Dam pests

[allsps40]

I have read about people using ivermecton but never any results. Could you provide a link to it? I would like to read up on it.

Sorry no links just personal experience with it. Yes it works but it harsh on the corals, it kills pretty much any kind of invert but corals.

Yeah I will continue to dip and check for eggs weekly. I have never seen any AEFW come off when I blast the corals with my modded MJ900 only the bit marks and eggs. I think I caught them early so they only moved to a few acros and not everyone in the tank.
My sixline was happily picking around the sps with in 10 minutes of going into the tank so he must be finding some. Going to feed them a little light so they will keep hunting for AEFWs.

 

[Allmost]

In my experience, the only way to eradicate all aefw from your tank (without getting rid of all acros) is to take each and every acro out once a week for a dip and egg removal for at least six weeks straight without fail. Some I had to dip in 2 and 5 gallon buckets because they were so large or so encrusted.

I had a bad whole tank all acros case which I finally conquered. No more aefw. Zero. I baste at least weekly and have done a couple "just checking" dips since then and haven't seen so much as a bite mark, let alone any flatworms, in months. Polyp extension and color are returning. The work was tedious but so worth it.

Having watched some of my soft to volley ball size colonies dwindle to small frags after a year of messing with inconsistent and ineffective treatments, I was ready to take extreme action. I was not willing to live with aefw chewing my acros and knowing if I ever shared an acro frag with friends that I could pass on that nightmare.

well I am glad you got rid of them

did you notice decline in health of corals after dip ? cause in my experience, the AEFW would attack the weakest corals first.

 

[allsps40]

Ok well I think I may have gotten them beat. With the weekly dipping and inspection, blowing off the corals and the addition of the wrasses who are looking fat and happy especially the sixline I have seen no more bit marks, eggs or AEFWs. The effected corals are looking much better as well. Now I just need to fix the STN caused by the alk dropping, need to get it stable again.

 

[flamron]

Three weeks is not enough time to kill AEFW 100%

Sorry, but that just doesn't happen...

 

[allsps40]

Think what you want but I feel they are gone. I caught them really early before they effected all my acros and QTed and dipped all the effected ones. I have not seen any eggs of AEFW after dipping and blowing off the corals. I have been treating for longer than 3 weeks as well.

 

[flamron]

How long have you been treating then? This thread started on the first of June. I'm not saying it is impossible, but highly unlikely.

If you sell sps to anyone, I'd definitely tell them you had (have?) them as a disclaimer.

Just my two cents, for what that is worth on a fish forum...

 

[flamron]

And you posted on the 11th that you found a bunch of eggs. Then on the 12th, you posted that you beat them all...

Sorry bud, but dipping some acros and not all of them will do squat to kill all of the AEFW. Dot believe me? Get a turkey baster and hit a couple of the pieces you didn't pull and dip and watch those wrasses have a feast.

 

[allsps40]

Well the battle goes on. I did another dip session yesterday and found some more eggs on a frag that was dipped last week and on my colony of scripps milli. Since the scripps had totally encrusted on a rock I decided to cut my loses and make a frag of it and remove the rest of the colony due to the amount of eggs. Sucks but if the frag lives it will grow back. I hope to get to the LFS tomorrow to trade in some leather coral frags since it it dropping babies like no tomorrow and I hope to find a nice wrasse. I will continue to check and dip all the other acropora and millipora in the tank until I see no more bite marks and eggs for at least a few weeks.

Really? Post from the 11th.
Today I said I think I have them beat and that I see no signs of them. I have been blowing off the corals daily and checking them for eggs. Any AEFW that have been blown off are being eaten by the wrasses and dipping is killing any other one on the corals. The life cycle of a AEFW is about a weeks so how would a months of hardcore control not be able to rid the tank of AEFWs? I am just sharing my experience with dealing with them.

 

[flamron]

Yep. You said you found eggs on the 11th.

I just dont want other reefers reading this and thinking it works. I'd say 999 out of 1000 times you will find more AEFW after your so called dipping of random frags and colonies that show signs of damage.

Like I said, my two cents - worth very little on a fish forum. It won't slow you down on what you think, but it might make new reefers think twice before following your regimen.

 

[dzhuo]

The life cycle of a AEFW is about a weeks so how would a months of hardcore control not be able to rid the tank of AEFWs?

Where did you get this from? As far as I know, no one knows the life cycle of AEFW. However, the length of embryonic development for AEFW is approximately 21 days at 76"“78°F (~25°C) so I imagine you need at least 30 days for the eggs to hatch plus however many days to starve them to dead. A week is far from "the life cycle of a AFEW".

I have seen lots of "facts" from you on this forum and most of the time, you are pretty clueless. You should be a little more open minded.

 

[sahin]

I have the actual pdf article titled: "Taxonomy and life history of the Acropora-eating flatworm Amakusaplana acroporae nov. sp. (Polycladida: Prosthiostomidae)" by K. A. Rawlinson et al...

From what I can recall reading that article some time ago, nowhere on that document do they mention anything about the life cycle of adult AEFW's ie how long the adults live. It mentions the embrynonic stage to be about 21 days, but had not established how long the adults live...

Remember, Amakusaplana acroporae, have only been just named, so I am not sure where you got that info from?

The point the above posters are making is that passing on info that isnt accurate or verified or at the least explainable with good anecdotal evidence kind of goes against progress. And it only serves to keep misinformation ongoing.

But anyway, I hope your tank is free of these pests. I lost many prized corals over these things and just wish there was enough research out there to finaly come up with a good solution to this problem.

 

[sahin]

I emailed Dr Rawlinson to see if I can get any further info...the university she is located at is very close to me.

However, the email address autoresponse is kind of dated...so I am not sure if the email is still valid.

 

[Reef Bass]

Any chance you could post that pdf or a link to it? Thanks.

 

[dzhuo]

Taxonomy and life history of the Acropora-eating flatworm Amakusaplana acroporae nov. sp. (Polycladida: Prosthiostomidae)

As far as I know, this is the only and first research paper on AFEW (which the worm is given it's scientific name) and no one knows the complete life cycle of this animal yet.

 

[Reef Bass]

Awesome. That's the one I read already. Thank you!

 

[Reef Bass]

I read the article again looking for some mention of longevity without success. I can only regard with irritated awe how well adapted aefw are that hatchlings can swim to other corals...

Not to mention their prodigious fecundity and multiple embryos per egg!

 

[sahin]

I read the article again looking for some mention of longevity without success. I can only regard with irritated awe how well adapted aefw are that hatchlings can swim to other corals...

Not to mention their prodigious fecundity and multiple embryos per egg!

Yes, I read it again too. Quite scary how well they are designed for survival.

 

[Reef Bass]

Yeah. No wonder they're so hard to eradicate as well!

 

[fishguy597]

I have done the basting/dipping method before. I have noticed that basting them isnt always a good indicator to check for fw. I have basted a coral to have nothing come off. Then I have dipped them to have them come off. This is why i dont think its a good way to check because usually its too late by that point. I was dipping every week for two months with coral rx and revive.I beleive this was 6-8 months ago. Imo the coral rx is the better of the two but i really like the bayer. I have been recently treating my tank for rb and started dipping with bayer.I still have been finding fw here and there. I also still beleive that there are a few fw floating around still.
Good luck with getting rid of them its tedeous and frustrating work. But even after a month I would continue to keep on dipping since some of these little guys will hang on even after the dip.