Found AEFW: Need a solution

[bvert38]

Let me start off by saying I'm beyond mad right now. I don't want to put anyone on blast but I have only bought corals from 3 stores which are considered the best in the Tampa/Orlando area and very reputable local fragger who I will not name. And I just found the beginning of AEFW on my Pearlberry, luckily on no others at the moment.

I need a solution to my problem. What is the best dip for the treatment of AEFW? Also, directions for the dip method. I'm sure everyone has their own recipe so to speak so any elaboration is greatly appreciated.

My plan is to set up a quarantine tank with all the acros I have, probably a 20 High, throw a wrasse in there, scrape off eggs, blast flat worms off, and pick a dip method and treat until there are no more.

The acros are pretty much frags at this point, should I remove them all from the rocks or keep them on the rocks and dip with them still on the rocks?

How long should I wait before putting the acros back in the display?

Any help to my problem would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wfournier]

I'm going through this myself so I'll let you know what I'm doing.

Personally I'm using Revive for dipping, some people advocate coral RX, I haven't felt the need to spend the extra money. I also use it at the recommended dosage for 4-5 minutes and it works great. I baste towards the end of the dip to make sure everything gets knocked off.

I'm running a 15g qt at the moment and changing 20-30% of the water every other day with water from the display tank to keep the parameters in check. Personally I feel that a wrasse is unnecessary and will have minimal impact.

Are the frags encrusted on the rocks? If they are not (or at least not too much) I would remove them from the rocks. Whatever you dip them in is going to do a number on whatever pods (in my case micro brittlestars) are in the rocks and cause nutrients to be added to the water. make sure that if you do remove them from the rocks no slivers of encrustment are left for the worms to eat.

My plan is to keep the tank acro free for 6-8 weeks (going on 4 now) and I am dipping my acros once a week.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

A while back I had a small issue with them and could never fully get rid of them. I would dips the acros in coral rx 1.5 x's the recommended dosage. This would kill the AEFW but they always seem to come back every month. Eventually I got a leopard wrasse and they have never came back. The wrasse will eat the AEFW before they reach sexual maturity, which is what I couldn't do with the dips.

 

[Jabrams]

what do they look like?

 

[wfournier]

A while back I had a small issue with them and could never fully get rid of them. I would dips the acros in coral rx 1.5 x's the recommended dosage. This would kill the AEFW but they always seem to come back every month. Eventually I got a leopard wrasse and they have never came back. The wrasse will eat the AEFW before they reach sexual maturity, which is what I couldn't do with the dips.

My tank had them show up with a leopard wrasse, so as with any use of a fish for control it is hit or miss. I have to say I am very jealous of you success with the wrasse controlling them. Mine seems to have eliminated the few red plenaria I had but not the AEFW.

Jabrams, do a google search for AEFW, the first page that comes up for me is Melev's reef. He documents what they look like and the damage they do very well.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

yeah all wrasse are hit or miss but I would think that a leopard wrasse would give you the best chance. I have two wrasses, one for my display and another one for my propagation system. Both are AEFW hunters.

 

[mcoomer]

I picked up AEFW on a Purple Nana I got from a pretty decent LFS. Fortunately, I didn't find them on any of my other corals. Taking advice from folks on this forum I picked up a bottle of Coral RX. The directions tell you to mix something like 30 drops to a gallon of tank water but I cut the water and dosage in half since it was a smaller piece of coral. I pulled the coral out of the tank, used a toothpick to scrape at eggs, dipped for 7 minutes, scraped again, and then flushed the coral in another container of tank water. Use a turkey baster to gently blow water over the coral while it's in the containers but be certain to rinse it very thoroughly before using it again in your tank. I did this every day for a week, every other day the second week, every third day the third week, and then once or twice a week for a few more weeks. I'm not a Swiss clock so I missed a day here and there but I tried to be consistent in dipping the coral.

I was able to save some nice pieces off the coral, put those together on a plug, and once it grew out some moved it back to the rock. I haven't found any other corals to be affected and now that I've had them I check frequently. Whatever you're going to do get on it right now. Go to the LFS tomorrow and get some dip. Since you think they've just started on that coral I'm assuming that you just got it recently. Don't let these things spread or you could find yourself with a serious problem in a very short period of time.

Mike

 

[Piper27]

I had some in my 150 on my red table and my tricolor. They had taken a toll on both before I noticed... (if I new what I was looking for it would have been easier). I clipped a few pieces off each coral and threw the egg ridden half dead stuff away. Then took all the acros from that tank and dipped and QTed them for a few days. After that I made my 100 an all sps tank.

 

[Pyrrhus]

There was an article in a 2004 issue of Coral Vol. 1 #2 pg 65 that suggested using Thallasoma Hardwicke or Coral Banded Shrimp as predators on AEFW.

Thomas Pohl was one of the two that reported success with the Hardwicke's wrasse.

 

[RRaider]

I have a coral banded and while he definitely eats bristle worms he doesn't touch either AEFW or red plenaria.