AEFW, im pretty sure

[oneradtek202]

so for the last year, i could NOT figure it out. what was going on with my SPS. im pretty sure now that i have the AEFW. circle bleached marks on an acro proves that to me im pretty sure. So that being said, i have to isolate my corals and dip them. Im going to have to borrow an extra light for a month or so too. this is NOT fun, but i think itll be best in the long run. my acros are pretty buried into the rock too. ill have to cut ALL colonies off the encrusted bases too.

any other ideas here for making this as painless as possible?


so are birdsnests affected by aefw? i dont think they are, but idk. i know stylos arent. tricolors FOR SURE ahve to get removed. i dont think millis are affected either any others i should grab?

 

[dreaminmel]

Sorry to hear this Brandon...

Odd as it may seem, there are some hobbyists that know they have these and just decide to live with them. I certainly hope they are warning frag buyers but am sure sometimes they forget and people should always be prepared to treat incoming coral for exactly that reason.

Ideally, painless would involve a separate tank that is already running and cycled. I suspect many of my losses were due to throwing an isolation tank together quickly.

Birdnests should not be affected. Personally I would treat every acropora, including the millis.

Here's a link to when I discovered them in my 125g. I reacted a bit strongly... but I never had them in my tank again after that.

(Edit: Corrected link) http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=986521&highlight=aefw

Good luck!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

good luck with this one.

I thought AEFW's only affected Acros- and specific types at that.
Seriatopora, Stylophora, Montipora should be safe from predation but what if an AEFW is hanging out on one of these corals?
I've never gone through this but I would think that you'd need to treat the whole tank..........

 

[dreaminmel]

It would seem only certain types of acro are notorious but I read enough reports on RC of them being found on other acro (including millis) that it would seem better safe than sorry to treat all acro. If he removes all acro to a holding tank long enough, that should allow any left behind aefw, eggs or hatchlings enough time to die off in the display from lack of food before the acro colonies are reintroduced. If any acro encrustations are left behind in the display... they should be given eagle eye attention.

I haven't read up on these in a few years now but last I knew there was no in tank treatment. Anyone know if they ended up finding one?

 

[Capt_Cully]

Brando, my 4x39W Tek is over @ ABC. You're welcome to borrow it indefinitely. I'll just need your new bike as collateral.

 

[oneradtek202]

Brando, my 4x39W Tek is over @ ABC. You're welcome to borrow it indefinitely. I'll just need your new bike as collateral.

my bike just cried when i told her this news Mark. you always have a way to make me laugh during gloomy situations lol and i always seem to make your gloomy days even worse "mark there's a old woman with a hip fx in the ER"

 

[poolkeeper1]

Levamisole It's a Pig wormer but must be used with caution. In fact AEFW do not target some corals but i have found they will lay Eggs on every type of SPS even Birds Nest and others that are not supposed to be affected. This was through personal experience and not hearsay! You can beat them back enough by dipping everything you can fit in a large container. I dipped my entire tank Rock and all at least once and then went after suspect colonies by looking for eggs and when found cutting them off and discarding the rest of that coral. Better to have a healthy frag than an infected colony.
After several weeks of looking and dipping i found no more live FW and now just check regular to see if any new hatchlings show up and get them too. So far so good.
Bill

 

[oneradtek202]

oo just found out that things really DO happen in threes......hmmm wow lol

 

[pascal32]

sorry to hear man. Looking around at AEFW threads it seems that spotting the FWs themselves is unlikely, however the eggs and bite marks are the give away. you have any shots?

Reading all this for the first time I'm a little worried as I have a similar mark on a piece I got from you or Mark a while back.

You could do a dip on a sample colony with TPMCC and see if you have any contenders. From a little reading these buggers get BIG:

Melves thread on AEFW: http://www.melevsreef.com/aefw.html

sample egg picture:

really bad case of bite marks:

 

[oneradtek202]

ill post pics, but i think maybe a mis-diagnosis because my favia is right below my colony with "bite marks". but last night i see the tentacles of the favia brushing the base of the acro. but still not 100% sure thats the cause! further investigation to come

 

[Randrew215]

Why does flatworm exit not treat this problem? I'm just dipping my toes into the waters of SPS, so if this is a completely different genus of flatworm or what have you, I am unknowledgeable and curious.

 

[Gravesj1s]

Looking like Ive joined in with bitemarks seen after veiwing this thread a few nights ago,confirmed flatworms as of last night.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Flat worms are a huge group, FW E was found to handle the big acoel people call red planaria; what's crazy is there could be thousands of flatworms in your tank and some of them are so close to absolutely invisible you'll never know it until you get out a good glass and do something to get them to release into another container so you can see them. I think there are more being called "acro eating" than just the one's in Melev's picture, some of which I believe would be found on more than just acros. Levamisole has been pulled from US market. There is someone posting a means to get it.