Battle to kill AEFWs

P

Plainswalker

New member
I found out that my tank has acropora eating flatworms yesterday. As the tank is still recovering from an alk drop, I only have five acropora specimens in it. I have taken off all the frags from the rockwork, destroyed a green slimer colony that looks like ground zero, and dipped everything in CoralRX for 10 minutes.

It seems like I got AEFWs right before the tank crash, and the stress made acros very susceptible to them. I would suspect that I would not have lost as many colonies if I didn't have AEFW.

Unfortunately I do not have a secondary system to put the remaining frags into. What I plan to do is to dip the frags in CoralRX once a week for six weeks, and then remount if there are no more AEFW deaths after a dip. Would this plan of attack work to get rid of these pests?

Edit: I guess the secondary plan would be to destroy all acropora and rebuild after six weeks.
 
If they aren't anything special and hard to replace as far as frags go I'd seriously consider just getting rid of them.

If you want to continue to dip, I'd suggest looking into bayer instead of coralrx.
 
Oh man I would just start over. And if not, recommend you dip double strength Bayer. Keep in mind nothing kills the eggs so you dip every 6 days for about 6-8 weeks to break the cycle and kill the egg laying worms.
 
The frags except one are all readily available from local guys, as I was just starting to rebuild after the crash. The last one kinda sucks though as it's a one of a kind :(.
 
Well they probably came from one of the local guys cause they don't appear from nowhere. Also want to leave your tank acro-less for a bit of course. GL :thumbsup:
 
Tweaked said:
Well they probably came from one of the local guys cause they don't appear from nowhere. Also want to leave your tank acro-less for a bit of course. GL :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Oh, I know who I got AEFW from :). I maintain a detailed log of my reef, and I know when the symptoms first started appearing (last year, after the arrival of 4 frags).
 
dip the acropora for the 6 weeks, a pair of magnifying reading glasses will help to inspect for eggs which should be manually removed. Any remaining Acropora tissue on rockwork can be scrubbed with a tooth brush or hit with kalkwasser to kill it. If you toss the coral and start over you still have to wait six weeks. I think as long as all the acropora can be removed from the system and dipped you will be rid of the little boogers.

A 20 gallon tank, powerhead, live rock and a light will be sufficient for a QT tank. If you continue to put corals in your tank without QT you will continue to have pests IMO.
 
dadummy said:
dip the acropora for the 6 weeks, a pair of magnifying reading glasses will help to inspect for eggs which should be manually removed. Any remaining Acropora tissue on rockwork can be scrubbed with a tooth brush or hit with kalkwasser to kill it. If you toss the coral and start over you still have to wait six weeks. I think as long as all the acropora can be removed from the system and dipped you will be rid of the little boogers.

A 20 gallon tank, powerhead, live rock and a light will be sufficient for a QT tank. If you continue to put corals in your tank without QT you will continue to have pests IMO.
Click to expand...
So far no browning after one dip. In fact the valida seems to be getting better color already.
 
I'm battling them right now too. I would research wrasses and one that eats them. My Christmas wrasse is destroying them. I am dipping in double strength bayer. Once a week.

Good luck.
 
Coral RX will work, some say it is harsh on the corals, I used a bottle and didn't have any issues with it. Revive is my weapon of choice, it's cheaper than Coral Rx and mixes up clear. Bayer mixes up milky and I cannot see if any AEFW are coming off the coral when dipped, plus there is potential to kill the fish with Bayer.

I had them and it wasn't until I removed all the acro from the tank and spent hours dipping every week until I got rid of them. The only ones colonies I lost were the ones that were too far gone to recover, and I was able to save a frag of them.
 
Op set up a coral qt tank so you can watch and easily treat them and bot worry as nuchr about a bug making it in to your dt.

Get a 20L a heater and power head and some kind of light I have a kessil a150 and it works for a sps qt tank.

And I have found the Bayer to work way better then any thing for killing stuff.
 
Pife said:
I'm battling them right now too. I would research wrasses and one that eats them. My Christmas wrasse is destroying them. I am dipping in double strength bayer. Once a week.

Good luck.
Click to expand...
I do have a yellow coris. I attribute two of the frags being completely clean to his efforts since the flatworms have to travel over exposed rock to get them.
 
Second dip today. Lots of dead pods but no flatworms. The worst hit coral was the valida and it is starting to regain color. All other frags are unaffected by the dip and had PE within the hour.
 
Good luck! I think your current course of action should eradicate them.
Make sure all future additions are removed from plugs, and dipped well before adding them to the display.
I always assume any and all new additions to my tank are infected and dip everything in bayer. I also chip away any non living tissue to make sure the eggs are removed as well. Pretty harsh, but I'd rather be safe than sorry..
Hope to see some shots of happy corals in a month. :)
 
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