AEFW - what now?

[Mike de Leon]

Hello,

Bad news. Found some on a newly acquired (three week old) small wild colony. I have chopped it up since and dipped this and most of the acros in the tank. I could not dip a small frag that's already encrusted!

What should I do next? I want to keep dipping the corals every week for the next three months.

Here's the coral that was affected. It was growing like crazy and coloring up too.

 

[Oldude]

Hello,

Bad news. Found some on a newly acquired (three week old) small wild colony. I have chopped it up since and dipped this and most of the acros in the tank. I could not dip a small frag that's already encrusted!

What should I do next? I want to keep dipping the corals every week for the next three months.

Here's the coral that was affected. It was growing like crazy and coloring up too.

Weekly dipping for 3 months is a little excessive and you may end up hurting some of your corals that way. I can tell you from personal experience that peppermint shrimp work well to minimize the problem and if you add enough of them it should eradicate the AEFW. After a few months you are likely safe to catch a bunch of shrimp back using a bottle trap and trade them in at your LFS.

 

[Mike de Leon]

First time I ever heard of this. But coming from you this has to be legit. I will try it!
This allows me to continue to aquascape my tank. I was at a stand still because of this.
Thanks for the quick reply! Appreciate it!
I just have to keep looking at your tank til my tank starts to grow out, In about five years!

 

[spsfreak1977]

I got them a long time ago
Did the dipping thing for weeks in there own tank
If I ever got them again I would throw them all out and start over jmo

 

[Mike de Leon]

I only found them in one acro. The rest is pest free, for now. I hate to throw a couple hundred worth of frags...

 

[spsfreak1977]

It's was a lot of work I had them all over
Dipping stressing them out
Keeping the levels good
It was like having a third job lol
I would throw the one out and watch the other very carefully the next couple weeks

 

[Oldude]

First time I ever heard of this. But coming from you this has to be legit. I will try it!
This allows me to continue to aquascape my tank. I was at a stand still because of this.
Thanks for the quick reply! Appreciate it!
I just have to keep looking at your tank til my tank starts to grow out, In about five years!

During the night the peppermints should climb all over your corals and pick whatever is on them including eggs, that said you will need quite a few. In my 400 gallon I added 100 shrimp to do the deed. Do not confuse them with camel shrimp because after they eat the AEFW then will strip the flesh off the corals. Also if you can find a pair of small juvenile yellow halicoris wrasses they also do a great job. They need to be quite small so they can get into the nooks & cranny's and they grow fast but in my experience they can do wonders for tank pests.

 

[bigzman]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2412052

 

[Mike de Leon]

During the night the peppermints should climb all over your corals and pick whatever is on them including eggs, that said you will need quite a few. In my 400 gallon I added 100 shrimp to do the deed. Do not confuse them with camel shrimp because after they eat the AEFW then will strip the flesh off the corals. Also if you can find a pair of small juvenile yellow halicoris wrasses they also do a great job. They need to be quite small so they can get into the nooks & cranny's and they grow fast but in my experience they can do wonders for tank pests.

How many do you think I need for a 90 gallon? I have about 6 frags and a small aquacultured piece. Do they also affect digis?

 

[Mike de Leon]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2412052

Read this before as well. Thanks for the link. Definitely something to keep in my back pocket.

 

[Oldude]

How many do you think I need for a 90 gallon? I have about 6 frags and a small aquacultured piece. Do they also affect digis?

AEFW do not eat montipora. After thinking about your situation with the small amount of corals in the tank I would just take them out and dip once a week for 5 weeks or until you no longer see any AEFW from the dip. I think that would be your best bet - I would only do the shrimp or in tank treatments if the corals were large in number and not able to be taken out of the tank - I know you have one like that but I wouldn't worry too much because it sounds like you caught it early.

 

[sahin]

Hello,

Bad news. Found some on a newly acquired (three week old) small wild colony. I have chopped it up since and dipped this and most of the acros in the tank. I could not dip a small frag that's already encrusted!

What should I do next? I want to keep dipping the corals every week for the next three months.

Here's the coral that was affected. It was growing like crazy and coloring up too.

http://s68.photobucket.com/user/mookerji/media/IMG_6410.jpg.html

Check out my tank thread. I just beat them. I dipped everything for a 3 month period. Didnt lose one acro. Its hard work relatively speaking, but its not impossible to beat them. I did put a link in my thread to the main source of info that I used to plan a course of attack.

 

[Tweaked]

Check out my tank thread. I just beat them. I dipped everything for a 3 month period. Didnt lose one acro. Its hard work relatively speaking, but its not impossible to beat them. I did put a link in my thread to the main source of info that I used to plan a course of attack.

I beat them as well dipping over a couple months every 6 days in double strength bayer.

 

[bigzman]

I use JDA method on a 10g qt tank for new corals. You would be amazed how many reefers/lfs/online have AEFW as well as other bugs. When I get new frags I add prohibit (Levamisole Hydrochloride) and dose it every other day with water changes for 14 days. Before adding frags to QT I do a bayer dip to take care of all the other pest. I run prohibit on that 10g QT tank and one would be amazed how AEFW still survive bayer dip. With 14 day QT with prohibit all hatching eggs will die off and all the adult AEFW die off from bayer dip. I have not had the need for a full tank treatment (fortunately knock on wood) since I always QT. From JDA thread it seems fish lose appetite and become skittish but they survive. Some have even double and triple JDA's starting dose with success. If I remember correctly dosing will stun starfish and kill off bristle worms. At strong dose (x3+) it stuns snails.

 

[Mike de Leon]

So the colony that had them was chopped up and most of it was thrown out. So I watch everything now like a hawk and look for tell tale signs of the buggers. I am holding off dipping anything right now hoping that it has not spread...If I find anymore then I will be dipping all the corals.

 

[Mike de Leon]

It's been four weeks now and no sign of the evil buggers. Am I out of the woods yet?

 

[Aquattro]

I also took Greg's approach. After moving my tank to a smaller tank, using only small frags of my stock and dipping the crap out of them, I still found a dozen flatties on one of the pieces a month later. I dipped that piece, put it back and added a handful of peppermints. 8 months later, I'm still fine, no signs of any pests and everything is growing well. I consider my tank free of them, or at least very under control.

 

[Dugless]

I had always wondered about peppermints and AEFW. Any similar stories others might have to relate to this?

 

[Aquattro]

I had always wondered about peppermints and AEFW. Any similar stories others might have to relate to this?

I found bits and pieces online, but not much. In my case, it was the only option other than going non acro in my stocking. I'm near the end of my reefing career and there's no way I'm tearing everything apart and dipping/QT'ing corals long term. So shrimp will work, or they won't. In my case, they appeared to work. Greg has had good results too, in a much heavier stocked system.