What does AEFW damage look like?

[asylumdown]

Ok, I'll pm him. I've now dipped the 4 closest Acro colonies to the one that was infested and nothing happened, no flatworms came off anything except the first piece that made me thing I might have it. Is there a possibility that it was just this one coral?

[aqua80]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Is there a possibility that it was just this one coral?

no...

there are 2 options for you :

- live with them
- eradicate them (ie removing all acros and dipping for 6-8 weeks)

[ckmullin]

I've sucessfully treated FW tanks with Fenbendazole to kill flatworms. I'd be curious if It's used for SW tanks as well.

[Rice Reef]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Ok, I'll pm him. I've now dipped the 4 closest Acro colonies to the one that was infested and nothing happened, no flatworms came off anything except the first piece that made me thing I might have it. Is there a possibility that it was just this one coral?

Received your pm. Feel free to call me tonight and I can share with you of my experience. Dipping the neighbouring colonies may not solve your problem and it is encouraged to remove all your acros and keep them in another tank. You will need to starve the AEFW in your main tank while dipping and monitoring all your acros in the other tank. Starving out the AEFW will take at least 8 weeks and for assurance do so for 12 weeks. This is probably the better method somit does not stress your fish and other corals and critters. As for the existing acros cut them off any existing plugs and bases and discard them ( plugs and bases). For any encrusted parts cover the areas with kalk paste. Continue to monitor them for dulling of the colours and loss of PE. And if need to dip again. Flatworm exit does not work for AEFW and nothing is really proven on the market that will destroy the eggs ( or prevent them from hatching) however RPS all out is said to be able to take care of this. There is a thread on RC and the individual there is sharing of his experience with the product.

AEFW is serious and can cost dearly... I have just recently threw out 10 plus pounds of corals and will have to start from scratch again. Good luck and hope you will not get discouraged.

[Myka]

Sorry to hear about your AEFW infection. That's the worst.

You can usually battle them by only dipping the Acros. You will find that AEFW have "favourite" coral and if you monitor those ones you should be able to tell if you're winning or losing.

[asylumdown]

I'm going to invest in a few more bottles of flatworm exit to make super concentrated dips. How many times a week do I need to dip my corals to make sure that any eggs that I miss hatch, but are killed before they get old enough to lay their own eggs?

[aqua80]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I'm going to invest in a few more bottles of flatworm exit to make super concentrated dips. How many times a week do I need to dip my corals to make sure that any eggs that I miss hatch, but are killed before they get old enough to lay their own eggs?

flatworm exit don't work with aefw...
Rps all-out works well with the adults (as revive and coralrx) and maybe eggs, but that's not proven for now and if you dip many colonies you have to put them in QT tank...
Do as Rice Reef said to eradicate them... dipping 1x a week for 8 weeks is what I would do... keeping all acros out of the main tank...

Or have a couple of wrasse and blast your corals every once in while to live with them (what I am doing)

[asylumdown]

Flatworm exit certainly worked on my AEFW, but I was using a concentration of over 30 times the recommended dose. At that dose it also killed all the pods, bristle worms, and acropora crabs on my corals as well. In fact, the acropora crab's legs started falling off before they died, so I'm wondering if it somehow affects their connective tissue? The worms that were on the visibly damaged piece started curling up and dying the instant they went in the water with the flatworm exit. They fell off after about a minute, but again, we're talking concentrations several orders of magnitude higher than the bottle recommends. I would never put that high a dose in my display, as it would likely wipe it out.

I'm following the thread on Reef Central about RPS all out. I'm going to buy some, and hopefully the guy who's posting close up pictures of the eggs will report that they've all been killed by this treatment. QTing all 43 colonies of my acroporids for 8 weeks in a way that guarantees none of them die to to system instability or poor water quality will require nothing short of a second, fully established reef system with all the lights, flow and dosing equipment I have on my big tank. That's not a cost I'm capable of outlaying ATM, and after my experience with losing every single fish because of a QT system failure, I have little interest in courses of treatment that end up being worse than the disease. Whatever chemicals I use, the protocol will have to be dipping, then returning to the display.

[aqua80]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I'm following the thread on Reef Central about RPS all out. I'm going to buy some, and hopefully the guy who's posting close up pictures of the eggs will report that they've all been killed by this treatment..

hehe that guy is me
for now after 8 days eggs seems intact... we'll see if they hatch...

I lost a couple of frags from the initial attack but after that everything is doing great, even if I do see some bite marks here and there and some adults when blasting....

In fact I believe there's many more AEFW tanks out there that people just don't know they have it... If you don't do QT on every coral you get you will have them someday (or you already have them...)
I dip every coral I put in my tank with coral rx and revive, removing the original plug etc... and still got them...

my tank is not doing so bad with them for the last 8 months (at least) :



melanurus wrasse, yellow wrasse and sixline are my friends...

but ReefBum is (was) the best looking tank with AEFW for sure :

[kien]

Originally Posted by aqua80

Or have a couple of wrasse and blast your corals every once in while to live with them (what I am doing)

With all the AEFW talk recently I did my fair share of googling and did find quite a few nice sps reefs that employ this methodology. They simply accept the fact that the worms are there and keep their population down so that they do not reach plague proportions and over run the colony. This appears to have worked for quite a few people. I myself would probably lean towards this. Once you have them you will probably have them FOREVER unless you throw away your entire stock or treat your entire stock all at once for weeks.