AEFW new info and photos

yes - I used interceptor - I removed all hermits and did not notice I lost anything else of significance (still have tons of pods and peppermint shrimp that survived)
as far as the AEFW are concerned, I first noticed changes in the tops of my validas - they were bleaching - oddly enough I have never been able to find the worms on the tips that are dead - not sure if it was due to infestation at the bases or if there are things there that I am missing or I look at the wrong times (maybe they are notcurnal?)
 
some before and after photos of the destruction
before
before1.jpg

and after
after1.jpg



and a second before
before2.jpg


after
after2.jpg
 
Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo!!!!

There goes my valida:mad: Damn things.

Well here goes.... The big issue is what are these annulids most like-Trematodes, Cestodes or even Nematodes.

I think that biologically the AEFW's are most like the Platyhelminthese flatworms that comprise the Cestodes (tapeworms) and trematodes (flukes). Nematodes are classically roundworms causing intestinal and tissue disease in humans, and are likely not simular enough to the AEFW's. I think that we need to find a medication that will cover the disease of the flukes first. It would be nice to find a simular life cycle. With trematode infections there are both eggs and flukes in the body, so that treatment (if in high enough doses) may be the way to go. The only problem is that the egss are hosted by snails and the larvae infect humans.

Niclosamide or Praziquantel can treat Diphyllobothriasis.
In Diphyllobothriasis humans ingest larvae and pass the eggs. Prazipuantel will also treat Taenia saginata/solium, Clonorchiasis, paragonimiasis and the common (in my brain at least:p) Schistosomiasis. Schistosomiasis the eggs induce granulomas. Praziquantel is used for all Trematode infections.

IMO, I think that Praziquantel would likely be the best to kill these damn things. The question is, what dose and what will happen to everything else? i haven't read anything on anyone useing this but maybe it is just a concentration issue.


According to Katzung praziquantel enhances Calcium influx and induces muscular contractions. THe drug increases the cell membrane permeability resulting in paralysis of the worm musculature. Vaculoization and disintegration of the tegment occur and parasite death follows."the drugs safety and effectiveness as a single oral dose have also made it useful in mass treatments...." In humans no major adverse effects have been described. In experimental animals, no effects are seen until doses approx 100 times the therapeutic range are reached; signs of CNS toxicity are then seen; A wide variety of mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, embryotoxicity and teratogenicity studies have been negative.

Given the therapeutic effect at 0.3 micrograms/ml I would shoot for this dose and see what happens. If everything looks good, but the FW's are still there I personally would double it redosing no sooner than four hours and then go from there. Again, I don't know of anyone else trying to use this and I am unaware of what does that they tried. It looks good with humans. You could do 50X the recommended therapeutic dose for human infections. Shoot for 15 micrograms/ml first.

What do you think?
 
ryan - that was a med I was most interested in as well - all other meds tried thus far including levamisole are designed for roundworms - I also have tried ivermectin (round worm med) and it seemed to work well but have no idea about it's safety in the tank - in humans praziquantel is the drug of choice for flatworm infections (ie tapeworms most frequently) which would seem at least emperically to be most closely related to flatworms we are dealing with - there were a few people in one thread I read (can't recall where the heck it was now) that had tried praziquantel in the tank and the tank seemed to tolerate it well - there are actually a few products that are made for fish tanks that are praziquantel - I had one bookmarked - it was prazi pro from USKoi farms uskoi.com - even states it is safe for marine aquariums (for whatever that is worth!) - I don't have that at this point, but am thinking of getting ahold of some soon - maybe the people who have tried it or remember where that is documented can chime in here
 
I watched it dwindle away while not treating for red bugs. I figured I could always get it back from you.:(


So what dose of praziquantel are you thinking of? Can you find what someone else used and what they dosed? Nice to have your wife calculate the dosing for you:lol: .
 
I'll have to find it - I think they used the recommended dose on the bottle of one of the aquarium-intended products, but I don't think it was the brand I pointed out above - I'll have to dig for it later - it was in one of those two AEFW threads - prazi pro (I found it at that one one line vendor run by two vets!) recommends on their own web site one oz for 120 gallons of water, but does not say what the drug concentration per oz is
I would be suspicious of that valida dying - mine did not suffer when I had red bugs, but now is dying with AEFW - I would check it really close if there is any of it left (and any other stuff in your tank that looks funny)
 
I'm interrested in hearing about these drugs too. I have these dreaded little bastards on the base of some corals as well. Once in a while I spot one and I use a dropper to suck them off. But the resssion and damage continues even though the corals are still growing new branches.
 
Prazi-Pro was tested and shown ineffective against the AEFWs (in SeanTs AEFW thread I believe). But I would still like to hear of your results in trying it. Please keep us informed. Thanks :)
 
I must have read it in the SeanT thread I bet - I think that I am going to do some levamisole dips of the most affected colonies and order some prazipro to try on the whole tank (or maybe some experiments first as dips and also to see if it is safe on snails etc)
 
Interested in your results. I just discovered bite marks that can only be from these FW, but have yet to find a single AEFW that matches any of the pics here at RC. Mine are black. Iodine was effective on them in a short time(although i was not dipping for these FW in particular), FWE at 10X dosage made them zip around real fast and took 4 hours to kill them.

I only have a handful of infected corals, maybe 8 total, and will be moving those over to a QT tank and dipping them in TMPCC once or twice a week for 4 weeks.
 
I would be worried that are in more places - they now seem to be popping up everywhere for me - it appears that if a good solution is not found soon I will lose everything
 
ok time for an update - I am now trying FWE at 5X recommended dose on the littler of the two types I am infected with - they seem to be doing fine after ten minutes - I am experimenting on them as they seem to be doing the most damage, and are the most abundant - in fact I can not find any more of the big ones after that first batch I found - I would like some just to do dose and drug experiments on
I still am not sure if they represent two species or different life stages of the same one
 
they were not phased at that dose so after thirty minutes I added one more drop (now at 10x dose) and this seemed to **** them off - they started running in all directions pretty fast - unfortunately this did not kill them yet but I'll keep watching
-BTW when I was pulling out some of the smaller stuff to inspect it I found that I again have red bugs! uggg! but it is my own fault as I felt I was disease free after one treatment one month ago (I know, don't even say it) - I guess at least that is simple and a known entity to treat
 
FWIW, alot of the reactions of the AEFW's to the meds has not necessarily been death. While the Levamisole can kill them, it more stuns them so you can blast them off the corals.
 
the problem with these ones is that they are soooo small there is no way you could get rid of them that way - I have a very hard time seeing them with a magnifying glass - there is no way you could find and blow them off - also they are so small that they hide in between the skeleton folds of dead acros and are impossible to remove even with a directed stream from a diabetic sized needle at a very high pressure (or for that matter any other means I have tried) so I need to find something that will kill them as is
 
one other thing we decided to try is ivermectin - I also got it at a farm store and it is a medication that is designed to treat worm parasites (but of mostly the roundworm variety) - it is a liquid and states it is 1% in a 50 mL vial (designed for injection) - we used 0.3 cc in three cups of tank water in a bowl as a dip for 30 minutes - it seemed to work well - as did the FWE at about one hour, but at 10x recommended doses (obviously may cause some problems if used as an in tank treatment at these levels)
 
Back
Top