STN and Acro eating flatworms...how do they look ??

[vapor1]

This may seem like a weird question, but here goes anyway.

How can you tell which of these 2 are affecting your acros ? Do the 2 different conditions "look" any different in how the tissue recession progresses ? I've looked at my Acro's and can't "see " any Acro eating flatworms...but I'm not counting them out.

I have a tank that has been set up for 2 years that my acros were doing fine in. Now, each day the tissue on certain acros seems to recede...VERY slowly. It took almost 3-4 weeks to lose a small acro colony. I've had 1 Frag RTN , and I saw it die completely in about 3 hrs.I know STN is slow...but how slow is slow ??

I originally had 4 acros spread around the tank start to recede.I got several frags from these colonies.They were starting to encrust on their frag mounts.Now today, one of the frags has started the tissue recession.About 1/4 inch of the newly encrusted tissue is gone.

I also notice that one of my saved frags has no tissue left on 1 side of the frag.I can't see any flatworms, or eggs.But from the pics I have seen on here they are extremely small, so I may just not be seeing them.

The STN only seems to be effecting my Acro's. Everything else is doing fine: Monti's , LPS , softies ,clams and fish.



I am asking for some pics of the 2 so I can hopefully see the difference.If my problem is AEFW's then I have something I do NOT want to transfer to someone else's tank . I am thinking of moving my remaining healthy acros to other local reefers tanks untill I'm sure I have this problem kicked....BUT, I don't want to be responsible for infecting our local group with something that will kill their tanks too.

I am hopeing its just STN, but I'm afraid to make that call when other reefers tanks may be involved.

Any one have a way to tell the difference ?

 

[Dan Fagan]

Look closely. Flstworm damage can look like small bare spots among the inner base. (There are good pics here on R/C.) Also try shaking an affected colony in the water or blast with a power head to blow them off. F/W's tend to blow off that way. If you dont see them come off, you dont see the eggs (also good pics of theose here on R/C) and you dont see small bare "spots", you MAY not have them.

If you even suspect F/W's dont remove your stuff to a known healthy tank. I would isolate the infected ones in a treatment tank.