Aefw Grrrrrr

[servo]

Well, I've discovered that my tank is infected with AEFW. Bummer. I have been so careful, but I guess not careful enough. Not a single coral in my system came from a store online or other. All of my corals started as frags or came out of established systems that were set up for years and problem free. Now I wish I would have given everything a long dip (bath).

Well, I am going to treat with Fluke tabs instead of Betadine, or TMPCC (Tropic Marine Pro Coral Cure). Fluke tabs stun the AEFW. I will then use a turkey baster to blow off the AEFW's on the coral. I am going to do this in a treatment bucket and then transfer the corals into a quarentine tank.

The treatment is 4 pills (Fluke Tabs http://www.melevsreef.com/aefw.html) in 5g of saltwater for a 20 minute dip. Afterwards, I will transfer the corals into a bucket of SW and blow them off again prior to placing them into the QT tank.

Wish me luck and the good will of Neptune!

 

[Damsel13]

Don't know what AEFW is but I am guessing it is some kind of varmit that eats acropora coral.

Sorry to hear. Happy hunting and best of luck.

 

[servo]

Sorry, I should have elaborated, but AEFW-Acropora eating flatworms. These are not like the red planaria that split by fusion and are just nucience worms in your tank. These latch onto the epidermis (the overlying superficial surface of the coral) and suck the zooxanthellae out of the coral slowly killing it. They will lay clutches of eggs on the coral and can wipe out a tank with Acropora.

 

[servo]

Over the past 2 years, I have read alot about these devils on RC. The unfortunate thing is that it is all antecdote. Well antecdotal or not, I used 2 tabs of the fluke tabs in 2.5 gallons of water and these things went flying everywhere. I've placed them into a QT tank and we will see what happens. I'm going to be busy dipping and dipping and dipping. I have a coral that has encrusted completely after starting from a small frag. I'm going to have to use a wire saw or something to get it out of the tank.

 

[Damsel13]

Huge bummer.

Thanks for explaining more. Yuck!!!!!
How did this get out of hand? It sounds like you have lots of work to save your coral. Sounds like the eggs are worse than the flatworms almost.

I hope you can hang in there and get rid of these pests!!!!!

 

[SueT]

OMG Ryan, I am so sorry to read this. I'd help you if I could. I dealt with these things back a long time ago. You know I will have my fingers crossed for you and the hope that the flatworms will go to where they should be. Best wishes..

 

[servo]

Thanks guys. I have a tort colony whose branches are thicker than my thumb and is about 14 inches tall. Unfortunately, when I get home from work, I'm going to pull it out and dip it. The good thing is the fluke tabs knock the AEFW senseless. They fall right off. Serial baths could get me out of this. The only problem is taking out the corals that are encrusted to the rock. Each piece of rock in my tank is at least a 40 pounder.

 

[kevinpo]

Ryan,
I wish you the best in dealing with these pests!

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Maxx]

Ryan,

Good luck with this....
I know they suck...I lost all my acros a while back trying to treat w/ Prazipro....

Let us know how it goes....

Are you going to leave your main tank free of acros for awhile?

Nick

 

[servo]

Thanks for the support guys. I still can't believe that "this has happened to me", as I was so cautious.

Well, my biggest hurdle is actually finding room. I have a 400 gallon tank and IMO it was "packed". There are a few really large corals, but most are small colonies/frags. Never the less, I set up a 40 gallon as a QT tank and threw a bunch of T5's over it. I still have a few corals in my tank. The first problem I have is finding room in the 40 gallon as it is full. I still have a few corals in my tank that I'm not sure if they are affected. I spent about an hour using a wire saw to get through one coral base. I dread repeating this mundane task. In a perfect world, I would pull everything out and QT it. I am going to try to pull out the rest of the corals and dip them. I'll tell you, the Fluke Tabs do a great job of stunning them. It seems very gentle on the corals. We'll see what happens!

 

[ronj]

i would like to know more about these acro eaters......the only dip that i do is an Interceptor dip ( for red bugs)...you have got me worried now.....would i be able to see these flatworms on my acros?????

 

[kevinpo]

Ron,
Here is one of the best sites that has pictures and descriptions of both the worms and their eggs. Also some courses of action.
http://www.melevsreef.com/aefw.html

Regards,
Kevin

 

[SueT]

Ron, besides that great site Kevin linked, yes, you would be able to see them. They are easy to see once you know what you're looking for. Plus the shape of the coral will be a give away.

 

[servo]

I will add that if they are large enough you can see them, but if they are hitching as a Juvenile, you will never see them. They can be smaller than the dot on the i, furthermore, they are masters of camoflage. They have a rasping mouth that attaches strongly to the epidermis of the coral. THey feed off of the zooxanthellae and will mimic the color of the coral. If they move away from a previous spot you will be able to easily see "bite marks". These marks are oval depigmented regions usually on the undersurface of the coral. They seem to love Milliporas, validas, nanas and efflos preferentially to other acropora. My friend has observed that the juvenile form has a flagellated mobile form that can swim. He witnessed this under a high power microscope. Scary stuff.

The life cycle isn't well understood, but hobbiests have reported the gestation period for the eggs to hatch is 2 weeks. Don't know how long it takes to starve these things out personally? I would recommend that all new acropora should dipped in Fluke tabs in addition to Interceptor. Other treatments recommended are Levamisole at 60ppm, Tropic Marine's Procoral Cure (TMPCC), Lugols iodine and betadine. These agents have been known to kill the coral and seem to cause problems with the coloration. TMPCC seems to be the best option out of these and maybe Levamisole.

 

[servo]

Well here are some pictures. To give you an idea, this is a coral that was most affected. Here is a macro shot to give you an idea about what it looked like prior to the infection, to the peak and the first dip. Look closely in the bucket and you can see the dead worms lying on the bottom of the bucket. Hee he he eh he:badgrin:

Things are going well for me as of now! Still no losses. I'm going to start the second round of dipping this Sunday.

 

[servo]

Here they are, post dip sitting on one of the QT tanks.

 

[Maxx]

By dipping you're referring to fluke tabs? Is that all you're doing is using the fluke tabs and rinsing off the stunned flatworms? Are you doing anything else? How many dips do you think you'll need to do? What kind of fluke tabs are you using, and where are you getting them from?

Could you post a pic of the container the tabs came in?

Nick

 

[SueT]

die evil flatworms. I sure do wish continued good outcomes with the dipping. What a gorgeous piece, I hope it returns to it's glory.

 

[servo]

A picture of the Fluke Tabs can be found on Marc's site http://www.melevsreef.com/aefw.html

So I did a BIG bonehead move yesterday and dumped some concentrated Kalkwasser into the tank. This nuked a Large colony. I am getting a domino effect on all the other corals that were in the tank.

We'll see what happens. I've been chisling off the other corals to get everything out of the main display tank. I think I need to recruit some assistance:doubt: Gaud, I don't want to have to start all over.

 

[kevinpo]

Ouch! That hurts

Kevin