Levamisole In-Tank Treatment for AEFW

[Atomikk]

For what is worth, I did the Levi treatment and it did help eliminate the pests.

I also had wrasses and other fish which would eat them as they would float away.

Personally, I think having a good amount of shrimps and good acro crabs is the key to eliminating the eggs (and somewhat the flatworms as well). I have personally seen and wrote about how cleaner shrimps eradicated flatworms that were eating a porites colony.

So I would dose the Levi, water change, and monitor all levels (pH, O2, Ammonia). Repeat after a week. And then add all of your shrimps back to maintain and pick apart all the leftovers.

 

[MammothReefer]

Woo hoo, well the flatworm stopped showed up today! First dosage tonight. I'll update another thread that is more specific over the next couple months.

 

[harlequinacro]

I just did my 2nd treatment, I'm on hour 2. I did 10grams again of Prohibit. Only a few AEFW noticable this time. I plan on raising that to 11grams on the 4th & 5th treatments. I'll post my results again at the end of this treatment.

 

[harlequinacro]

Second treatment went well yesterday, fish are all out and eating today. Shrimp & inverts are out and about. Acros haven't lost any color either. Everything seems fine. I'll post next week after my third treatment or if anything changes.

 

[harlequinacro]

I did 3rd treament about 2hrs ago, nothing at all in water column. Been turkey basting, everything appears "clean". Again, fish hiding but everything seems ok. I'll update later at the end of treatment.

 

[harlequinacro]

Well, I just finished doing water, carbon, rowa & micronbag changes. Fish & shrimp are already eating. I plan on increasing the dose on my next 2 treatments. It looks good so far, but I'm not there yet. I'll update if anything changes.

 

[harlequinacro]

Some things of note today. Diatom & cyano bloom in refugium.

 

[DopeCantWin]

Some things of note today. Diatom & cyano bloom in refugium.

You might want to consider setting up a quick ATS to ward off the Diatoms. Just a thought...

 

[harlequinacro]

What's an ATS? As long as it grows in the refugium, then the refugium is doing it's job by growing it there rather than anywhere else.

 

[DopeCantWin]

What's an ATS? As long as it grows in the refugium, then the refugium is doing it's job by growing it there rather than anywhere else.

After reading a little, it might not be an excessive nutrients problem. ATS stands for Algae Turf Scrubber, it removes nutrients much faster than regular Macroalgae.

 

[harlequinacro]

Ah, algae turf scrubber they seem to be the rave lately. I run an ultra low nutrient system. I figured I'd get an algae bloom, considering what I'm doing to the system. So far things look good. None of my acros have lost any color, inverts seem fine, & the fish are all out acting as usual. I turkey basted today and didn't notice any aefw. We'll see

 

[harlequinacro]

Well, I thought I'd chime in with another update from my experience with this Levamisole treatment using Prohibit. As of today zero aefw noticed, I've been turkey basting every other day. My Ice Tort, hellfire table, ultimate blue stag, & banana lokani that were the worst infested have all healed and are recovering nicely. Fish & inverts look business as usual too. Tomorrow I will be performing my 4th dose, it will be an increase to 11g of Prohibit. Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[Bax]

If the dose you are using is working, I would not increase it. I had a bad experience doing that while testing this method. Dose the dose, it'll work. Don't OD your tank!

I'm AEFW free, but I had a hard cycle due to an OD.

 

[harlequinacro]

Thanks for the heads up Bax, I dosed 12g of Prohibit earlier today. It's almost at the end of my 4th treatment. With this increase in 1g of a dose I've noticed the fish are out more this time, I assume they're getting used to it. Shrimp and inverts still seem fine. A couple of small aefw were noticed while basting. There's still diatom and cyano blooms in my 75g fuge, but not that much. Even though my phosphate tests out zero, I figure it's getting consumed by the cyano first. Time will tell, one more dose to go.

 

[harlequinacro]

It's been 6 days since my last dose and there are a couple of things of note. The diatom and cyano blooms in the refugium have been consistent this past week. I noticed yesterday that a few acros have lost a little brightness too, polyps out though. I've basted a few times this week and have noticed zero aefw. Fish & inverts seem totally unaffected. So, today is my scheduled 5th and final treatment. I think that I've been very fortunate to make it this far with this harsh stuff, so I think I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. I just think that doing another dose is going to really push things over the edge and that is where it seems to be where most people run into wipeout. I'll update in a week or so on my tank status.

 

[Bax]

I agree. Keep an eye on the SPS you can always dose if you see evidence of AEFWs.

Keep dipping and inspecting daily to check.

 

[harlequinacro]

I put a huge hit on the aefw with this treatment, maybe even got rid of all of them. We'll see in the next few weeks if any come off while basting. I plan on doing a rescape in 6-8months, so if I can make it that long I'll be happy. When I do the rescape down the road, I'll do the Bayer dips if they come back. Somebody pm'd me and asked what carbon I was using while doing the 4week treatment, I use BW Carbonit-X3. That particular carbon is probably one of the main reasons I made it through 4 treatments of Prohibit. I previously used BRS ROX.

 

[john90009]

i havent been on here much since i took down my tank cause of these guys but has anyone seen or filmed aefw falling off spazing out when the prohibit was put in the fish tank? when i tried it it didnt work flatworms were living happily in the water when i tried it.

 

[harlequinacro]

Depends on the dose IMO, everyone's tank is different. I should have vidoed them coming off but I didn't. It's been over a week since my last 4th dose, zero aefw noticed and all the heavily chewed up acros have healed. Do I still have them and will they come back, we'll see in the next few weeks. My current take on the Prohibit treatment, is that it has helped huge. But, I'm not totally sure they're all gone.

 

[harlequinacro]

Update, so I prepared myself for the worst and yes the worst happened. All acros went completely brown 3 days after my last treatment & a couple of days after that they all started to rtn. Only one acro survived and was unaffected, Pocillopora eydouxi. Its still super deep pink. All my fish & inverts were totally unaffected and are completely business as usual. Which brings me to believe that the acros soaked up the Prohibit and held it in there flesh. My nitrogen cycle was unaffected otherwise inverts & fish would be stressed, sick, dead or I'd get a test reading. I have over 40 anthias species in my display and they're fine, shrimp in my frag tanks are fine too. I've been testing everything everyday since I first noticed the browning, everything has been spot on. It sucks, but atleast all my fish & inverts are alive so not a total wipeout. So in conclusion, did Prohibit save my acros from aefw? No, it killed them. Bayer dips & quarantine really are the only way to go. Here's a shot 10min after my third treatment, fish all hiding:

Here's a shot of some of the fish: