AEFW experiments and study

[tektite]

Hi everyone!

Dr. Rawlinson and I have been planning some more involved projects for learning more about the AEFW. She will be coming to my house with equipment in order to do some experiments with me. I am also setting up a dedicated system for the AEFW to keep a good population of AEFW around for experiments.

 

[Battlecorals]

This is outstanding! So glad to see someone finally take these thing on with a purpose. I will be donating for sure and am looking forward to the data! The hobby has needed this kind of study for years now.

 

[Diesel]

This research will help this hobby big time.
Thanks Adam for your donation.
If all sponsors on here donate a little they will have the funds in no time.
I'm just a supporter who loves this hobby in so many ways, that said I donated 10% of the funds needed.
Who's next??

 

[ChristopherKriens]

I've been following this and threw a little funding your way. Keep it up

 

[trido]

After living with them for a year and a half before finally making great sacrifices to beat them I really appreciate you taking the time to share your findings.

 

[tektite]

Day 13, Experiment 1 (Nov 17th)

Compartment 1: No change, 4 AEFW remaining
Compartment 2: 2 AEFW died midday, 2 AEFW died by evening, all AEFW dead. Total of 10 egg clusters laid.
Compartment 3: 2 AEFW dead, all AEFW dead. Total of 10 egg clusters laid.
Compartment 4: All dead. Total of 1 egg cluster laid.
Compartment 5: All dead


Notes:

Only remaining AEFW are the 4 in compartment 1. They were the largest AEFW of the experiment. All look extremely bad, stark white, thin, almost motionless, half their original size.

Waterchange performed at 10am and 10pm

 

[tektite]

Day 14, Experiment 1 (Nov 18th)

Compartment 1: 3 AEFW died during the night, 1 remaining sickly one
Compartment 2: All dead. Total of 10 egg clusters laid.
Compartment 3: All dead. Total of 10 egg clusters laid.
Compartment 4: All dead. Total of 1 egg cluster laid.
Compartment 5: All dead.


Notes:

This morning only 1 AEFW remained

Waterchange performed at 10am and 10pm

 

[tektite]

Day 15, Experiment 1 (Nov 19th)

Compartment 1: All dead. Total of 16 egg clusters laid.
Compartment 2: All dead. Total of 10 egg clusters laid.
Compartment 3: All dead. Total of 10 egg clusters laid.
Compartment 4: All dead. Total of 1 egg cluster laid.
Compartment 5: All dead.


Notes:

ALL DEAD! End of experiment 1, run 1.

 

[pickupman66]

I wonder how long it takes those eggs to hatch?

 

[Reef Pets]

I wonder how long it takes those eggs to hatch?

I am curious of the same thing. Knowing how long it takes for the eggs to hatch would add a little more information to their life cycle. Any creature without food will die. Was this experiment to see how long they would live without a food source?

 

[tektite]

Yes, this experiment was just to see how long they lived with no food. I will be running some experiments soon to see how long it takes the eggs to develop and hatch.

 

[tektite]

Summary of Experiment 1, observations and results:

AEFW are nocturnal.

AEFW are capable of laying a lot of eggs, even laying them up to 9 days with no food. In the 3 compartments that had consistent egg laying (compartments 1, 2, and 3), egg laying remained fairly constant through day 7. The number of eggs per cluster decreased over that time period, but not the number of egg clusters.

As one cluster of eggs was laid in the 2-4mm compartment, AEFW may reach sexual maturity pretty quickly.

The coloration of the AEFW quickly faded from their normal mottled brown color to white, as the experiment progressed. Their size also shrunk considerably, ending at about half their original size, with a third to a quarter of their original body mass (rough visual estimate only).

As far as size vs. life expectancy, the majority of the 1-4mm size died on days 9-10, the 4-10mm on days 12-13, the 8-12mm on days 14-15. The largest ones lived about 30% longer than the smallest ones.


Conclusions that I am NOT drawing from this experiment:

AEFW will die in ~2 weeks with no food.

This was just the first run of this experiment. I want to run multiple identical experiments to compare results. I am also trying to get AEFW from other sources, to compare the results of my population to others, to find out what variation of results occurs in different populations of AEFW.


Side experiment I thought of: find out when the point of no return is. As the AEFW decline in health, is there a marked point before death that they are not able to recover even when put back on Acropora?


And because I like charts :) AEFW populations and egg-laying graphed by day:

 

[tektite]

As I desperately needed some more acros to keep a steady supply of AEFW without killing their hosts in order to continue these experiments, I bought a box of maricultured colonies. My own tiny collection of acros are about ready to die after months of predation, they desperately need a break. The new colonies are all different species. Acropora abrotanoides, caroliniana, divaricata, delsawii, formosa, millepora, hoeksemai, horrida, humilis, hyacinthus, loripes, papillare, parilis, plana, robusta, suharsonoi, tenuis, turaki, valida, and yongei. My AEFW will be in heaven! The corals look so nice it is really hard for me to deliberately infest them :(

HUGE thanks to Brian at my LFS 3rd Coast Corals for ordering them for me and driving TWICE to the airport to pick them up, due to errors on the airport's side, at 11pm and 4am! And then delivering them to me, an hour's drive away, at 5am in the morning.

 

[kuyatwo]

Maybe contact Kate Rawlinson she has been researching aefw maybe she can point you in the direction to find a source of aefw

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/acropora-eating-flatworms-discovered-in-the-wild

 

[tektite]

Maybe contact Kate Rawlinson she has been researching aefw maybe she can point you in the direction to find a source of aefw

Acropora Eating Flatworms discovered in the wild ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

See post #61 :)

 

[kuyatwo]

See post #61 :)

That is great

I read first posts by you the other day and thought I hit subscribed to see new posts but I guess I didn't

I am subscribed now

 

[Keithcorals]

I know this makes me sound lazy but I would be willing to donate if you had a paypal account I could just send the money to. It's not much but I've got $20 that's yours if you give me an easy way to send it.

Also I wish someone would do the same thing with the montipora eating nudibranch. Maybe for your next study hint hint :)

 

[180galreef]

Cat is great at what she does and we are proud to have her in our local area!

 

[Lacktaters]

I enjoyed following the "starvation experiment." Still laying eggs even after more than a week without food...very interesting! I've heard the eggs can take as long as six weeks to hatch. I'm curious to see what your findings are.

 

[tektite]

I'll soon start running a hatch time experiment, been concentrating on finishing up the separate AEFW system. Lot of equipment to get and clean, stands to build, etc. Been fun :)