Anyway, yes, somewhat of a good idea, if not perfectly executed, to warn other members. Sorry if I came across as an ass but basically I'm pretty much an ass.
The seller has contacted me and stated that the frags are no longer for sale and he did not know about the worms. Ok..

But my comments stand. All frags can and likely are infected with something, and should all be treated. If your dip doesn't kill flatworms, and you don't have a microscope, well, you're probably screwed.

shipping??

Mike has a valid point. This is just a fair warning.

It sounds commercial...lol How much for a frag? $150?

Did I just read earlier that RPS is not safe to use. I have a bottle, but haven't tried it yet. Don't want to kill any corals, if that is what it does??

All depends if he's selling by aefw count lol

Group buy???Rich you can receive :mrgreen:

I've got a bottle at home and a bunch of frags. I'll test it this week and see what happens.

Nah, its fine Walter, I have personally used it on even the most sensitive sps frags without any problems. Follow directions though...don't leave it in there for too long.

im sory this is such a newbie question what does AEFW stand for ?

Acro eating flatworm



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

0____0

AEFW don't just lay eggs on the base/dead skeletal tissue of the corals. Occasionally, you can find egg clusters on fleshy/branching tissue as long as it is well away from a polyp. I've confirmed this with a magnifying glass. Now what are my options?

I find it difficult to comprehend that I am of the 1% 'sorry for your bad luck' bracket of experienced reefers (three times over, notwithstanding). But here's the deal, I get to talk to dealers all the time and their sentiments and experiences echo mine.

A dip and clip is not a 99-100% surefire means of preventing AEFW. You know what is? NOT PUTTING THE FRAG IN YOUR SYSTEM.

x 10,000

In any case, let's play devil's advocate for a moment here:

Let's say someone bought the frag unknowingly, but lending their trust to the seller. What if they simply assumed, given the value and visible condition of the frags, that the seller had clean corals.

Buyer: Canreef, help, my acros are dying. I found these little clear dudes on it. They look like this [pic]. What do I do?

Canreef: Those are AEFW's. They will eat your acros.

Buyer: Oh noes! How do I get rid of thems?

Canreef: You're F---'d. Tough love son. Your fault for not dipping, noob.

Seems legit.

OK, thanks, good to know.

This AEFW talk has me more thng a little spooked. It took me a long time to get my tank to a condition that I can now finally grow SPS. Sure would hate to have all that ruined. I haven't QT'd my new corals yet (just dipped), but maybe I need to start.

Frags
 

I would be pretty ****ed if I bought 2 frags for 250$ and not only did they die, but the aefw spread and kill the rest of my acros too. But I learned my lesson the hard way About adding corals and not dipping. 5 weeks of constant dipping washing and pulling my hair out made me never stick a coral in my tank again without treating or dipping first. Sometimes it's good to get a warning.

Hey, let's bring it down a notch. I'm not trying to pick a fight or **** you off, nor was I trying to be offensive.

Sorry I was mistaken, I read LFS and brain went to JL for some reason. My bad. From reading it sounded as though you or a couple people ended up getting AEFW; if you did, I'm sorry and I feel for you. It sucks. If you didn't, my misunderstanding - it seemed like you had. I didn't say you were craving drama or attention.

After reading through the whole thread and seeing people get up in arms when Brad says "take responsibility for your own stuff" I thought it was getting kind of silly. I think I was responding more to:

"So selling dirty corals is ok on this forum? By your comments here and on other warning on the another thread that makes it seem like you don't find any immoral issues here. Correct me if I'm wrong but that's what you come off ass. Oopps I mean "as"."

No one here was implying that. Brad, myself and others said the same thing, maybe too bluntly: ultimately you're responsible for your tank, and no, no one is supporting selling "dirty" frags.

I really do appreciate you posting a warning about a guy selling infected frags, especially if the guy was doing it maliciously. From what I was seeing it didn't necessarily seem like he was and it felt like the reaction was a bit over blown. That's why I said something. The other member was being publicly strung out like a leper. If he was being malicious, great burn him at the stake. Or, as Brad said, a simple note to the mods could have just as well been an effective first step to getting rid of that problem.

JL gets colonies in shipments that have AEFW and they try to deal with it the best they can (typically they just toss the colony), however, you can't catch them all. We don't go and cause a huge kerfuffle if one of their colonies has AEFW, right?

Far too often around here many threads just turn into ****ing matches and catfights. Does that really bring up the quality of this forum? My point was more to the point that people need to temper their responses. While your intentions were good, I saw this ending up as people all up in a tizzy and bitter because of the way it was being handled. It's the kind of stuff that drives membership away. People being publicly crucified for having a pest, accusations of having no morals and supporting selling of "dirty" frags... There are more constructive ways of dealing with problems than that. We can be better than that around here.

I'm sorry if you understood it as me point a finger at you or chastising you. It wasn't meant as such and I apologize if it came across that way. Like I said, I'm not involved in the issue, I don't know all the facts, I'm not taking any sides. Just like you, I believe in what I think is right. While I appreciate your good intentions, I didn't believe the responses I was seeing were the most appropriate.

anyone here ever try bio-pellets?

i'm on the fence as i've heard both good and bad about them.

Why you gotta faux-diffuse the situation? The lances were drawn and horses armored...

Like I said, this was just a friendly warning to members here. Take it for what it is.

Thank you! :)



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

I like Captain Crunch....

What???... Nobody else likes Captain Crunch?

Off of carbs, sorry.

Will adding a Protein Skimmer to my system reduce the risk of getting these AEFW?

This thread has me terrified..

Skimmer takes off dissolved organics. FW is undissolved organics. So no :razz:

Thank you to all
 

I've only begun my tank and have only purchased 5 frags so far. I have to admit I have not dipped any of them before adding them to my tank. After reading this entire thread, I will be dipping all frags going I into my tank! So a big thanks to OP (mike?) for posting and everyone else who chimed in... Even Tang Daddy for bringing up dirty grandmas. The warning has been noted! Now where can I get a good coral dip for a Softies and LPS tank?

You can buy Revive at Jl. I am glad this thread has educated some people about dipping corals before adding to their tank.

Thanks for the warning!
I admit seeing threads like this could get annoying but I rather see one like this once a while then have my corals destroyed.

Thanks again!

Red bugs is one thing Brad (easily removed with a safe in tank treatment, also redbugs rarely if ever has been responsible for the loss of an acro). AEFW is a whole other ball game.

Also any seller who knows he has either pest should at the very least inform the potential buyers. Otherwise you arent being honest. JMO

Oh, absolutely. I didn't mean to imply otherwise, and if we see that, the poster is gone. My point is only that one should assume that all frags are infected and treat, inspect and deal with accordingly. If I get a frag that has AEFW and I can't remove them, it goes in the garbage. I'm lucky that I have a scope and can check, but I think you can probably see them with a magnifying glass. Just saying always check.

I agree Brad, you can't assume that everyone is honest or even that everyone with a pest even knows that they have it.

It just seemed like the attitude was a shady seller was getting a pass and all the emphasis put on the buyer. The buyer needs to be diligent for sure but we should also encourage good honest selling IMO.

It's been mentioned before, but I'd love to see a sticky in the corals section about dipping, precautions and inspection of corals. When you're inspecting your corals what are you looking for and where? How strong of magnification is your scope to see these things? What dips are good for SPS, LPS, soft corals? There's a good learning opportunity here for a lot of us.
From personal experience, I've often blindly dipped my stuff in Coral R/x looked at the coral with my naked eye not really knowing what I should be looking for. I've somehow introduced flatworms in my system despite my efforts (which obviously haven't been educated enough).

I did speak to the seller, who said he did not know, and that he felt really bad and withdrew the items for sale. Without knowing otherwise, we have to assume that's reasonably true, and it just bothers me to see a post attacking someone when we don't have all the facts. No mention of whether anyone that bought frags contacted him for a refund or resolution, outcome of that contact if it happened, etc. It was just a lynch mob post, and I think the seller has to be assumed innocent until proven otherwise. I've bought frags from several top members here that had pests of some sort, and imagine if I posted something like this as a first response. It would ruin the reputation of the member, it would cause a thread much like this and at the end of the day, nothing good would have come from it. I would have also lost friends in the process.
If situations like this occur, it's best to contact the staff to discuss, and if we see it as a benefit to the board, we'll contact the seller and post a PSA if needed. Assembling a mob and fetching a rope is not the best approach to this type of issue :)

If we can find someone (Mindy) to write an article on this, we'll certainly post her (Mindy) article as a sticky.

So diplomatic Brad..hah Again I agree. I was speaking in generalities and not about this specific seller. I was just reading the post and forgot it was about one seller in particular.

Kudos to anyone who admits they have a pest and puts a stop to selling.

Also fair to point out like Brad mentioned not all accusations are going to be correct so we can't assume someone is guilty.

This is exactly how I felt after seeing another fellow members warning post on the sellers thread but was replied with same type of response from Brad. So this thread was made as I didn't feel confident anything was going to be done. If you guys feel like this is a lynch fest than so be it. I do apologize to members that I've offended in this thread but I still stand by my warning.

What it comes down to is whether or not the seller knew his frags had AEFW when he was still posting them for sale on canreef. Was this after he went to the LFS? If so, then indeed he is getting a free pass.

It would be helpful (especially to the seller) if he could explain to us what happened and when. Mistakes do happen, but if not explained, people will assume the worst, you can bet on that.

I don't think you've offended anyone, and perhaps I could have stated my point in a better way. It is, of course, always our goal to help each other out, I'd just prefer to ramp up slowly to public blast. :)

Who thinks they can do a better job than Brad??? I don't see anyone raising their hand... What a god awful position to be in.. Sheriff, mediator, judge and jury, giver of hugs when someones feeling have been hurt. He did ban me once so hey gotta give him credit for that!! Lock this redundant collection of opinions and lets move on...

volunteers?? Anyone?? :razz:

From what I've been told it was before he posted on Canreef. And for sure we would like hear from the seller as he made no attempt to clear his name on this thread or his when warned about his frags had aefw.



Agreed! Thanks Brad :mrgreen:

Brad, you are Canreef's Judge Dredd. Just joking. Brad you are one of te most level headed, and respected person I know in this hobby therefore I would nominate you. :smile: