turkey blasting sps for aefw

[jjoos99]

I have recently found aefw in my tank. Many of them are well encrusted to remove for dipping. I have been doing a ton of reading and seems as if a aefw doesnt eat for about 10 days or so they will start to die. My thinking is if I keep the corals blasted off, the worms would die for lack of food. Seems as if you might be able to break the life cycle of these pests that way. My question is can you blast them off too much that it would be harmful to the coral? Thanks for your thoughts
Jeff

 

[plyle02]

I would lean more on control AEFW with this method, and assuming your fish take a liking to them, you can most certainly reduce the population. You have to be diligent, look for the acros releasing filamentous strands from the coral, indicating they are irritated. IME, millis were usually the ones that I would go to first, tri colors as well. I trained my fish to take them as food by basting, then using the baster to suck in the AEFW released in the water column. I would then suck them into the baster, and transfer the AEFW into a cup or jar with tap water, they die almost immediately. I would then use tweezers to pick them out of the jar of tap water, then feed the dead AEFW back into the tank. Surprisingly, the fish would eat them. Do so for a couple of weeks, training them to eat the worm. Soon you will not have to go through the process of picking them out, killing them, then using them for food, the fish see the baster, they know it is feeding time Best of luck, with diligence, in my humble opinion, this far out weighs bringing a tank down and forcing a restart.

 

[jjoos99]

I like the idea of blasting. A friend said he didnt think you would ever get rid of aefw with out taking out the corals dipping them and leaving the tank bare for a couple of months. I just have to wonder if the blasting will harm the coral? I guess it couldnt be much harder then dipping them in harsh chemicals. I read a thread where one guy blasted for about a year and said he was free of worms. I have been blasting and sucking them up into a bucket. Sounds like a good idea to train the fish towards the turkey blaster. I had one of my black clowns gobble one up the other day after I blasted one of the corals.
thanks
jeff

 

[Smoke_N_Reefer]

I wonder if fresh RODI would make the flatworms detach any better?

 

[jjoos99]

They actually come off pretty easily. what upsets me the most is the number of corals I lost and are damaged because I didnt figure out I had pests instead of water issues.
Jeff

 

[Tweaked]

Blasting is as we say, "living with them" and not for me. The only way to eradicate the vile bastards is to remove and dip in bayer or the likes every six days for about two months. Have water baths ready to clean the corals after the dipping and place back in the tank awaiting the next dip. You will see the worms getting smaller and smaller until you break the cycle. The large ones are the egg layers. Good luck, I had over 50 colonies and it was allot of work but worth it just to see them die every week :uzi::uzi::uzi:. Almost two years later and bug free!

 

[jjoos99]

Blasting is as we say, "living with them" and not for me. The only way to eradicate the vile bastards is to remove and dip in bayer or the likes every six days for about two months. Have water baths ready to clean the corals after the dipping and place back in the tank awaiting the next dip. You will see the worms getting smaller and smaller until you break the cycle. The large ones are the egg layers. Good luck, I had over 50 colonies and it was allot of work but worth it just to see them die every week :uzi::uzi::uzi:. Almost two years later and bug free!

did you remove your rock that the corals were on and dip the whole rock or break off the corals and keeping them in a separate tank to eliminate the food source for the worms in your display tank? I was told the only thing they didnt like about the bayer treatment was not being able to see what is coming off the worms.
tks
Jeff

 

[Tweaked]

did you remove your rock that the corals were on and dip the whole rock or break off the corals and keeping them in a separate tank to eliminate the food source for the worms in your display tank? I was told the only thing they didnt like about the bayer treatment was not being able to see what is coming off the worms.
tks
Jeff

I did have some so encrusted I had to keep on the rock and dip away. You can use the bayer with germicide which I did a few times and worked exactly the same. Only difference is, it mixes completely clear! Also I did double strength from the recommended and left in for about 8 minutes on average with a small power head in the dipping bucket to get things moving. I dipped a large hawkins colony each week and did not loose it either.

 

[Reef Bass]

Tweaked is correct. IMHO and E, you will never get rid of them all by basting. I had a nasty whole tank AEFW infection. Imagine dipping a volley ball size colony and seeing over 300 AEFW at the bottom of the bucket. I got rid of all of them with weekly dips of all sticks for over 6 weeks. I had to mix up dip in 2 and 5 gallon buckets to dip larger colonies on rocks. It sucked but IMHO was way better than living with them eating my corals. Plus I felt I couldn't share frags knowing AEFW were in my tank. I have been AEFW free for years now.

I used Melafix Marine for a dip which doesn't have the turbidity issue that Bayer does.

Good luck.

 

[jjoos99]

Tweaked is correct. IMHO and E, you will never get rid of them all by basting. I had a nasty whole tank AEFW infection. Imagine dipping a volley ball size colony and seeing over 300 AEFW at the bottom of the bucket. I got rid of all of them with weekly dips of all sticks for over 6 weeks. I had to mix up dip in 2 and 5 gallon buckets to dip larger colonies on rocks. It sucked but IMHO was way better than living with them eating my corals. Plus I felt I couldn't share frags knowing AEFW were in my tank. I have been AEFW free for years now.

I used Melafix Marine for a dip which doesn't have the turbidity issue that Bayer does.

Good luck.

so would you dip the entire rock the coral was mounted and encrusted on? After the dip do you rinse in clean salt water to try and get all the dip from getting back in the display tank? I have heard good things about coral rx also.
tks

 

[Reef Bass]

Yes, dip the entire encrusted rock. Yes, rinse in another bucket of tank water before returning to tank. You will also likely find dislodged AEFW in the rinse bucket for the first few weeks of dipping.

Not sure about how stressful Coral Rx is to coral with repeated dipping. The active ingredients in dips differ in how stressful they are. While a healthy coral will likely survive a single dip in a high stress dip, dip many times and the coral is likely to bum. Bayer is the least stressful dip I've used. Marine Melafix is slightly stressful. I find iodine based dips can be fairly stressful. They have their place for dipping for pests and disinfecting after fragging or being stung, but I avoid them for multiple dips.

 

[jjoos99]

So even though the marine melafix is for fish it also works on coral pests? It does sound as if it is less stressful for a coral. I guess if the worms release during the dip it does the trick. Once in the bucket it wouldnt matter if they die since freshwater will do the trick.
thanks
Jeff

 

[Reef Bass]

I've always used Melafix as a coral dip, but the label does offer other uses.

Yes, as far as the coral is concerned, it doesn't matter if the AEFW are killed dead instantly or just release their hold on the coral, as long as they are dislodged from the coral.

And no dip to my knowledge kills their eggs (without killing the coral too).

 

[jjoos99]

so far I have been hitting each coral with the turkey baster. I only saw 2 worms come off one coral tonight. My corals are not liking being blasted. They are very slow to extend back out. I am beginning to think it will be less stressful to just start dipping. Just have to get over the idea of almost tearing the tank down to do it. Probably better off in the long run.
Jeff

 

[plyle02]

Only "Full Proof" way of eradicating with possibility of saying "I am free" is to completely remove all acros from the tank and hold in quarantine. In order to do so, you would need to have another tank setup that could house these acros. The most successful way of removal would be to cut at each of their bases, this would isolate the coral only for dipping and removal. The acro bases in the tank would need to be destroyed, therefore no living acropora tissue in the tank. I would recommend 90 days, IMO their is no certainty to egg lifespan, however, I am confident that this would be generously enough time in quarantine. Before the corals go into quarantine, they would need to be dipped, having plenty of fresh saltwater in buckets would be advised. Once in quarantine, observation and regular dipping is advised. After 90 days, dip all the acros before making their way back into the display. The tricky part is, that this is a heck of a lot of change, which acros are sensitive to, so there could be collateral damage along the way. This is why I prefer to by fresh cut frags, they are easier to dip and tend to not have the flatworms, even if the tank the frags are coming from have them. There is however no guarantee.

Or you can simply live with these worms and have predatory type fish that eat them, acropora crabs which usually don't allow for them, and simply baste as you see the corals releasing film when all others are not. It is like the slime that comes off them when they feed, or have been taken out of the water, then put back in. Basically a defense system to protect themselves, however, if they are releasing it, when all others are not, then something is irritating it. These are the corals I would baste. If you excessively baste a given spot, over, and over, yes you might upset it, possibly damage the tissue. I assure you however, this is not going to kill it, as in the wild, waves crash on them, they are even exposed during low tide, baking in the sun for hours, until the tide comes up again. You can do the basting method and have beautiful glowing corals, in fact the healthier the coral is, the less they seem bothered by the little buggers. Don't be under any false belief that AEFW don't get blown off with powerheads and displaced in other areas of the tank, like on the liverock, sandbed, glass, overflow, etc... I discovered I had them by seeing one on the glass of my tank during dark hours, not by finding them on a coral. So again, there is not a guarantee unless you quarantine, or live with them. Sorry for the lengthy reply, but wanted to weigh in on my experience. Best of luck, keep updating the thread to share with us what you do, and how your experience goes...
Regards,

 

[jjoos99]

thanks for the lengthy reply. A fellow club member said he has done several tanks similar to the way you mentioned. He actually took the rocks out and torched the rock the coral was cut off of. I have a fairly large sump in a room behind my display that he thought that I could keep the corals in there so I wouldnt have to deal with a second system. I could move my lighting over the sump. Most likely will go that route once I gather everything together.
Jeff

 

[plyle02]

I would think this would work, I would personally use a sock that might trap an incidental AEFW on the return. It is still not 100% though, the isolation of another tank is the only full proof way, but this will likely work. How bad is your infestation, do you have any pics of your corals? Also, how many acropora are present within the display? Just trying to have a gauge on your AEFW concern. Should you use your sump, I would recommend cutting the corals from their mounts on the rock, they will likely try and seek refuge in the porous parts of the rock the corals are mounted on, this could happen even through a dip. I do think that this will work though, and as far as adjusting to different parameters, they will be in the same water, this is a good thing

 

[jjoos99]

It really pains me to cut off some of my higher end corals that have encrusted well. Has anyone had any luck dipping the coral and some of the surrounding rock. I realize it would still be possible the worms would be on in the rock and survive but with multiple dips maybe this might work.
When I first discovered the worms I was able to blow off 6 or 8 adult worms off each coral that was effected. I blasted the corals yesterday and only saw 2 come off total. The color has been slowly coming back to the worst corals but not much p/e yet. The worst effected was my red planet and ssc.
thanks
Jeff

 

[Tweaked]

As stated before, the Bayer dipping for 6-7 weeks works as long as you are doing the dips. I did double strength dips every six days. And yes rock and all for some of the encrusted pieces. Have bath stations ready for rinsing thoroughly before returning the pieces to your tank. This part is key!

You must eradicate the little bastards.

 

[Mark426]

Listen to Tweaked!