Monti Nudies, possible AEFW

[rcmike]

Hey guys, I have been wondering for a while if I had AEFW since some of the damage to my acros has looked a lot like pictures I have seen. The tank started getting better but in the last week some of the acros have been getting rough looking again. Some of them have patches that look like something is eating them. I have been looking for flatworms but haven't actually seen them. I am wondering if I should treat the tank anyway. I have been dealing with issues for probably 6 months and hopefully I have finally found the cause.

While looking for AEFW with a flashlight early this morning I found a couple of montipora eating nudis also. I suspected they were the problem when I lost all of my montis last year. I guess they mostly died out when most of the montis were gone but now they are coming back. What is the best way to deal with these?

 

[boofer]

Sorry to hear Mike. With the monti nudis theres nothing to do but take all the monties out and wait. I lost digis a couple months after I took everything out and put another digi in about 6 months after everything was out. That was w/o the rock I had in the 29 also (originally infested). All Digis/Caps died, but I only saw them on the ones I put in at the 2 month mark. The other Digi had the same kind of tissue loss, so I trashed it but never actually saw them on it. It could have been something else. Im going to try another Digi/Cap in the new tank, so Ill see. GL

 

[rcmike]

I'm pretty sure I saw a flatworm come off of a frag I dipped in RO water today. It was kind of small so it was hard to tell what it was for sure. I got a couple of pictures but they all just look like a brown blob because it was so small. I may try the flatworm exit at higher dosages like some people have had success with. I also have a few regular flatworms so even if it doesn't work on the AEFW I haven't wasted it.

Thanks Dustin on the Monti info. I don't like what I hear thought :lol:

 

[greystreet41]

I trashed a few caps recently covered in monti nudis. I was doing pretty good with picking them off maually with tweezers. I took a break and did some reading to find out usually you'll have them for a long time and not know it because they'll feast on the underside of the cap first. Sure enough I looked under a large cap and it was covered with them. Trashed it. What I don't know is if they'll die off if you have no montis for them to feed on.
good luck.

 

[gflat65]

I hope you didn't get the AEFW from me... I just realized I have them a few weeks ago. The frag you got from me of the humilis was in the frag tank, which was treated three times before the swap for flatworms, so hopefully they didn't come from there. I bastered the 'green' mille and nothing came off of it, so they don't appear to be in the frag tank, but who knows...

I noticed one of my larger acro colonies was rtn'ing after losing color over a period of about two months or so (time frame may be off...). I fragged it and found an AEFW. I dropped it and my nanas, and other validas in a tupperware container (4 cup) with 6 drops of FWE and two drops of Lugols. The other valida and the large colony I fragged died the next day. I had a good number (30-40) AEFW in the tupperware. they were all dead an hour and a half later. The Lugols might have been the problem with the acros that died (two made it through the treatment, though). I then started using a turkey baster to blast my corals that had lost color over the last few months. I blamed the color lose on the upgrade to DE's. Every coral that has shown color loss (cerealis, efflo, soli, etc.) had AEFW flying off when I bastered them. I've got enough FWE to do a roughly 1.25X treatment, so I'm gonna do that and then hit it pretty hard when I get a few more bottles... From what I've been reading, there is no cure for them, just treatments. I told everyone at work my tank has herpes. Yellow coris wrasses and leopard wrasses have been known to eat them (as well as mandarins, though mine isn't doing it very quickly if she is). I'm going to treat with FWE and get a pair of wrasses to try to combat the problem. Good luck with it.

 

[c_stowers]

I'm guessing AEFW stands for Acro Eating Flat Worms. Can someone post a pic or link to these guys? I've never seen a flatworm in my tank, but I want to know what to look for since we all swap around frags so frequently.

Also, I don't think it would be a bad idea to try and blast the guys off with a PH. You could take the corals out and blast them with a strong powerhead in a rubbermaid.

 

[gflat65]

Chris,

There is a sticky in the SPS forum that has some good shots.

 

[rcmike]

Gary, I am pretty sure I have had them for a while if in fact I do have them. :lol: I think I saw a small one earlier scurrying around on a coral. Are yours pretty fast? This one was much faster than a normal red flatworm. Several of my corals look like the ones halfway down this page. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=756327&perpage=25&pagenumber=13

I don't have too many acros left so maybe it won't be too hard to get rid of them. I could take them all out of the tank if I absolutely have to.

 

[gflat65]

They do book it around faster than the red/brown flatworms.