have different results, until I establish colonies from multiple locations I won't be able to find the variance in any results from different populations of AEFW. It is apparently virtually impossible to get any AEFW from other reefers LOL! Plus I want to run tests like how long they live with no food in several different environments, at different temperatures and different light cycle lengths as they're nocturnal, and see if temp also affects the hatch length/embryonic development time. Many more tests to be run! Like I said in my OP, this is a long-term thing :)

Now that the AEFW system is up and running, I will soon have many more AEFW in my colony and will have enough to run lots of experiments, even some simultaneously to save time. Until I have an excess of AEFW, I will concentrate on the experiments to learn more about their little-known life cycle, when I do have extras I'll start looking more into methods of eradication. Its taken me awhile to get to this point, for one I've put a lot of my money into this and though my husband is very understanding for a non-reefer, he's still not happy with me spending so much on these little flatworms lol. Which is why (besides my time) its taken me months to finally get where I'm almost ready to start really digging in to the experiment list in one of my first posts of this thread. But, now, I'm almost ready to go! Just need to let the newly fragged acros heal in the system and then let them be hosts to my AEFW colony to get my population up.
 
Thanks for the update. This is becoming one heck of an experiment. Let me know if you need anymore frags. Its buying me karma points if the day ever comes where i get the AEFW plague again. So far i have been very very very careful and selective on the corals i just have to have. Good luck and keep the posts coming.
 
I wasn't allowed to post about the microryza here, rules against solicitation on RC, so please be careful guys. Don't want this thread shut down.
 
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Sorry didn't it know research this important would be an issue. Actually everyone who keeps corals should want to help this project.
 
Definitely subscribing to this! I would try and do study some type of pest like this myself, but I don't have the money to do it ;)
 
Great news, Dr. Rawlinson and I received the funding we needed so we will be moving forward with the in-depth experiments listed on the Microryza site.

The AEFW system is doing great so far! The acros are healing up from being fragged and starting to encrust already. I have most of the 22 colonies I purchased for the system fragged and moved over to it from my main system. Moved a few adult AEFW over as well on some of the frags, though most of my AEFW colony is still in my main reef tank. In a week or so as the newly moved corals are settled into their new tank I'll move more AEFW over and get a good colony going in preparation for Dr. Rawlinson's visit and our in-depth experiments.

I put a bunch of adults into a ziplock bag today, I anticipate several egg clusters to be laid on the plastic tonight. The ziplock will let me remove them easily from the tank for viewing under my microscope. I'll be watching the clusters to see how long it takes them to develop and hatch.

AEFW getting settled in to the new system:
 
Good news on the funding. This is great for the hobby. I hope there will be a breakthrough and you discover a simple and effective remedy for AEFW in our tanks.

Good luck.
 
This is very interesting and definitely the proper way to go.
It would only take a hint of positive results for these $5000 to be worth the investment.

---

The next step for the community is to raise funds to find answers to all the other problems and myths that plague the hobby and to take reef-keeping to the next level.

All we need is someone to market the idea.
I don't think funding will be a problem or capable researchers hard to find.

It's time to let more science in.
 
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