Not good... not good at all...

[dreaminmel]

So I have this feeling in my gut right now that I hope none of you ever experience. No matter what: Always, always treat incoming corals with BOTH intercepter and TMPCC.

I bought a TON of frags at the 9/23 meet. All I had on hand was interceptor so I treated all frags with that and in the tank they went. (I've dealt w/ RB before and refuse to do it again) Anyways, my efflo that I had picked up has not been looking too hot ever since I brought it home. I kept seeing all these little deteriorating spots on it in the crevices that weren't much flow so for the past two months I kept rearranging the flow patterns in my tank trying to get it more flow...

I bought an sps from a LFS the other day and in the process I've also gotten ahold of a bottle of TMPCC. Treated that coral w/ both meds and not a single thing came off it. On a whim I just took the efflo out of the tank and put it in its own fresh treatment.

25 Flatworms and still counting!!!

I'm absolutely sick right now. Anyone else around here dealt w/ these things? Right now I'm considering putting all my sps in a 30 tall I just got from DrMaybe and quarantining them... no clue how long sps would need to be out of my display to guarantee eradication. None of my other sps are showing any signs like this yet but at this point I'd have to assume that w/ the infected efflo being in there over 2 months that chances are they're in there somewhere...

You can bet I'll be doing some serious reading on RC all night...

 

[Kap212]

Sorry to hear about this Mel. If there is anything any of us can do to help let us know!!!

Greg

 

[Rwojick]

I personally would set up a QT tank and place all corals in danger in there after dipping them. I would think about a month or more to ensure all the flatworm eggs hatch and die.
Rob

 

[dreaminmel]

Eggs will definately be involved... I'm now finding a ton of little tiny flatworms in the dish after closer inspection w/ a flashlight. I have no one to blame but myself for this. I just hope I don't experience the same rate of coral loss that others have...

I'll keep everyone posted on my treatment regime and success rate. Feel free to keep the suggestions coming.

--Rob, The 30gal is getting filled w/ water now for the QT. I'm just trying to figure out how it will all work. If I put all my sps in it after a dip I obviously have to dip them all again on a regular basis to getting any hatchlings, but I'm concerned some will stay in the QT tank and get back on the sps after they get dipped.

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh jeez mel I feel terrible for you, hope you can get through this. If I may ask a newb question, what is TMPCC?

 

[dreaminmel]

Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure.

Directions say one squirt per 200ml of water. I did 3 squirts in a tupperware w/ 600ml of water. That was an hour and a half ago. The efflo is now in a tupperware w/ some tank water but the flatworms are still showing slight movement in the dip container. Some are lifeless but not all. That concerns me...

 

[Rwojick]

Why not just dose TMPCC into the 30 befote a 15-20 gallon WC? I know the stuff is costly but That could/ should work. Perhaps just use Idione solution as aposed to TMPCC. If any of these suguestions are bad pleas someone let me know.
Rob

 

[Ellery]

Sorry to hear about your recent issues. Too bad you couldn't throw the eflo in a QT with a 6 line wrasse which supposedly eats flat worms.

 

[dreaminmel]

I have a mandarin in my tank that definately eats flatworms. These things are big though (most were 1/2" long stretched out and the rest were as big as a pencil tip) so I'm sure that's part of why he's not eating them. I used to have a sixline but gave him to the LFS when I moved all to the new tank because he was bullying my mandarin. Everything is definately going in a QT tank for 3 months and I will be doing weekly dips. Unless of course I finish reading the current thread I'm on and find a successful in tank treatment... not likely though.

 

[LFS_worker]

are these AEFW??

Brian

 

[dreaminmel]

Most definately. No doubt about it unfortunately...

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

How can you be so sure the flatties weren't already in your aquarium before the 9/23 meet.
It's pretty common for efflos (and table Acros in general) to take awhile to acclimate before they get growing....

 

[cknowlto]

And will Salifert FWE not touch them?

I have had tremendous success with it.

Although I have only had the little red flatworms and the little clear/white ones.

 

[dreaminmel]

Gary, I just got done dipping every one of my sps individually and the efflo was the only one that had them. Also, none of my other sps have ever had bite marks on them. Anything is possible but if they were there before they would have been eating my sps before and I would have been able to see their damage. The efflo is the first and only sps in my tank to show their damage and it is the only one that had them on it as proven by the dips I did on all tonight.

cknowlto, I'm still in the process of reading up on FWE as a treatment (had to pause to cook dinner). I'm currently halfway through a thread of people that were experimenting w/ it Feb 06 and posts just started showing that even after 4x dosage in the tank people are all of a sudden finding more in their tank. Hoping the end of the thread has a solution...

 

[dreaminmel]

Btw, here is a pic of the efflo in the TMPCC dip. My camera is low quality so it's not the clearest of shots but you should be able to at least get an idea for how many aefw were coming off and should also be able to see the damage on the efflo.

 

[jimmer]

do these things stay on the surface or do they burrow into the coral??it seems like there was a ton on there!i have an efflo that is showing the same signs as yours but i cant see anything on it.mel where did you purchase the tmpcc??

 

[dreaminmel]

jimmer, As far as I know they are only found on the surface. Eggs are usually found along the bottom of the coral or even sometimes in an area quite a distance away from the coral. Some have found them on rockwork and zoanthids. By the time I was done shaking and basting them off I ended up with 40 of the big ones and didn't even want to count the small ones. I got the tmpcc off ebay but have seen it on some other actual websites as well. (fragfarmer was one...)

You'll definately want to dip your efflo to at least rule them out and be able to sleep at night. I don't want to scare you but I couldn't see them until they came off the efflo. That's why I spent over two months trying to adjust flow. I didn't see any organisms on it at all and assumed since water quality was up to par that it had to be flow creating the damage... I now know I was in denial of the inevitable.

btw, here is the thread I'm still in the process of reading: Link

 

[dreaminmel]

Well, I finished reading the low down and as of yet no one has nailed down an in tank treatment so here's the plan.

-All sps are going into 30 gallon QT.
-All will be dipped individually in TMPCC before going into the QT.
-Once a week each will be dipped again.
-The dips will continue for 3 months. (I've read too many accounts of dipping for 4 weeks only to have them reappear and I don't want to create any resistant worms while doing this.)
-The display rock will have all remaining sps "skin" completely removed and will be sps free for the entire 3 months. =(

Now I've just got to figure out how I'm going to light the 30 gallon... I'm sure putting one of the 400w halides over it would be overkill. Heating, filtration and water flow are all figured out at least.

 

[nwrogers]

Mel:

That is terrible news! Sounds like you have a very good plan and have done your research. It is good that you are sharing this experience with everyone so that others can learn from this. Just in time for the frag swap on the 9th. I have been dipping all of my acros for awhile with both Interceptor and TMPCC before they go into my tank. It is good stuff. I hope others learn from this and I hope everything turns out OK for you. You have a beautiful tank, it sucks that this happened to you

Nate

 

[dreaminmel]

Thanks Nate, I'm still in shock right now... I'm now going one step further and suggesting that people also quarantine. I've been reading that these aefw eggs can be essentially invisible as someone found 9 eggs in a crevice once and only by using a macro lense on their camera did they see them. The dips do not kill the eggs.

Also, thanks everyone for the posts and pms offering help to me. I love that our group is so compassionate about this hobby and I will be sure to share every detail of this experience with you in case it can help someone else in the future.