Pete's 280 log

[psteeleb]

Thanks Marc,

I noticed some bite marks on another coral that had not shown them previously, so I am in a kill mode.

I plan to add a couple more wrasses when I can find them and a boat load of peppermints (6-10). The peps will get killed/eaten by my other shrimp but they tend to survive for a few weeks at least and I read they will go after the AEFW’s. If you see a Christmas wrasse in a LFS, or any of the Halichoeres let me know.

I also noticed some very small white things on my blue tip. They did not look like a AEFW but I have no idea if the young look different from the adults. I’ll try and post a picture of them later.

 

[psteeleb]

Here is a picture of the small white spots I noticed on my blue tip last night. They seem to be in groupings of 5 or so and have these filaments that extend out. When I got home from work today I noticed a couple of these filaments extending out about 3/4" of an inch. Maybe it's some sort of specialized polyp, or maybe some sort of worm, I'm at a lost, so any ideas?

 

[melev]

It could be a type of barnacle, rather than a bite, but I see what has you concerned.

 

[chrismunn]

some of theos things were coming out a whole 3/4"!!?! thats pretty long!

PBITAWA! :lol:

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12329172#post12329172 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrismunn
some of theos things were coming out a whole 3/4"!!?! thats pretty long!

PBITAWA! :lol:

any idea on what they are?

at first they were just little white spots and I thought baby AEFW's. I spotted about 3 clusters of about 3-5 spots each, which made absolutly no sence as I never have seen any eggs on or around this coral much less any AEFW bite marks. So how they got there regardless of what they are is a mystery. It was night when I first saw them and didn't see the threads but they showed up (about 1/4" long) in the pictures I took. The next day (yesterday) the spots are the same size but the threads are longer. So now I'm speculating they may be some sort of specialized polyp but could by anything. I'll see if I can get a better picture later on.

For now I'm not going to worry too muh about them but I'll keep an eye on them just in case.

On a sad note the other acro that I noticed bite marks on was pretty chewed up. I blasted the suckers off and my anthias had a nice snack. No eggs noticed and the acro (prostrata) was pulled in, I'll take a top down of it this evening to compare the damage to earlier pictures. I proceeded to blast all my acros, not just the ones I knew had them. No other were AEFW's detected.

There are some eggs on my tri-color that are hard to get to, I smashed some and then soaked the area with kalc paste, not knowing if it would do anything. Oddly the fish took a real interest in the area. maybe its like salted caviar, who knows. They may have just been after the smashed eggs.

 

[chrismunn]

i have no clue what they are? ill let you in on a little secret though. the only sps ive ever kept are moni digi, and monti cap....

:lol:

sorry i could be more help!

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12337234#post12337234 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrismunn
i have no clue what they are? ill let you in on a little secret though. the only sps ive ever kept are moni digi, and monti cap....

:lol:

sorry i could be more help!

haha :lol:

you probably could have just made something up and I'd been off looking into it. Now I know better.

 

[chrismunn]

knowing is half the battle

have you tried the coral forum to see if anybody over there has experienced your situation before? if eric borneman gets a chance the read about your SPS, im sure he would have at least one idea of what you might be dealing with.

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12343548#post12343548 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrismunn
knowing is half the battle

have you tried the coral forum to see if anybody over there has experienced your situation before? if eric borneman gets a chance the read about your SPS, im sure he would have at least one idea of what you might be dealing with.

I have not posted this question on the SPS forum but will try tonight. The few times I've asked quesitons over there I have gotten little to no response. For example the sponge on the monte cap question was posted there --- and zippo, posted same question here on my thread and I get a couple good suggestions.

I like the SPS forum and frequent it as often as the Reef forum, I think the Reef forum just gets more traffic.

 

[psteeleb]

I didn't get a chance to post the pictures in the SPS forum last night as SERVO came by to look at and offer some advice on my AEFW's

SEVRVO noticed the filaments on the Blue Tip and wasn’t sure what they were either. There appear to be more of them but they don’t seem to be bothering the coral They appear to be some sort of filter feeder that attached to the underside of the coral. I’ll attempt to get some better pictures of them now that they are more definable.

Back to the AEFW’s; based on observations over the past few days and input from SERVO, I am pretty sure my current routine is not going to be sufficient to deal with them. I may be curbing their growth in population some, but I’m not preventing them from spreading and munching on other acro’s; so, I’m going to up my routine to include removing all Acropora’s, dipping and inspecting. This will include requiring cutting off the larger encrusted corals like the Tri Color.

At this point I am not looking forward to quarantining 100% of the Acropora corals, but it may be the only way to provide some assuredness that they aren’t lurking in sufficient number to become a future epidemic event. So to be ready to QT, SERVO dropped off a 40g tank and equipment that will keep the corals isolated from the main tank in hopes to starve out the AEFW’s.

I’ll probably start this weekend with some dipping & inspections of a majority of my population of Acropora coral colonies and frags. I’ll repeat the dips I previously used, as they appear to have been very effective. Additionally, if it doesn’t mean tearing down the tank, and time permits, I would also hope to cut off the Tri-Color and preserve some nicer frags, and dispose of, or, sterilize the base structure to prevent future outbreaks on this large encrusted area.

In the meantime, I’ll be picking up some other supplies like Fluke tabs as this appears to be the best solution for killing the AEFW’s. I’ll also be looking for notes, suggestions and other supplies that may come in handy prior to starting a QT.

So, I’m looking for additional advice on process, durations, tools, supplies etc that may come in handy.

 

[psteeleb]

here is a summary of what I've picked up in reading and talking to people

FWE is at best "marginal" on the AEFW species of flatworms. In otherwords, it kills some, but not all. People have used up to 3 times the recommended dosage in their tanks and still had AEFW's. It may be okay to knock down the population and start what I would call a passive treatment.

A whole tank treatment does not seem to be available, but several people are trying.

A passive treatment - People are having some success with a process that includes; natural predation, colony removal for inspection and dipping, and in tank water blasting to remove the adults letting fish eat them. There are a couple of documented success stories using this process (including this months TOTM), but, the owners claim there is no certainty the AEFW's are gone, and more likely just curbed or under control.

Aggresive Treatment - The only apparent solution that has some degree of confidence appears to be starving the AEFW's to death in the main including any new hatchlings. This requires isolating the acros and treating them in a seperate QT tank requiring weekly dips and inspections to make sure eggs are removed to minimize repopulation events.

It's not much or even very conclusive, but that's about as good as a summary that I can put together after reading several hundred posts, articles and email reponses on the AEFW subject

 

[psteeleb]

here is a picture (using flash) of the filaments under my blue tip stag --- any ideas?

I'm thinking they may be hatchlings of those filter feeding tube worms that send out the long streamers to catch stuff

 

[psteeleb]

While doing some turkey basting (water blasting) tonight, I found that I had another prostrata infested with AEFW's. Frustrated, I pulled 75% of my acros (basically everthing not glued down ot big rocks) and dipped them in Revive. Per the directions I did not rinse and just placed them back in the tank. The skimmer started to overskim so I had to cut it back some. No big deal just thought it may be of interest to folks.

I guess my acro crab knew something was up, as he left his coral with just a little bit of coaxing. After the coral was back in the tank for about 30 minutes or so I returned him to his home.

 

[psteeleb]

here is one of my prostratas that got munched on by the AEFW's it's an encrusted coral so I'll have to cut it off the boulder it's attached to and treat it this weekend. This is the same prostrata I have some pictures of earlier in this thread (the bottom is worse)

Before AEFW's

After AEFW's

 

[melev]

I'm really surprised to see you've found any on that coral. Millis normally are not affected at all. I'll have to check mine just to see for sure, but you're absolutely right (on the polyp recession) that something isn't right.

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12355877#post12355877 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
I'm really surprised to see you've found any on that coral. Millis normally are not affected at all. I'll have to check mine just to see for sure, but you're absolutely right (on the polyp recession) that something isn't right.

I noticed the bite marks underneath this coral two nights ago and blasted it for the past couple nights. I'm sure there may be some aggravation from the water blasting, but this was taken before today’s water blasting.

The other prostrata looks worse, but it got dipped and blasted. I could not see the coral as I blasted it so I had my wife watch, she indicated that about 5 AEFWs came off and were immediately consumed by the anthias

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12355877#post12355877 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
I'm really surprised to see you've found any on that coral. Millis normally are not affected at all...

Up to about three days ago I thought the same thing

 

[psteeleb]

many acros appear to remain unaffected but they will get their dips this weekend

these all got blasted today but not treated

pink lemonaide

aquadelight

blue green tabling acro

 

[tbone28]

Pete, what are you dipping your SPS with? Revive, TMPCC, levamisole?

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12360801#post12360801 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tbone28
Pete, what are you dipping your SPS with? Revive, TMPCC, levamisole?

last night it was just a dip in Revive to try and curb any major populations there may have been on other acros'. It was more a "dip and hope things don't get worse" until I can get set up for more extreame measures. Once a I get set up and find some Fluke tabs I'll use the tabs then a Revive dip.

here is what I roughly plan to do (I'm still in the learning and information gathering stage);
1) pull the acro's & dip in fluke tabs
2) inspect / scrape off eggs
3) second dip/rinse in Revive
4) keep in a QT for a week - no treatments planned but maybe a FWE mid week
5) repeat steps 1,2 & 3
6) return to QT another week
7) if no eggs replace previous uninfected corals back in display
8) place previously infected coral and any others that had eggs back in QT for a thrird week
9) repeat 1, 2 & 3. If clean return to main, if not start over at 6

So all acros are out of tank for at least 2 weeks - I hope this is long enough to starve out any left in the tank or new hatches.
From what I'm reading and learning it sounds like the life cycle without food should end in a week.