% of losses using levimisole?

Great information so far. Thanks to everyone for sharing your honest answers. Learning a lot. Have AEFW myself.
 
imaqt4utoo,
IME it is very important to have skimming on your QT. The problem I ran into was the sliming from the TMPCC treatments stressed the corals. I ended up with 30-40% losses in the QT. I had LR and all but not skimming. Microbubbles created an additional stress. I ended up pulling the corals out of QT after 3 weeks because of the loss rate. Did a double strength TMPCC dip before heading to the brand new never seen acros frag tank. Saw nothing fall off nor any eggs. Only frags with no damage or eggs were allowed back into the frag tank. However something got through.

I found a repeated regimen of Coral Revive over 3 treatments spaced ~ 10 days apart wiped out my AEFW problem in my frag tank. Haven't seen damage or eggs in 5 months. I dip the bonsai or tri colors every now and then(have repeatedly been the first to be attacked) to check but have seen nothing. I caught it early that time so that helped.

The point on the eggs being difficult to see is very true. In the frag tank when I first found the suckers had gotten through the TMPCC and QT I saw the damage and eggs on the Tyree purple unknown. Then I checked every other coral visually before dipping. A Loisettae had no damage but had a very thin, <1/16", area of recessed flesh from where I had glued it onto a rock. The coral had formed an edge and started to grow back. Well I found a single line of 16 eggs right under the edge on the bare skeleton. Couldn't see them unless you turned the frag over and looked up close. It was going to be their next victim.

I have read that the AEFW will only lay eggs on bare skeleton and while I agree that is the preference I have also found repeated instances of eggs being laid on rock below or completely underneath the colonies. You have to check everything.

HTH.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12400818#post12400818 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by imaqt4utoo
Thanks Fishdoc11....however would any other parasites be on those as well such as the red flatworms?

Only monti nudis on the digis (or possibly "black bugs" but those aren't very well understood) and the treatment likely wouldn't do anything for them anyway.

Chris
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12401628#post12401628 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philwd
imaqt4utoo,
IME it is very important to have skimming on your QT. The problem I ran into was the sliming from the TMPCC treatments stressed the corals.

That's the same problem I had except I pretty much lost everything due to RTN spreading through the holding tanks.

IMO the safest way to insure no eggs is to only aquire fresh cut frags without a base and then dip and QT with a couple of more dips in QT for good measure. No dead tissue or base = no place for eggs to persist.

Chris
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12401799#post12401799 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishdoc11
That's the same problem I had except I pretty much lost everything due to RTN spreading through the holding tanks.

IMO the safest way to insure no eggs is to only aquire fresh cut frags without a base and then dip and QT with a couple of more dips in QT for good measure. No dead tissue or base = no place for eggs to persist.

Chris

That is just one more reason that I would pay even more for Aquacultures frags rather than wild caught colonies. I will only add frags that I can inspect imto my tank.
 
So, I'm wondering to what extent I need to treat my tank. I have a few tri-colors, etc. The only coral that is visibly infected and not doing well is my Atlantis Lavendar Tri-color. My bali, ORA and Tyree are all doing well (they are in a different area of the tank). I'd hate to pull out all acros and QT and risk loosing some high end coral because I was extra cautious or wasn't doing things right.

As a matter of fact 90% of my corals look good, except for that one. I do have a leopard wrasse in the tank, but it doesn't appear to do much good.

I'm wondering if I should only place infected (or what I feel is infected) into the QT tank vs. the entire lot.

I don't want to have to deal with AEFW ever again, but don't want to do more damage than good either.

Any suggestions?
 
I didn't think about the skimmer, but I could see it's importance.

However, if you are doing weekly water changes of 100% would you still need a skimmer (although it's not necessarily a water change when it comes from your main display).

I don't have a skimmer, but a HOB filter filled with LR as filtration and carbon. Do you guys run carbon as well when doing this treatment?

Do you also place any fish into the QT tank to help SPS with food?

I know so many questions, but I rather be safe than sorry.
 
IME if you see them on 1 coral you must assume the whole tank is infected. I had several corals that looked great. It wasn't until I pulled them all out and inspected that I found corals in the far back with single bite marks over a foot away from the heavily infested colonies. I had 4 of 50 colonies heavily infested. But had another 15 or so with 1-2 bites or just eggs. You just can't tell from the front.

In another example we had a very highly respected reefer have to tear down their tank and distributed their SPS to several people. Turned out that although they didn't know it they had AEFW. Most people had placed these new corals off to the side down on the sand to acclimate. At that point no one knew about the AEFW. Then about 2 weeks later one person noticed. Everyone then threw out those corals. Because of where they were placed the hope was the AEFW were isolated and had not spread. Unfortunately since then almost everyone who had gotten those corals has found AEFW.

These experiences taught me AEFW can spread fast. They do have favorites but you must take everything out to treat to stop them in their tracks. I stopped my newer infestation in my frag tank because I treated everything repeatedly. It's much tougher in the display with encrusted bases. I recently found a small encrusted area I missed. Had bite marks. When I blew a turkey baster on it a 1/4" AEFW came off. Luckily I had not moved my frags back from the frag tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12402574#post12402574 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philwd
IME if you see them on 1 coral you must assume the whole tank is infected.

Well said. Thank you for your help and experience.
 
imaqt4utoo,
For me the RTN started about 5 days into the QT. But the corals were obviously stressed before that. I had tried to stave it off originally by treating in a 30G tub then changing the water then moving a day later to the QT. I had hoped to eliminate most of the slime. Maybe I did but still got the RTN as fishdoc noted.

I didn't have any fish in the QT. A few pieces of LR. Since the dips were all outside the tank I didn't run any carbon.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12401799#post12401799 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishdoc11
IMO the safest way to insure no eggs is to only aquire fresh cut frags without a base and then dip and QT with a couple of more dips in QT for good measure. No dead tissue or base = no place for eggs to persist.

EXACTLY!!! And the benefit from this is twofold. Not only do you ensure that you are not introducing eggs, you ensure that you are not introducing a foreign nuisance algae to your system that could possibly get out of hand down the road.
 
Travis - just read through your trials in the post linked earlier. AEFW are definitely nothing to take lightly! Thanks for sharing such detailed accounts with everyone.
 
I have read that the AEFW will only lay eggs on bare skeleton and while I agree that is the preference I have also found repeated instances of eggs being laid on rock below or completely underneath the colonies. You have to check everything.
[/B]

This was my same experience also. I found the majority of the eggs on receded areas by the bases right next to the healthy tissue. Then a small percentage were found in receded areas in between the bases of heavily branching corals like tricolors. And an even smaller percentage were found on the actual rocks next to the coral bases.

IME if you see them on 1 coral you must assume the whole tank is infected.

Yup, I will second that.

I also agree with your comments on protein skimmers being necessary on the holding tank. These treatments are very stressful and the corals are going to produce a lot of slime. This slime is will decompose in the tank if you do not remove it through skimming. You don't need a high end skimmer. Pick up a cheap backpack or remora in the classifieds.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12402314#post12402314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by imaqt4utoo
Do you also place any fish into the QT tank to help SPS with food?

No, there is going to be plenty of free floating bacteria in the holding tank due to die off of bugs, stars, etc. and slime emitted from corals. You are going to have a hard enough time maintaining water quality without having any fish in the tank. The free floating bacteria and some good quality light will be plenty to sustain your corals. However, I would also recommend dosing a quality Ammino Acid supplement to aid in coral recovery. But make sure to dose on the low side. If you start seeing brown film on the glass, rocks, sand, etc. then you are dosing too much.
 
Travis or Philwd, thanks so much for your insight. I'm in a similar predicatment like baloutang where I can only see 1-2 acros affected by AEFW and they are not that far gone. They have good polyp extension still but a bit brown with some white splotches where they were being munched on.
My biggest fear is that I will loose all my healthy corals during that 6 week QT process, but I don't want to have to go through this when they are huge colonies either. Talk about a catch 22.

If you had to change something to prevent any losses what would the most important things be, outside of trying to match water params with the main tank?

Thanks guys!
 
Hi Guys,

I did the 4 dip today with levamisole

I have more than 60 SPS pieces

For the first time I could count the AEFW....I just found 8 in my huge milepora, the others are AEFW free and I didn´t find eggs

I think I´m going to win this battle against this pests

The interval between the dips was 25 days

Regards
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12409087#post12409087 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by imaqt4utoo

If you had to change something to prevent any losses what would the most important things be, outside of trying to match water params with the main tank?

Nothing I can think of that I would change.
 
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