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Originally Posted by WarDog
Hey Rich, I'm kinda confused. Can't the aefw just jump ship onto your rocks even before you start dipping the frags? Maybe I'm missing something?
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Well, that's an excellent question. There just isn't any exact scientific data on the life cycle of aefw. Most are just what hobbiest has discovered and speculated.
Imo, aefw needs to be close to the coral so they can feed frequently, I don't think they store enough energy in their body to sustain for more than a couple of days and adults will only venture out if the food is depleted or its looking for healthy corals to lay eggs on. One thing we know is that they like lay eggs close to flesh so newly hatched 1/3 of mm babies can start feeding almost instantaneously.
So my approach is to dip for 4-6 weeks on a weekly bases including the rack which the frags are mounted on. First 4 weeks to kill off any worms ( might not even be any) from juvenile stages to adults and last 2 weeks will make certain to rub out those straggler babies that might have slipped through the cracks. One thing we don't know is how the babies feed on the corals and if they infiltrate below the skin to feed until they become juveniles or do they just cruise on the skin surface. I really hope it's the latter but who knows.
Also, another important factor will be the initial collection of the Sps corals which in this case are all fresh cut. Even though they came from reputable sources, I always like to dip them in 2 different dips, one being revive and the other is iodine. Everyone has their owe preference on dipping but I found that using slightly higher dosage than recommended and turkey bast the corals while in the dip show far more effectiveness than if you just let it sit. Of course observe for eggs and if you find any eggs just toss that coral. Don't ever try to save it unless you are planing to quarantine. It's just not worth the risk even if it's an expensive frag.
Anyways, back to your question, yes, they are free to move around but I am pretty confident with what was described above I should be 99% pest free if I follow the program. Hopefully it made sense to you.