My own AEFW (Acro Eating Flatworms) images

This is just my opinion, but I feel that if you have any corals with eggs on them that you can't scrape off, you should just let these eggs hatch out in the quarantine. Continue the standard protocol of weekly dips and start your duration (whether it be 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, etc.) when all of the eggs have hatched out. So if you plan to quarantine for 8 weeks and it takes 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch out, then the total time will be 10 weeks. When the FW's do hatch out, the weekly treatment should take care of them. I know it was anecdotally reported previously that freshly hatched FW's can lay eggs within less than a week but I'm not sure if I am convinced on this. I would imagine it would take longer for a FW to reach a size large enough that it was capable of laying eggs.

When I did the treatments, I superglued over eggs that I couldn't remove. Later on I worried that there "might" be a possibility that if the superglue ever got chipped off and the eggs were again exposed to water they could possible hatch out. No idea if this is true or not but I will play it safe and not superglue for future treatments. Sometimes a coral will grow over the superglue and that would be fine as it would seal the eggs in, but often times the coral will not regrow over that area, especially if it is at the perimeter of the base and the coral is no longer basing out. I just feel that it would be safest to just let the eggs that can't be removed hatch out while you are treating the corals rather than risk the possibility that they could hatch out in the display later down the road. After all, if you have a bad infestation, there is a good chance that there is going to be eggs that you don't see anyways. The eggs are not easy to find unless they are on the coral. In my case, I found eggs that were laid several inches away from any coral tissue or skeleton deep inside crevices in live rock.

I also feel it is best to treat inside the quarantine tank. Drain the tank down until the water is just covering all of the corals. Save the drained water for when refilling the tank. Calculate your treatment dosage based on how much water is left in the tank. After the treatment, remove all of the corals, wipe/bleach/whatever the tank and equipment to remove possible stragglers, replace with tank water that was drained before treatment, replace corals, then top off with water change water.

It is good to hear about all the success strories with the fluke tabs. When I was dealing with all of this we didn't have such a non-stressful treatment to choose from. It was either levamisole or many bottles of expensive TMPCC (if you were lucky enough to find any of the very few bottles available at the time). I'm still not sure if I'm convinced the fluke tabs are having a 100% kill rate.... but I will be trying the fluke tabs on any new additions. Maybe I will come across an infected colony and can do some experiments to see if the fluke dip actually kills all the FW's and then I can finally put my own argument to rest.:lol:
 
:wavehand:


From one of my earlier posts:

"Stoney- did you experience any issues if you dosed higher? Just curious about your initial experiment. "
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8308522#post8308522 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Stoney Mahony

Neptune- I didn't experiment with anything over 4 tabs, just 1, 2,3, and 4. When I tried to add more it beacame so cloudy I couldnt even see the coral. 4 worked awesome and the corals tolerate it 100% so I figured that was the lucky # and I had no need to add any more. When I tested at lower #'s like 2 tabs in 4g, it still killed the fw's, it just took a lot longer.

Sorry man, it was up there in a jumble.:rollface:
 
Well the task of treating the little bastards has begun.......I will be starting a new thread with the help of the "Dudester" Stay tuned......
 
LONG LIVE STONEY MAHONY! Man we gotta name a frag after him! I just heard about all of this tonight, man how sweet. He shall go down in history as the man whole obliterated the infedel!!!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8318647#post8318647 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
This is just my opinion, but I feel that if you have any corals with eggs on them that you can't scrape off, you should just let these eggs hatch out in the quarantine. Continue the standard protocol of weekly dips and start your duration (whether it be 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, etc.) when all of the eggs have hatched out. So if you plan to quarantine for 8 weeks and it takes 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch out, then the total time will be 10 weeks. When the FW's do hatch out, the weekly treatment should take care of them. I know it was anecdotally reported previously that freshly hatched FW's can lay eggs within less than a week but I'm not sure if I am convinced on this. I would imagine it would take longer for a FW to reach a size large enough that it was capable of laying eggs.

When I did the treatments, I superglued over eggs that I couldn't remove. Later on I worried that there "might" be a possibility that if the superglue ever got chipped off and the eggs were again exposed to water they could possible hatch out. No idea if this is true or not but I will play it safe and not superglue for future treatments. Sometimes a coral will grow over the superglue and that would be fine as it would seal the eggs in, but often times the coral will not regrow over that area, especially if it is at the perimeter of the base and the coral is no longer basing out. I just feel that it would be safest to just let the eggs that can't be removed hatch out while you are treating the corals rather than risk the possibility that they could hatch out in the display later down the road. After all, if you have a bad infestation, there is a good chance that there is going to be eggs that you don't see anyways. The eggs are not easy to find unless they are on the coral. In my case, I found eggs that were laid several inches away from any coral tissue or skeleton deep inside crevices in live rock.

i have to agree w/ Travis i'd prolly let them hatch out till we know for sure how to kill those eggs. you had some INCHES away from any tissue...ok that isn't cool! most people search immediatly next to the dead tissue...so we could be missing lots of eggs in cracks and caves.

IIRC superglue heats up as it cures right? you'd think the heat would kill the eggs or the chemicals in the superglue...but we can't be sure yet till soemone confirms it a few times. also we don't know how long they could stay dormant and lay just waiting to hatch out if sealed over

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8318647#post8318647 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
Maybe I will come across an infected colony and can do some experiments to see if the fluke dip actually kills all the FW's and then I can finally put my own argument to rest.:lol:

buddy i have a 100count of fluke tabs so don't run out and buy any!! i haven't used any yet as i'm not seeing any signs or symptoms of AEFW's. they are here just in case. if we find someone w/ them i have fluke tabs for you to use so don't buy any.

later
Lunchbucket
 
Here are a few egg pics found on a milli

IMG_6424.jpg


IMG_6422.jpg
 
That looks like an ORA frag plug....Did they come in from there?? Or did you have that bad boy in your tank for a while? That would really suck if they were coming in on ORA frags..........

On a different note, I dried out some dead parts of valida in the begining that had live eggs and aefw's on them. I was wondering the same thing if the eggs could cyst and then hatch when reintroduced to SW. The answer is no. I did it on at least 50 eggs and when reintroduced they just kinda melted to slime. If the super glue dosent kill them, I don't see any reason that the eggs would not hatch in a normal time frame when still hydrated. From there they should starve to death in a very short period of time. I doubt the superglue would have a chemical reaction that triggers a period of hybernation in the water but that would take some serious research and observation. :)
 
are montipora capricornis safe from AEFW?

are montipora capricornis safe from AEFW?

Fishypets and I are preparing to treat all of our corals with Stoney's method. I have a 1000-pack of Fluke-Tabs en route. I know they're called AEFW, or Acropora Eating Flat Worms, but we have seen them in montipora digitata corals as well. I'm therefore planning to include my digi's in with the QT and weekly treatments.

Has anyone seen AEFW on monti caps? If so, I'll have to take down most of my aquascape to get them out, as I have cap corals that have encrusted onto 2 and 3 rocks each.
 
Re: are montipora capricornis safe from AEFW?

Re: are montipora capricornis safe from AEFW?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8341373#post8341373 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dudester
Has anyone seen AEFW on monti caps? If so, I'll have to take down most of my aquascape to get them out, as I have cap corals that have encrusted onto 2 and 3 rocks each.

I am also curious.......
 
where are you guys ordering the Fluke tabs from? I picked up spme Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure today and plan to dip my infected coral tomorrow and see if that helps. Up until recently, I've been pulling out all of my infected corals and fragging off the good parts and trashing the rest. I only have 2 colonies left because of this and both are showing signs now.
 
That’s good, that would suck if ORA was infested. I left 3 different digis and 3 different caps in my display when I QT all my acros and I never saw any AEFW on any of them. I am not saying that you didn't, b/c they very well could be. Here is an interesting little tidbit about fw's......An experiment was done years ago in which they took fw's and shined a light at them. The fw's had no response to the light. The scientists poked and prodded the fw's when the light came on and then stopped when the light went off. Basically FW torture!!:smokin: After a few trials, the fw's began to show a negative response when the light came on. Now when the scientists shined light at the fw's, they would turn and run. This proved that the fw's could "learn" a behavior which was amazing since they are such a simple life form. If this wasn’t freaky enough, the scientists then sliced the fw's into 8-10 (can't remember exactly) different sections. Showing off there asexual reproductive skills, each piece grew into a new fw. When the light was shined at the new F1 fw's that were created, they all ran and showed a negative association with the light. This proved that the learned information was stored genetically, and passed down to the offspring. Pretty scary if you think about it! They are constantly learning...to what extent we do not know. I wouldn’t be surprised if these things started attacking caps and digis.

Pickle311- I got mine from a LFS but there on most of the major sites including fosters and smith. Just remember to get the Aquarium Products brand, theres a ton of them out there. Good luck!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8356419#post8356419 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Stoney Mahony
That’s good, that would suck if ORA was infested. I left 3 different digis and 3 different caps in my display when I QT all my acros and I never saw any AEFW on any of them. I am not saying that you didn't, b/c they very well could be. Here is an interesting little tidbit about fw's......An experiment was done years ago in which they took fw's and shined a light at them. The fw's had no response to the light. The scientists poked and prodded the fw's when the light came on and then stopped when the light went off. Basically FW torture!!:smokin: After a few trials, the fw's began to show a negative response when the light came on. Now when the scientists shined light at the fw's, they would turn and run. This proved that the fw's could "learn" a behavior which was amazing since they are such a simple life form. If this wasn’t freaky enough, the scientists then sliced the fw's into 8-10 (can't remember exactly) different sections. Showing off there asexual reproductive skills, each piece grew into a new fw. When the light was shined at the new F1 fw's that were created, they all ran and showed a negative association with the light. This proved that the learned information was stored genetically, and passed down to the offspring. Pretty scary if you think about it! They are constantly learning...to what extent we do not know. I wouldn’t be surprised if these things started attacking caps and digis.

Pickle311- I got mine from a LFS but there on most of the major sites including fosters and smith. Just remember to get the Aquarium Products brand, theres a ton of them out there. Good luck!


Sheesh, that's nuts! Hopefully these guys never develop the taste for blood. Man, that would be an awesome B movie.

:smokin:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8355582#post8355582 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pickle311
where are you guys ordering the Fluke tabs from? I picked up spme Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure today and plan to dip my infected coral tomorrow and see if that helps. Up until recently, I've been pulling out all of my infected corals and fragging off the good parts and trashing the rest. I only have 2 colonies left because of this and both are showing signs now.

Not you also.:( Where do you think you got the little bastards?
 
Back
Top