Bite Marks..STN..AEFW?

[Met3112]

Hi all,
I just started taking care of this tank which is having some problems with the SPS. It is mainly an SPS tank with some LPS. 2 tricolors some stag horns and a pocillapora are STNing from the base. A wild blue tabling acro (not sure exactly what it was- beautiful though i wanted to cry )died off first.

300 gallons total system size

Lighting:
3 Lumenarc reflectors with 400w radiums
6 Aquaray 420nm LED strips

Other equipment:
Calcium reactor
Media reactor with rowa and carbon which runs 24/7
MRC skimmer
uv sterilizer

Tank parameters:
Alk: 2.5 MEQ/7 DKH - Hach
Calc: 380 - Hach
Phospate: 0 - Mi412 Phosphate (Low Range) Martini Instruments
MG: 1350 - Salifert
Strontium: 10 - Salifert

The tank has been running a little over two years. I have been working on bringing calc and alk up. There is barely any coralline growth.

I am pretty sure I found some AEFW eggs on the base of one of the Validas so i took the whole rock out with the colony and dipped it in Seachem coral disinfectant at about 3 times the dose. No flatworms came of. Although a bunch of blue asterina stars where found.

I have also been turkey basting all the colonies every day. I have not seen any flatworms come off.

A trio of melanurus wrasses was added 2 weeks ago because I know they eat flatworms but wasn't sure if they ate AEFW. They are cool fish none-the-less.

This has been a major headache for me! Any help would be greatly appreciated! Ask all the questions you want. Thank You.

 

[dzhuo]

A trio of melanurus wrasses was added 2 weeks ago because I know they eat flatworms but wasn't sure if they ate AEFW. They are cool fish none-the-less.

It's not a guarantee the wrasse will hunt for the AEFW. The bite marks are possible from AEFW. I am not sure if you realize but the colony is infested with red bugs.

 

[Met3112]

Thanks for the input dzhuo. How can you tell that there are red bugs?

 

[happysak]

Don't see redbugs either. Those are not AEFW bite marks. What fish do you have? Some blennies will bite corals.

 

[happysak]

Sorry, I looked again. Saw few dots, looked like red bugs.

 

[Met3112]

Midas blenny, some ignitus anthias, powder blue, vlamingi, two spot bristle tooth, mystery wrasse, vermiculate leopard wrasse, 3 melunuras wrasse, 1 heniochus (i have suspected him but didnt explain the STN), sixline wrasse, candyhog, yellow coris wrasse, ....

thats all i can think of at the moment.

 

[Met3112]

There does seem to be some dots in the pictures now that you mention the redbugs. I'll have to take a closer look and maybe get some more macro shots. I have been able to spot redbugs pretty easily in the past though in other tanks. Those frags died from the tips down.

 

[dzhuo]

Thanks for the input dzhuo. How can you tell that there are red bugs?

It's always tough to tell because red bugs are so tiny. I would suggest that you inspect the corals closely and if they are wild, the chances are higher. Here are a few spots I suspect are red bugs but lighting can be a contributing factor. If you have found AEFW eggs before, there is always a chance of them reoccurring unless you do sufficient quarantine.

 

[allsps40]

Yep I see red bugs, interceptor time. We all have gone threw it, I had RB a while back, sucked.