My own AEFW (Acro Eating Flatworms) images

[beapeams]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8169895#post8169895 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
Thanks for the info, where did you read/hear that at ?. Aqua states :

15W UV Sterilizer Max Flow: 1800 gph as clarifier, 700 gph as sterilizer

The MJ1200, at top speed, is only about 295 GPH. Since I am pumping to a head height of about 3.5', and we know MJs are not about pressure rating, I know that the flow will be significantly less. Even taking the statements about flow from Aqua into account, our flow will likely be within the 100 GPH range you recommended.

Then again I could be totally off base and could be "poisoning" the QT tank with the AEFW pests from the main tank, but at these flow rates I doubt it. (at least I hope not )

Thanks for sharing the information.

I just did some google searches, mine is an 18w uv sterilizer. Here is a link from drsfostersmith.com

This actually states slower than what I stated. It will vary depending on the strength of your bulb. This link states for a 15 watt UVS 75gph or less will kill parasites. Anything faster will not take them out. I know that I use a MJ1200 to pump water from my make up container to my sump. It sits in the bottom of a 32 gallon rubbermaid (about 3 feet tall) and runs 4 feet across. It can empty a full 32 gallon container in about 20 minutes. That would be about 96gph (rough estimate) at that rate you would be going to fast through your UV to kill the parasites. Look around and check it out. I found a few spots that stated this and my manual for my UV states the same. This might vary for each UV based if it is designed to increase dwell time.

 

[Neptune777]

blstravler.....I would not doubt that has something to do with it......anytime you have lots of animals/plants/corals (of the same species etc.) together in the same area the chances of causing an outbreak of an unwanted pest are very high! I am sure because of our poor QT practices, and the beginning mass coral aquaculture movement that we have caused this problem to become unnaturally bad...

 

[blstravler]

I see more and more on-line retailers selling with a stay alive warranty for x amount of days. In some ways I would rather see wholesalers and retails start to go through a certification process for the ability to import/sell corals into the country that mandates proper QT and treatment for these parasites. Combine that with what we can do as hobbiest to QT our own coral and we would be looking at vastly an imporved system.

Oh I'll go back to dreaming now....

 

[Tutmos]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8171540#post8171540 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
spazz, my bad... I thought I had heard there were a few people up there using the fluke tabs. But my memory is not the best these days.:lol:

I'm in TCMAS and am in the process of doing the same proceedure Stoney tested. I had been pretty ruthless with Levimasole so my FW population was very low when I finally started the Fluke Tab dip at 50 to 60min with 1.6 tabs in 2 gallons with a small powerhead to keep meds in suspension during the trial. I've been dealing with flatworms for more than a year and I'm doing my second complete display tank isolation, 4 months last time, 2 months was intended and I'm doing 2 months this time with all acros in a little 20gallon Q tank.

I can confirm that the corals are very tollerant of the fluke tabs at this dose. A dramatic difference from the levimasole bleeching. I get virtually no color loss and good polyp extension within an hour of the dip. The hardest part is trying to keep reasonable water conditions in a little 20 gallon filled with acros.

I wish I had a larger population of adult flatworms prior to the treatment so I could provide some results to confirm death of flatworms vs. being "stunned". Anything I had was on the verge of being too small to see or mixed in with too much other debris to be observable.

I wouldn't make any assumption about a flatworm not being dead because it isn't curled up or wilted. It will depend on the mechanism the fluke tabs uses to kill the pest.

Kevin W.

 

[Stoney Mahony]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8169999#post8169999 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
*sigh*, I am not going to throw stones at Stoney, out of all of the posts about using Fluke Tabs on AEFWs his are definitely the most detailed. But to say that it is "HIS" method is just irresponsbile and insulting to the general populace here. We, personally, have been involved with battling these pests for over a year now and have communicated and collaborated with just about every "expert" and have experimented and tried darn near every "method" out there. Fluke tabs were tried by others at least 12 months ago, so how could they have been "Stoney's method" ? Again, definite kudos to him for the detailed chronicling of his testing efforts. Admittedly based on his data we went out ourselves and bought some fluke tabs to try them out as one of our QT dips, but let's be a bit more responsible about laying, or assigning, credit for such treatments.

Thanks for the complement but it was a bit backhanded. Will you show us some proof? Please? I can't believe that who came up with this is even in question. I should have bottled it up, made the ingredients proprietary and charged you 10x the price, then the oldtimers would be lovin it. The fact that your insulted by me putting a treatment plan out there really says something about you. I don't think I have ever had so many negative people in one thread before. What is your theory on how I derived this treatment??Im just a big liar??

Im going on vacation tommorrow morning(I need it after the constand attacks in here).....Good luck with the treatments everybody!!!

 

[AndyL]

I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this... But, I'll ask anyway - anyone tried putting an infected colony into a tank with one (or more) Chelidonura varians?

They're obligate flatworm predators - not sure if they'd prefer one species over another though...

Andy

 

[SERVO]

:mad2: DP

 

[SERVO]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8173834#post8173834 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AndyL
I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this... But, I'll ask anyway - anyone tried putting an infected colony into a tank with one (or more) Chelidonura varians?

They're obligate flatworm predators - not sure if they'd prefer one species over another though...

Andy

Thats a great thought Andy, but the problem is that these flat worms are MUCH smaller than the planaria that they C. Varians typically pursue. Who knows if they have a taste for them, but they are unlikely to be able to offer a biologic control that will save or prevent destruction of some of the infected corals.

 

[Rogger Castells]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8174406#post8174406 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SERVO
Thats a great thought Andy, but the problem is that these flat worms are MUCH smaller than the planaria that they C. Varians typically pursue. Who knows if they have a taste for them, but they are unlikely to be able to offer a biologic control that will save or prevent destruction of some of the infected corals.

at
Servo, AEFW are not smaller the Planaria, at least the ones I have observed they they are probably 2-3 times bigger.
Maybe at birth and at some point of their life they are smaller but adult size AEFW are scary big!

 

[Tutmos]

Problem with a biological control like a species specific predator is that you can never eliminate the total population of flatworms and the predator will either die of starvation when the flatworm population drops too low or you have to remove it and give it to someone else that has some to consume. Point being that there will still be a small number of flatworms left somewhere in the tank, most likely, when the predator is no longer effective and you start all over again.

The solution is really to eliminate them completely from the tank and not simply "keep them in check" unless you can find a reliable predator that also eats something else to sustain itself.

The problem then is that even though you may have a managed population of the AEFW's you are still infected and if you trade with anyone that doesn't have the same predation measures you do will have an out of control infection.

I would like to see some more controlled tests with the fluke tabs at Stoneys dose and duration on adult flatworms. Blow some off of infected colonies and test out the dip on them for X, period of time. I like the longer 50-60min dip as it doesn't appear to have any significant impact on the coral. Then to satisfy Travis put the "assumed dead" flatworms in fresh tank water for a few hours to see if they revive.

I'd also be interested to see if someone is brave enough to try the treatment in a full Q tank instead of a dip and if something like a 50% water change and canister of carbon after an hour is enough to neutralize the fluke meds or at least reduce the concentration to a level that is effectively inert. Any takers? It would be more effective than dips and probably better for the corals.

Kevin W.

 

[clkwrk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8171701#post8171701 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Neptune777



Travis/ClkWrk/Sparkss please educate me on where the posts are in the past that absolutely dismissed the A.P. Fluke Tabs as a viable QT treatment. Some links would be helpful as I am not able to find a detailed account of someone using them and failing. I would like to know what dosages, dip times etc. were used so I can access how they failed and why Stoney/Myself /and others have had good success. Did they even use the same product....as I know there are several out there....There is even a liquid version of the A.P F.T.'s but who knows at what concentration it is...

I said I was done with this thread and thats it I have beaten these pests a while back and have nothing to add to this thread anymore...I have done my part by sharing my info and my pictures. Besides lately I have been part of a couple threads that got shut down so I will not be apart of this crap anymore because this thread needs to make it with out being deleted or closed.If you have anything to ask or say PM me.

You all have fun dealing with these pests . I am off to read something more constructive . Marc best wishes bud I hope you nail them bastards with minimal losses.

Chris

 

[melev]

Thanks Chris.

 

[Travis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8175062#post8175062 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tutmos
Then to satisfy Travis put the "assumed dead" flatworms in fresh tank water for a few hours to see if they revive.

Amen.

 

[Greg Hiller]

>We are chaning how we do ours to use an old Aqua 15 W UV to run the tank water through on it's way to the QT tank.<

I would strongly recommend against relying on a UV sterilizer to treat water coming from a tank infected with AEFW into a quarantine tank. UV sterilizers made for aquarium used are meant to knock down the population of micro-organisms, or parasites in a tank/water. They are NOT meant for 100% kill of much of anything. They are particularly unlikely to kill multicellular, or macroscopic life forms.

I think you would be far better off filtering water with some type of small micro mesh filter. Multiple layers of a standard aquarium filter media would probably work. Even filtration through a bed of clean sand would likely work.

The safest bet would be to use a 0.2 micron cutoff filter. This will remove everything down to and including all bacteria (and I don't think we have to worry about mycoplasma here [smaller than 0.2 micron])

 

[Tutmos]

Unfortunately I can't find anyone infected with AEFW's in my local Minneapolis area club. I was hoping to confirm the actual kill with fluke tabs but can't. Anyone able to do a test on this?

Kevin W.

 

[garvondavis14]

sooo.....anyone with any updates?

 

[Serioussnaps]

no fortunately you DIDNT find anyone infected...

why would it be unfortunate that no one in the club has AEFW's?

 

[garvondavis14]

lol lookin for test subjects, right?

 

[melev]

I watched the presentation about AEFW at MACNA, but won't have time to update this thread until next weekend as I'm flying out in a few hours. Essentially, no solution was given, but there is sincere interest in figuring this out.

I just checked on my Tyree frag, and though the lights are off, it appears it is growing some purple at the tips again. The polyps are out (late night).

 

[garvondavis14]

sweet marc, that's good to hear