AEFW - My long journey

[Diesel]

thanks a lot for the help, ill dip the setosa as well , i cant wait until this is over and back to normal days

Long journey ahead my friend.

 

[Moonlightreef]

Long journey ahead my friend.

im ready for it . I dont wanna leave the hobby [emoji106]

 

[bknapp]

Recently just started my own battle with AEFW. They've give through two Bayer dips and now they're in there own QT. Thought I was diligent when adding new corals, acros especially but apparently I wasn't diligent enough.

 

[Moonlightreef]

qick update :
yesterday was a second time i dip my corals in Bayers in one week and nothing came out : )
Looks like my flouting frag rack is working :
6 more weeks to go

 

[bknapp]

Keep fighting the good fight @Moonlightreef!

 

[Diesel]

qick update :
yesterday was a second time i dip my corals in Bayers in one week and nothing came out : )
Looks like my flouting frag rack is working :
6 more weeks to go

Great news, did you do a check on eggs?

 

[Moonlightreef]

yes sir . did check on every single one of them and did not see any , hopeful there none i miss

 

[bklynreef]

I have a baby six line wrasse in my frag tank to take care of any pests that might have gotten through the buyer dip or of the eggs started hatching if I missed them. Can't hurt.

 

[bknapp]

I have a baby six line wrasse in my frag tank to take care of any pests that might have gotten through the buyer dip or of the eggs started hatching if I missed them. Can't hurt.

You're right, can't hurt but I wouldn't rely or depend on it too much either.

 

[beadlocked450r]

I was wondering if anybody has tested these creatures in cooler water? Like low 70 or so? I would assume(which is normally the wrong thing to do) but if these things are laying eggs those eggs probally need a specific temp in order to incubat and hatch? Kinda like the chicken or scrambled eggs theroy? How cold could you drop the tank before it would harm the fish?

 

[angelsbeamer]

I am on my third week of Levamisole in tank treatment. Started with 3.3g and have increased dosage by .5 grams each treatment. Been dosing every 4 days. Have lost a few corals since finding AEFW on my ORA Tricolor and found a ton on my GARF Bonzai but with every treatment I find less and less. Will do another treatment tomorrow then go to once a week. I have a 415g tank with large colonies and frags all over so taking out and dipping is really not an option. I tried the dipping thing with my old tank and found this issue several years ago. Two water changes have been done in between treatments.

 

[TNT32D]

This was a very interesting read. Any updates?

 

[angelsbeamer]

Loss all corals unfortunately. Bad salt batch I think.

 

[ronnie]

This was a very interesting read. Any updates?

Glad to say I'm aefw free - I did lose the entire contents of the 120g, and got them again in my old 60g cube when I set a tank back up. After fighting them and losing again, I got them a third time and decided to QT everything moving forward. So I used my DT to hold since all were frags and dipped them for almost three months every six days. I didn't lose any, and am now growing acros pest free. It's worth the work, but takes dedication and willingness to set up an extra tank and run it 24/7/365 just to be able to hold coral.

Here's a full tank shot of my tank as of now. It's still got some growing to do, but I'm very happy with it.

 

[SuperDragon]

Aefw definitely eats millis
Remove Acro crabs before dipping(dip will kill them right away)
Yes keep rocks in your QT
Not sure about skimmer but put some carbon in there(some dip may left on your acros)
If it's water from your system I would do more then 20% WC every week
If you took water and some rocks from your system QT should be ready to go
I think it's more then 8 weeks to starve them to death after you remove all your acros
Some eggs hatch couple weeks
This is long journey to get rid of these *******s
Hope it helps l

Hope you got a Coral QT setup, only way to win the battle and being ready for having no SPS in the DT for 6 weeks.
Good luck my friend.

Well, you already there.
If you got AEFW you have to take them out of your DT, if not you'll never get rid of it.
You can dip your corals to kill the AEFW but you ain't killing the eggs.
AEFW laying their eggs on and in your rocks too, after long research by Cat Dybala and Kate Rawlingson it was proven you can't thread them without a QT tank.

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I read a lot of excellent information in this thread. I likely have had black AEFW for the past 2 years, mistaken for Black bugs from buying wild frags and buying new frags.
I know it sounds pathetic, but I have blamed my lighting and treated with interceptor for bugs multiple times.
At this time I feel bad and blame myself. I'm going to QT everything from here out, expensive lesson to be learned.

I have setup a QT tank and ready for the move.

I'm trying to put all this together a (primer/instructions) how to get rid of these guys.
Please copy and edit my list if I'm wrong.

1. Move display water & a few rocks to QT tank (lighting, heater, flow, carbon, skimmer)
2. Remove acro crabs, Dip sps corals (worth keeping), and move them to QT
3. Dip every 3 days(M/W/F)? or dip weekly?
4. Keep in QT for 6-8 weeks?
5. Display/Main tank: Don't move fish, soft corals (non-sps), rocks, anemone's, and run SPS Free for 6-8 weeks so all eggs hatch and AEFW starve/die!

Are AEFW obligate feeders and live off other sources? (For the display tank, will the hatched worms die with no acros to eat or will they live off other sources?)
Any experience and information would be helpful for me and everyone!

 

[Diesel]

----------------------------------

I read a lot of excellent information in this thread. I likely have had black AEFW for the past 2 years, mistaken for Black bugs from buying wild frags and buying new frags.
I know it sounds pathetic, but I have blamed my lighting and treated with interceptor for bugs multiple times.
At this time I feel bad and blame myself. I'm going to QT everything from here out, expensive lesson to be learned.

I have setup a QT tank and ready for the move.

I'm trying to put all this together a (primer/instructions) how to get rid of these guys.
Please copy and edit my list if I'm wrong.

1. Move display water & a few rocks to QT tank (lighting, heater, flow, carbon, skimmer)
2. Remove acro crabs, Dip sps corals (worth keeping), and move them to QT
3. Dip every 3 days(M/W/F)? or dip weekly?
4. Keep in QT for 6-8 weeks?
5. Display/Main tank: Don't move fish, soft corals (non-sps), rocks, anemone's, and run SPS Free for 6-8 weeks so all eggs hatch and AEFW starve/die!

Are AEFW obligate feeders and live off other sources? (For the display tank, will the hatched worms die with no acros to eat or will they live off other sources?)
Any experience and information would be helpful for me and everyone!

AEFW live only of Acros, of course they like some acro's better than others.
I have seen them also on the bottom of montis but can confirm if they really live of them.
Most cases as you will leave your DT acro free the AEFW will starve in a week or 4 but be on the save side and leave it fallow for the time of the treatment and that is 8 weeks.
Using some fish in the DT that will pick on the AEFW are damsels (springeri, and all sorts of wrasses)

 

[711reefer]

 

[Ashish Patel]

Great video - Thanks for sharing.. To summaries he is stating from his observation that you have to act on the AEFW at the correct time (4-8 week period) as you can't do anything about the eggs.. Your corals can only handle so much dipping so you'll probably kill them if you keep dipping them. Find the lifecycle of the eggs until maturity and get them before they have time to reproduce.. I am guilty of forwarding a lot of the video so this was my take on the video

 

[Russo757]

Question for those using bayer....How can you really tell how many AEFWs or really any other pests are coming off during the dips as the water is milky and i cannot see the bottom. When i pour the water out i see brown, clumps of stuff which isn't really identifiable. I've been dosing 1/4 bottle of bayer per 2.5 gallons of water for 15 min and then soaking in pure salt water as a dip for 15 min 2x a week. Any feedback on how to check to see how effective the treatment is being and if that dose/dose time sound sufficient or needs adjustment would be appreciated.

 

[ejazzle]

Question for those using bayer....How can you really tell how many AEFWs or really any other pests are coming off during the dips as the water is milky and i cannot see the bottom. When i pour the water out i see brown, clumps of stuff which isn't really identifiable. I've been dosing 1/4 bottle of bayer per 2.5 gallons of water for 15 min and then soaking in pure salt water as a dip for 15 min 2x a week. Any feedback on how to check to see how effective the treatment is being and if that dose/dose time sound sufficient or needs adjustment would be appreciated.

Thats a lot of dipping. How is everything doing? I have heard of people doing a dip in revive periodically to see if they can see anything coming off in the dips