Treating acro eating flatworms?

[J-Ranko]

I just discovered my two tort frags (ice tort and oregon tort) are infested with acro eating flatworms. Over the last few weeks I observed the following things on them:

1. General loss of color and no polyp extension
2. No growth, and light "patches" on the coral body
3. Fish picking out stuff on the frags (I thought pods at first)

Then a couple of days ago I took a closer look at my blue tort and noticed STN. And when I took it out today and turned it over, I saw this:

Look at all those eggs!

The thing is, I only noticed this deterioration of health on my tort frags. My other acros are doing fine by my observation: rapid growth, good polyp extension, good color, no sign of eggs, STN, or bite marks.

Should I treat ALL my acropora with a medical dip or would that unnecessarily stress them?

 

[trido]

I lived with AEFW's for over a year and a half before finally beating them. My best advice to you would be to toss those infected frags and treat the rest of your acro's in a melafix dip to be safe.

Over the course of a year I tried to save some of my favorite most infected corals and the aefw's kept coming back. I finally made the decision to toss out all of the worst corals only saving very healthy frags of them and that was when I finally beat the aefw's. The frag in the pic is not going to make it and is too small to save. Do yourself the favor now and toss it.
I found the AEFW's tend to favor certain corals and they hit my millepora's the hardest. Ive found them on the front glass in my tank and in varoius other places shortly after a dipping treatment. Keep a close eye on all your corals for a while even after you think they're gone. Good luck

 

[Herefishyfishy]

As a rule, Duane is right. Be that as it may, I have saved 1/4" pieces of favorites before but it is quite rare and typically when you have a second tank. If you have a separate frag system or coral supporting tank, cut off the best part and let heal in a part of tank away from obvious infection before dipping it. If it lives and heals, dip it and move it to the frag tank. Each Acro will need to be treated individually. Some have found certain wrasses helpfull.