Living with AEFW

i know that i had aefw and it finally led to the dimise of my tank, now i am in the military and i do go out very often so the turkey basting would get skipped weeks and sometime months at a time.. turkey basting will work but the first time you have to leave for a period of time for vacation or whatever you may come home to devastation... now i am not saying that if you leave for 2 weeks u are doomed, but i am sure that the chore of turkey basting will get old pretty quick.. i know... been there...

i am in the process of resetting my tank back up.... it is alot of work to do in a small period of time, but depending on how long it takes u to get the aefws to disipear it might be worth it...

i wish u luck.. i have not has any.. but mostly because of my job situation...
 
Tony B (UK) said:
^^^ I would go with one of the above nudis ^^^

And a halichores cosmetus and dancing shrimp/camel shrimp.

Combine the above proven natural predators with basting and I think you will come out alright. I've had aefw twice before in previous systems.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but not be a jerk, that is wrong... Velvet nudis DO NOT EAT AEFW>
 
Just wanted to find out your progress. I too am having the same problem. I have been trying to figure out why my corals weren't doing so good. Since I don't have a qt tank I'm dipping my frags and colonies in coral rx. How many times a week should I dip them? I have a red planet colony that has afew and it's turning white from the base up. Should I frag it? What do I do with the encrusting part on the rock? Crazy glue idk?I know I need to treat my corols for 10 weeks and plan to.I have been scraping all the eggs I can find off the skeleton. Do these guys burrow under the skin and into the skeleton? Any help would be great. Not trying to highjack this thread just need some info thx
 
fishguy597 said:
Just wanted to find out your progress. I too am having the same problem. I have been trying to figure out why my corals weren't doing so good. Since I don't have a qt tank I'm dipping my frags and colonies in coral rx. How many times a week should I dip them? I have a red planet colony that has afew and it's turning white from the base up. Should I frag it? What do I do with the encrusting part on the rock? Crazy glue idk?I know I need to treat my corols for 10 weeks and plan to.I have been scraping all the eggs I can find off the skeleton. Do these guys burrow under the skin and into the skeleton? Any help would be great. Not trying to highjack this thread just need some info thx
Click to expand...

Well, its only been 4 days. I have basted 2 times since and havent found any FW. I really dont have the option to pull things out and dip them, that is why I decided to go this route.
I plan to get some acro crabs real soon, have a suspition that they will help with the aefw. Also going to add a malarunus(sp) wrasse.
If you frag and put in another tank after a dip and close inspection, you should be okay.
 
personally....I think dipping is pointless and massive unnecessary stress, UNLESS your dips are with a goal in mind of true erradication with another tank set up to make the process work

I have never done the basting method, have done the erradication thing and succeeded. I believe in the basting method from enough people have proven it. Moral to the story either baste or dip with erradication in mind. Dont baste and dip just to keep the numbers in check

my $.02
 
Yes I'm trying erradication. I dipped last week and removed a ton of them. I dipped again last night and didn't get as many off. The thing I found was a s#?!? ton of eggs. I scraped them all off. I noticed though it looked like they burrow under the skin around where it receads and layed some eggs
 
Tony B (UK) said:
What proof do you have?
Click to expand...

It's well known that the blue velvet nudi Chelidonura varians eats the red/brown flatworms Convolutriloba retrogemma. If you know anyone that has had this nudribranch eat AEFW, please enlighten me. I have never seen this nudibranch listed as a possible predator of AEFW. I've watched these nudibranchs before... they wouldn't even crawl onto an acro. I can't imagine how it would eat the AEFW...


So, I guess my response to you is, prove to me that they do ;)
 
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flyyyguy said:
personally....I think dipping is pointless and massive unnecessary stress, UNLESS your dips are with a goal in mind of true erradication with another tank set up to make the process work

I have never done the basting method, have done the erradication thing and succeeded. I believe in the basting method from enough people have proven it. Moral to the story either baste or dip with erradication in mind. Dont baste and dip just to keep the numbers in check

my $.02
Click to expand...

Good point about dipping etc being unnecessary unless you're really dedicated to going the whole 9 yards. A lot of wasted time/effort can go into these efforts if you don't follow through.

Yes, basting can work but it's like trying to keep the cat out of the Christmas Tree, sure spraying the cat with the squirt gun gets it out but it's going right back in there and always goes for that nice blue shiny glass ornament. At first you're really good a disciplining the cat but after awhile you get lazy and all kinds of stuff begins breaking. You just have to take down the tree...or have a very big squirt gun.
 
I've had AEFWs for well over a year now but they only seem to affect ONE colony. Like Reefbum, I baste once a week, remove whatever I find, and get on with life. The rest of the tank has remained completely unaffected.
 
SDguy said:
It's well known that the blue velvet nudi Chelidonura varians eats the red/brown flatworms Convolutriloba retrogemma. If you know anyone that has had this nudribranch eat AEFW, please enlighten me. I have never seen this nudibranch listed as a possible predator of AEFW. I've watched these nudibranchs before... they wouldn't even crawl onto an acro. I can't imagine how it would eat the AEFW...


So, I guess my response to you is, prove to me that they do ;)
Click to expand...

Exactly as I thought, you have no proof. You've assumed they won't. Yet you stated categorically that they do not eat AEFW, with some name calling "jerk" thrown in too:

SDguy said:
I'm sorry, but not be a jerk, that is wrong... Velvet nudis DO NOT EAT AEFW>
Click to expand...

My original post, that you responded to, listed two proven AEFW predators. The wrasse and the shrimp. I did not state that the velvit nudi is proven, if you re-read my post, you will see I simply stated:

Tony B (UK) said:
^^^ I would go with one of the above nudis ^^^

And a halichores cosmetus and dancing shrimp/camel shrimp.

Combine the above proven natural predators with basting and I think you will come out alright. I've had aefw twice before in previous systems.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry if I may have left you with the wrong impression. To be clear I would say it would be reasonable to add one of the nudis in question, seeing as their prey item is flatworms and, aefw are not so far removed from their natural diet - so IMO it is a reasonable punt and, may prove to be effective.

This entire AEFW topic is of great interest to me, as it is to others too.

The only point I would like to enlighten you to is, try not to be hostile and slam people's posts - more so avoid name calling. All name calling will ever do is create hostility and it will not encourage a sensible discussion. On a subject like AEFW it may be wise to create an environment where all are welcome to join in with 'open minds'. You never know with all these tanks getting infested with AEFW, the methods we use to combat the pests are evolving ;)

As you can see, after some clarification I have not made any sweeping statements based purely on assumptions, unlike you. Although you may still believe that these nudis do not eat AEFW, (based only on your assumptions), I would say perhaps they may.

I am half tempted to set up a tank and obtain some AEFW to trial natural predators in a test situation, to include Chelidonura varians.

Regards,

Tony
 
64Ivy said:
I've had AEFWs for well over a year now but they only seem to affect ONE colony. Like Reefbum, I baste once a week, remove whatever I find, and get on with life. The rest of the tank has remained completely unaffected.
Click to expand...

This is good to know. Only two of my colonies seem to have been affected, one to a much larger degree. I wonder if maybe there are even more subspecies that prey on only particular species of acro's.


From the surface it is starting to appear that the traditional method of removing all acro's, dipping, scrubbing off bases, etc, is more harmful than the fw themselves.

I looks as though everyone who employ's the baste method has reported good success with little to no loss.
 
Correct, I didn't call anyone a jerk except myself :) . I apologize for not being more thorough in my statement: So... "IME, and from everything I've read, velvet nudi's do not eat AEFW".... HTH.

I was simply trying to save the OP from false hope and maybe a little bit of money. I don't need to get into an argument about it. Everyone is free to try whatever they like to solve a problem in their tank. BUT... if this is YOUR theory, then YOU prove it. I personally wouldn't expect others to (much less suggest it to someone looking for help).... So, I look forward to updates on that trial you proposed. Thanks! :D
 
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Ok, ok, always heated when there is different "theories".

I like to hear ALL the "ideas"

Just learned a new trick :uzi: Aefw

which dealer sales those /\

LOL
 
I'm in the midst of an AEFW outbreak.

I've not decided on my long term strategy as yet, but I just don't believe that the blasting is going to eliminate the damage long term. It seems those seeing success with blasting have wrasses, I don't.

I have planned an initial attempt at elimination but I'm willing to be flexible as I learn more. I am "lucky" in one sence in that I 'm just rebuilding my reef after an Alk/temp driven crash this past summer. As a result, my pieces are mostly small colonies or frags and easily dipped. Who knew a recent crash could be an advantage? :worried:

The thing I want to add to this discussion, is if you think some of your fixed colonies aren't being attacked, if you could dip those colonies, you'd likelly see some FWs. Some times it takes a good five minutes in Revive or TMPCC to get them to jump, if they can take that, they can take a blast of water too. Also, consider the spinach and ice cream analogy. The AEFWs are going after the corals they are most attracted to, the ice cream, first. They'll eat the spinach later when they're hungry. So if they aren't there yet, they will be as their population grows.

What I found while dipping every piece in my tank, I did not see AEFWs on every piece, but they were adults wide spread across the tank. If there are adults, there must be eggs. I have a feeling they can reproduce at a blinding rate. The darn eggs are the tricky part. I don't feel I have a reliable method developed for looking for them! That scares me!

As I mentioned, I have mainly small pieces that are easily handled. I also have several tanks in my system that can all be isolated. As an initial responce, I'm setting up one as a treatment tank. There, I'll combine regular dipping, and inspection with scraping, isolating them for 6-8 weeks, keeping the other tanks acro free for that time. It is my hope that this will break the life cycle and eliminate the threat. I'm researching Levemisol (sp?) as well for a system treatment. I have a feeling, like RBs, these bastages are systemic will reappear when new eggs hatch if these steps aren't taken.

If we had a canned answer, these bugger wouldn't be such a problem. These AEFWs scare me more then any other pest I've learned of yet. We'll see how it goes? :hmm4:
 
OK, case in point.

Today, I dipped one of my larger pieces ( a blue prostrata) that had quickly attached to the rock work. I had to pry it off the rock, and has been looking good, so I left it to last to dip. I removed six large adult AEFWs from this "great looking" coral with this dip.

They are sneaky little beggers these AEFWs
 
Well after being out of town for three days and about 1 week of no basting, I basted again. I found no aefw, and aefw damage seems to be healing. Maybe I am the luckiest sob, knock on wood, we'll see.
 
tmgrash said:
Well after being out of town for three days and about 1 week of no basting, I basted again. I found no aefw, and aefw damage seems to be healing. Maybe I am the luckiest sob, knock on wood, we'll see.
Click to expand...

Let us know how it goes by keeping this thread updated. I lost 20+ SPS mini colonies and frags to AEFW's a couple of weeks ago. I only managed to save 5 frags, I was going to bin them, but decided to keep them as 3 of the 5 were my favorite SPS. :furious:
 
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