Living with AEFW

T

tmgrash

New member
I think I have discovered that I have aefw. I had decided to blow the rocks off with the turkey baster and decide to blow on a couple corals as well. When I basted my raspberry limeaid about 20 of these things blew off!

<a href="http://s628.photobucket.com/albums/uu8/tmgrash/?action=view&current=aefw1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i628.photobucket.com/albums/uu8/tmgrash/aefw1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I continued to basted and found a couple more on my plum crazy. Having skimmed through the myriad of aefw threads in the past I never really paid much attention to them (not gonna happen to me). Well, I went back through and was daunted by the task of breaking my whole tank down, removing encrusted colonies, etc. I then came across a series of threads and articles of people that decided to "live" with them. Basically basting them a couple times a week, and letting your fish feed on them. Some have reported success so far as to say they dont have aefw by simply basting. This is the method I am going to attempt, I'll report my prgress.
 
I have been basting for a few years now and it has been working for me. Once a week with a turkey baster does the job.

nov132010tankpic1a.jpg
 
IME turkey basters are insufficient. Use a MJ1200, and you'll be SHOCKED how many more come flying off! Not to mention it won't make your hand/fingers ache :)
 
catman78 said:
I just picked up a Melanurus as a preventive measure.
Hiding for two days then came out
Click to expand...

I have been reading that this wrasse will predate on FW. Anyone have some experience with it messing with snails, hermits, cleaner shrimp? I currently have a solorensis and a ocellatus, they enjoyed the snack after basting.
 
Your corals will not tolerate AEFW because they eat the living tissues off them and leave bare skeletons behind. There are different flatworms, some don't bother acros. The forked tail ones is an example. AEFW is very difficult to see in an acro because they blend with the color like chameleons.
 
Whisperer said:
Your corals will not tolerate AEFW because they eat the living tissues off them and leave bare skeletons behind. There are different flatworms, some don't bother acros. The forked tail ones is an example. AEFW is very difficult to see in an acro because they blend with the color like chameleons.
Click to expand...

I understand that there are different types (I have plenty of the little forked tail ones). I couldnt see these on my corals, but upon further inspection I unfortunately have the tell tale bite marks. I think I caught them pretty early because there is not much damage.

As far a dealing with them by blowing them off with a baster I am optimistic about this working. Several well respected guys that have fantastic tanks employ this method, Sanjay and Reefbum come to mind. There was also an article in reefkeeping magazine about this method being effective.
 
Sucks bro. Hire a blue velvet nudi. Only draw back is that once the flatworms have decreased the blue velvet will starve to death. Wrasse and a turkey baster works well, also there is a pig dewormer but you would have to pretty much take out all the corals and quarantine them, a royal pain in the *** especially since you have some large encrusted colonies.
 
i am sure it will be effective but i would not want to add that to my daily/weekly chore list... JMO, if it was me i think i would do all the intense labor that it is going to take now just to get it out of the way....
 
am3gross said:
i am sure it will be effective but i would not want to add that to my daily/weekly chore list... JMO, if it was me i think i would do all the intense labor that it is going to take now just to get it out of the way....
Click to expand...

Thats A LOT of work. Then there is still no guarantee, many people lose lost of corals during treatment. Some people have done the tear down your tank and dip/qt/dip, etc for 6 weeks only to have aefw come back in a couple months.

I dont know how long I have had these for, havent added any new ACRO's for about 4 months (except for 2 1" peices from a local reef club member 2 weeks ago, they were given a bath and inspected pretty close so I dont think it was them) So, I would bet they have been here awhile and they havent done much damage.

Velvet nudi, need to find one of those.
 
SDguy said:
Velvet nudis don't eat AEFW.
Click to expand...

Nix that then.

My, strawberry shortcake colony sure didnt like the basting, paled out on me this morning. Good thing is there werent any fw on it. On a side note, that strawberry shortcake is the most finicky coral I have, anything goes slightly out of whack and it lets me know. Anyone else experience that with the ssc?
 
Last edited:
Please be sure to research any purchase thoroughly. "Flatworms" is a term used to describe many different animals, including AEFW and red nuisance, yet non parasitic planaria.
 
I'm really surprised that there hasn't been a scientist out there that wanted to make a boatload of money by coming up with an in tank treatment.

Similar to FWE or interceptor...
 
Ian said:
I'm really surprised that there hasn't been a scientist out there that wanted to make a boatload of money by coming up with an in tank treatment.

Similar to FWE or interceptor...
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that be great!? Something as specific as FWE!
 
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