Anyone Here Have Acro Eating Flatworms?
- Thread starter Nanook
- Start date
saltyunderground
In Memoriam
At one point Mike (dolphinsX2 sp?) thought he had them. Not sure if that was the final verdict though.
chadfarmer
Premium Member
he didnt have them (he has another problem that we found out)
i didnt have them either
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
Still got em unfortunately. Cant be sure if I received them in a shipment of frags, (unlikely as they were un mounted, showed no signs of infestation, and I did not mount them on the rock sent along with them) or if I received them from a local reefer who "hooked me up" (unintentionally) with the little bastids...
I have been talking with EVERYONE who might know ANYTHING about the ^%*&#@# critters....and have been ordering everything I can to set up a workable QT situation.
A friend of mine from another board is wicked scary smart about diseases and meds used or effective to treat them. He's the one making a good case for the Praziquantil (Prazi-pro) as a long term treatment. The big annoyance w/ the AEFW's is that they will lay eggs anywhere, and have a 7-14 day incubation period. Once they hatch they are microscopic, and alledgedly, (from other reefers) they are able to reproduce if they find a food source almost immediately.
Good news is that they only eat acros...much like redbugs...which I also have coincidentally enough. So if your main tank is free of acros for a period of 21 days, you dont have to worry about them. The 21 day figure is based on any unhatched eggs ....uh, hatching and releasing hordes of new microscopic AEFW's. After 5 days or so w/no acro, they starve to death. They will not touch any other coral but Acro's for food. However, they will cheerfully lay eggs on anything, providing you with another means of introducing them to your tank. So my reccomendation is that unless its a fish or mobile invert that either has no hard parts, (anemones) or sheds its exoskeleton and does not live in a shell from another critter (shrimp, most crabs, lobsters) it should be QT for at least 21 days just to be sure.
Yes thats a GIANT PITA.....but once I'm done with these monkey's I aint gettin back.
Current plan, (tomorrow-ish or Monday):
Set up 20H tank w/ a single MH over it, BB, powerheads and filter, and dosing dbl dose of Prazi-pro, for a period of a week. Water changes will be daily of a gallon or two, w/ a 100% water change done weekly, followed by a fresh dbl dose of Prazi-pro. All of this will continue for at least 4 weeks, (if I get them on the first try.) The idea is to break the life cycle of these things and then go from there.
If prazi-pro doesnt work, weekly dips in Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure, (a kinder, more gentle version of Lugols...or actually, just lugols w/ buffers to make it easier on the corals) will be done for a period of 4 weeks minimum. Any surviving acro's from there, if no longer showing any signs of AEFW's will be returned to the tank. If I have to do that, I expect to lose several corals from the stress of repeated dips.
Yup they're hear. I wouldnt suggest adding anything new to the tank untel after a QT period like I suggested for anything that lives in a snail shell and/or doesnt move frequently.
Nick
chadfarmer
Premium Member
i was told freshwaterr dip your acro for 20-30 seconds
but said frag the acro with the eggs off
but said frag the acro with the eggs off
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
So far, I'm seeing that alot of the AEFW treatments, are like Chemotherapy....
You're trying to kill the disease before you kill the patient.
And in a lot of cases with Levamisole, cold Saltwater dips, RO dips, Lugol's dips, etc, you wind up really stressing out the coral. Which is already stressed from the AEFW's eating it....and you have to do this for about a month. So the mortality rate is high among the treated corals.
My hope is that by removing the corals from my display tank, and treating them "gently" in the QT tank w/ the Prazi-Pro, I will have more survivors than I would with Levamisole or TMPCC ....
Nick
You're trying to kill the disease before you kill the patient.
And in a lot of cases with Levamisole, cold Saltwater dips, RO dips, Lugol's dips, etc, you wind up really stressing out the coral. Which is already stressed from the AEFW's eating it....and you have to do this for about a month. So the mortality rate is high among the treated corals.
My hope is that by removing the corals from my display tank, and treating them "gently" in the QT tank w/ the Prazi-Pro, I will have more survivors than I would with Levamisole or TMPCC ....
Nick
Slide_Ice
Member
We had them some bug that ate out the the coral from the inside out. Very nasty!! we lost all of are hard corals and have not had any for over a month. We just added a small green slimer to see if it makes it or not... I am hoping that the bugs have all starved to death.
Time will tell
I do know this.. I will QT EVERYTHING for at least a month once i feel the bugs are gone.
Todd
Time will tell
I do know this.. I will QT EVERYTHING for at least a month once i feel the bugs are gone.
Todd
Lost His Marbles Name
In Memoriam
I could make something that could create x-rays but I don't know what to do from there and we would be infertile afterwards.
My fiance does have an x-ray machine at her dental office.
My fiance does have an x-ray machine at her dental office.
Mrs. Slide_Ice
New member
LOL Thanks for the x-ray help but you can tell they are in the coral from the way the polyps start disappearing from the top down.. Looks like RTN or STN, but it is a clean kill. I dipped a coral in heavy Iodine which revealed the bugs; they started crawling out. Looked like a very small centipede. I looked at the bugs under 100 power microscope and you could see all thier legs. Their body looked like an armored plated shell. I sent some to Eric B but this was right when his system crashed so i did not hear anything from him.
My only hope is that I starved them out.
This also kinda explains my absense in some reef functions. I have just stepped back to let nature take its corse. If Purple agle was a coral I would have a ton!! So this is what has made me try a green slimer to see if it makes it. The coral is doing good at one week so it is looking good so far.
Jenny and Todd
My only hope is that I starved them out.
This also kinda explains my absense in some reef functions. I have just stepped back to let nature take its corse. If Purple agle was a coral I would have a ton!! So this is what has made me try a green slimer to see if it makes it. The coral is doing good at one week so it is looking good so far.
Jenny and Todd
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
Wow, sorry I didnt reply sooner...long story short, No.
No results worth mentioning.
I actually lost all my acros in the process of treating for the AEFW's.
The upside of that is that I no longer have AEFW's.
I'm trying hard to be positive about the whole damn thing cause I just about quit the hobby for awhile there.
I have however heard Fluke tabs work on them as a preventative dip. No proof, just word of mouth.
Nick
No results worth mentioning.
I actually lost all my acros in the process of treating for the AEFW's.
The upside of that is that I no longer have AEFW's.
I'm trying hard to be positive about the whole damn thing cause I just about quit the hobby for awhile there.
I have however heard Fluke tabs work on them as a preventative dip. No proof, just word of mouth.
Nick
