My own AEFW (Acro Eating Flatworms) images

I’ll make this quick. Revive thumbs up or down for newly received small Sps frags, I’m talking the half inch variety. I’ve always been scared to dip the little folks do to stress, has anyone tried with pieces of this size?
 
I just recently did an 8 hour Interceptor bath and a 15 minute TMPCC dip on a 1/2 frag with no problems. I also do the same for the larger frags.
 
I've done Revive on small frags no problem. Just watch the concentration and duration of the dip. You don't have to go long with Revive.

edit: The small 1/2 - 1" frags I have done are PM, candlelight, Sunset, Rainbow, Superman, Ultimate Blue, Aquarium City Red, Bali Tri color, Bennet yellow tort, Cali tort, Miyagi tort and LITS. All others were bigger.
 
I was talking to Sanjay about his AEFW's and his discussions with some experienced reef keepers that have had AEFW's. He was teasing me about tearing up my reef, but he recommends blowing them off and letting the fish eat them.

This not work

I was blowing my corals everd day....... , so I used levamisol in one SPS to see what I could find

Look what I found : ( this is just one SPS, I have more than 60 SPS waiting for levamisol)

aefw1hp8.jpg
 
Okay, hopefully some of you AEFW veterans can help me out with this.

I believe I have AEFW on my tricolor in my 28g nano. I'm thinking of simply dipping the colony in a bucket of fluke tabs (4x100mg/5gallons) for 20 minutes and then putting back in the tank. I'd repeat once weekly for 6 weeks. So, my question is: What's the rationale for putting the sps in a QT tank between weekly dips? Don't the AEFW only lay their eggs on the acro itself? How long would it take for a newly hatched AEFW to start laying eggs again?

I'm thinking each weekly dip will kill all AEFW. Only the eggs will remain on the acro. Therefore, treating once weekly should kill all of the hatched AEFW after 6 weeks of therapy, assuming within 6 weeks an AEFW egg will hatch.

The only reason I can see that you need QT is if the fluke tabs doesn't kill every AEFW and therefore, continuoulsy has a chance to lay more eggs between dippings, maintaining a vicious cycle. If the AEFW that survive to lay eggs survive b/c the fluke tabs didn't reach the area to kill them, then maybe consecutive day doses will work. If the AEFW that survive to lay eggs survive b/c they are inherently resistent to the std dosing (4x100mg) of fluke tabs, then simply higher doses of the fluke tabs are needed.

What do you guys think? I would rather not setup a QT tank and simply dip my coral for 20 minutes.

Thanks for the help!
 
The underlying assumption here is all the AEFW will always be on a coral. Since I have found eggs on rock I know that's not the case. If you just dipped you'd be running the risk of a few not on the coral. And if one coral has them IME you must assume they all do. By QTing after/during the dips you break the cycle in your display.

Now the big question is can you setup a stable QT for 6-7 weeks? There was a thread on that a couple weeks back.

Good Luck.
 
Darn it. I really don't have the resources to start up a stable QT tank though. The infestation only appears to be on one branch though. Maybe I'll take my chances and dip without the QT.

If the eggs are on the rocks, I would assume newly hatched AEFW would crawl to the coral in which they would subsequently be killed on the next dip. However, I wonder if there's a possibility that the newly hatched ones don't crawl to the coral to lay more eggs on the rocks? Hmmm, a lot of assumptions.

thanks though.
 
Eggs are usually on the coral's exposed skeleton. It's just a risk to assume all will be as I have seem some on the rocks. Hatched AEFW you would think would be hungry and move to the nearest coral. With enough dips, (and it looks like you may have caught it early), you MAY be able to break the cycle in your display. To be more sure I would do all SPS not just the one you saw damage on.

There were some anecdotal report on here and other sites that the AEFW can lay eggs 5 days after hatching. Seems like a little stretch as I also read it takes a few weeks to get to visible size. How can they lay those big eggs when they are too tiny to see?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12496810#post12496810 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philwd


There were some anecdotal report on here and other sites that the AEFW can lay eggs 5 days after hatching.

I don´t believe.....
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12496810#post12496810 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philwd

There were some anecdotal report on here and other sites that the AEFW can lay eggs 5 days after hatching. Seems like a little stretch as I also read it takes a few weeks to get to visible size. How can they lay those big eggs when they are too tiny to see?

If this is true, then dosing twice weekly should eliminate the newly hatched ones. The colony's small, so, I'll probably use just 2 tabs for 2.5 gallons. this way, I won't use so much drug and water.

I would think that eventually, all of the eggs will hatch (on rock or coral), and the twice weekly dips should get the AEFW, even the newly hatched ones before they have a chance to lay eggs again. Unless, of course, you have newly hatched AEFW that don't move to the acro and stay on the rock and continue to lay eggs on the rock. However, based on what people have reported, I doubt this would happen.

Wish me luck!

Thanks,
 
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this is the worst thing
I notice that the sps that I have with a acro crab never show sing of flatworm no bites ect... could this be possible acropora crab preventing the sps from this invasion?
 
I hope I am not repeating anything that was already talked about in here as I tried to read through all the pages, but the Betadine sounds like it works good, I am wondering if it works on all corals as a basic dip before placing corals into a QT and then into the Display tank, I am looking for a good dip recipe to use when introducing any and all corals into my tank from now on, I have heard of some using FWE and Lugol's mixed, but not sure if you use it in fresh water or salt, errrrgg, these things make me sick to my stomach!!!
 
I hope I am not repeating anything that was already talked about in here as I tried to read through all the pages, but the Betadine sounds like it works good, I am wondering if it works on all corals as a basic dip before placing corals into a QT and then into the Display tank, I am looking for a good dip recipe to use when introducing any and all corals into my tank from now on, I have heard of some using FWE and Lugol's mixed, but not sure if you use it in fresh water or salt, errrrgg, these things make me sick to my stomach!!!

Betadine is extremely harsh on the corals, it will kill the AEFWs, but also the good zoanthelle that is on the coral itself. You will have quite a bit of browning because of it.
FWE does not work on AEFWs.

Here's a list of some things that do work if you QT for 6 weeks. If you dip and put into tank then you still run the risk of having problems.
1. Levamasole
2. TMPCC (Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure)
3. Two Little fishes Coral Revive
4. Fluke tabs.

I've not used the first 2 dips but have used the last 2 which worked for me. The hardest thing is keeping params stable while in QT.

Hope that helps..good luck
 
well I officially joined the club today...

I found my tri-color infected so i immediatly threw it outside. It was atleast 6 inches away from the other closest sps in all directions. It wasnt badly infected, so what do you guys think are the odds My other corals will get the aefw assuming they dont have it at the moment?
 
How long have you owned the tri-color, where did you get it from, and have you made any recent additions?
 
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