AEFW - My long journey

CJO · Apr 9, 2011

That's an interesting option (insect killer). Where did you hear about it?

CJ

ronnie · Apr 9, 2011

There is a thread over on RC about it.

ronnie · Apr 10, 2011

So in the spirit of being a total guinea pig, I've got some stuff on the way that I'll be testing. If it works out (I hope it does!), I'll report back with dosages, times, etc.

If not, I'll proceed with the bayer insecticide. Wish me luck!

CJO · Apr 10, 2011

Good luck. Please do keep us posted. What else do you have coming?

CJ

ronnie · Apr 10, 2011

some high concentration B-cyfluthrin. It is the secondary active ingredient in the bayer insecticide. My thoughts are that people were reporting success with two different kinds of the bayer insecticide, both with different active ingredients. the b-cyfluthrin is the common ingredient in both, so I'm hoping it is the one that is killing the AEFW. The concentration I bought is about 11.5% higher than the bayer insect killer, so it should take a very small amount (all theory).

CJO · Apr 10, 2011

Hopefully that's right. Less chance of things going wrong with just one ingredient.

CJ

RogerWilco357 · Apr 10, 2011

read the post about the worms being drawn to the light at night is that fact? The revive works but it will kill your smooth skinned acro like hawkins. I would check your stags at the base for the eggs and then baste them as they love the stags ..

knyreefguy · Apr 11, 2011

yes i have tried revive and coral rx... have left aefw in both over night and still moving around... i have used rx 6x the amount they say to use and still aefw's living.... manually remove, i found that these products help remove a couple but you really need to get your hands on and scrap... i found a power brite helps light up the eggs too.....

ronnie · May 22, 2011

Here is what I worked on yesterday.

I was basting my tricolor for AEFW and actually caught a few as they blew off before the fish ate them. So I figured I would test the bayer out on them. I started with .2ml in 1/2 cup of water, and the flatworm that I tested lived for over half an hour. It either died from the bayer or died when I was basting. I put a frag in each of the dips, also. For the first one, I used a frag of miami orchid. It looks fine today.

The second test I did 1ml in 1/2 cup along with a tricolor acro frag. I dipped for 10 minutes and the worm (new specimen) was writhing in some serious pain.
The frag looks fine now.

The third test was 1.5ml in 1/2 cup. The frag was a pink lemonade. The flatworm was seriously agititated, but still alive, after 8 minutes. Frag looks fine now.

The fourth and final test (due to time constraints- I will do more tests) was 2ml in 1/2 cup. The frag was a red planet. I dipped for six minutes and the frag looks fine. The worm was writhing and doing it's death roll - curling in a ball after five minutes. It did come back to life after six minutes, so I wonder I'd the bayer is only paralyzing them temporarily? It was still convulsing, so I doubt it had much life left in it.

I also dropped about .1ml into a very small amount of water on the first flatworm and it curled instantly. That is the effect I would like to find, but I would bet the concentration would kill any coral - that is what I'll be testing for.

If the coral can handle a higher dose for two minutes, then that is the route I will be taking. It will just take me some time to find that magic number. My plan is to test on several different specimens to reduce the risk of me killing a large colony.

ronnie · May 22, 2011

The b-cyfluthrin didn't appear to have any effect on them at the dosages I was doing, either.

justreefin · May 22, 2011

Been following the RC thread on this Bayer method from the start. It looks promising. Hope it works out for you. Keep us posted on your result. It's very helpful. Good Luck

WreckDiver · May 22, 2011

RogerWilco357 said:
read the post about the worms being drawn to the light at night is that fact? The revive works but it will kill your smooth skinned acro like hawkins. I would check your stags at the base for the eggs and then baste them as they love the stags ..

The light trick only works with Planaria type flatworms. not AEFW's as they shy away from light. They are two completely different types of flatworms. Yes the light method works for red and brown planaria infestations.

WreckDiver · May 22, 2011

I battled these horrible pests a little over a year ago. It was a nightmare and like you thopught about just getting out, but with all the time and $$$ i had invested in my system I decided to fight the war and won. What I did was added three wrasses (Six Line, Yellow, and Green), then started blasting the corals from the base up every 2 - 3 days with a MJ1200. Everytime the worms would fly off my black clowns would go apecrap for them and eat everyone of them that was now in the water column. (why they cant just hunt them theirselves is an issue, lazy stupid fish must want to be hand fed :bigsmile:), any way, after about 3 months of this I was only finding one or two here and there and eventually I never saw them again. Its been over a year and have yet to see another in the tank. Keep up the good fight and you can win this battle

ronnie · Jun 3, 2011

I was basting my tricolor for AEFW and actually caught a few as they blew off before the fish ate them. So I figured I would test the bayer out on them. I started with .2ml in 1/2 cup of water, and the flatworm that I tested lived for over half an hour. It either died from the bayer or died when I was basting. I put a frag in each of the dips, also. For the first one, I used a frag of miami orchid. It looks fine today.

The second test I did 1ml in 1/2 cup along with a tricolor acro frag. I dipped for 10 minutes and the worm (new specimen) was writhing in some serious pain.
The frag looks fine now.

The third test was 1.5ml in 1/2 cup. The frag was a pink lemonade. The flatworm was seriously agititated, but still alive, after 8 minutes. Frag looks fine now.

The fourth and final test (due to time constraints- I will do more tests) was 2ml in 1/2 cup. The frag was a red planet. I dipped for six minutes and the frag looks fine. The worm was writhing and doing it's death roll - curling in a ball after five minutes. It did come back to life after six minutes, so I wonder if the bayer is only paralyzing them temporarily? It was still convulsing, so I doubt it had much life left in it.

I also dropped about .1ml into a very small amount of water on the first flatworm and it curled instantly. That is the effect I would like to find, but I would bet the concentration would kill any coral - that is what I'll be testing for.

If the coral can handle a higher dose for two minutes, then that is the route I will be taking. It will just take me some time to find that magic number. My plan is to test on several different specimens to reduce the risk of me killing a large colony.

ronnie · Jun 3, 2011

It's been almost two weeks since I dipped the above frags. All are healthy and show color and polyp extension as normal.

ronnie · Jul 6, 2011

Dipped some more test pieces today.

I amped it up to 5ml in 1/2 cup for the first dip. I tested a red planet frag and a tricolor frag. Dipped for four minutes. The flatworm appeared to be dead, so I dumped the water out and then rinsed the frags with tank water. I pulled the frags out and put them back into the tank. I went back a few minutes later and the flatworm was moving again! These are some resilient little suckers!

For the next test, I doubled the dosage to 10ml in 1/2 cup. I used a $500 efflo and pink lemonade frag for test pieces. I dipped for five minutes and then pulled the frags out, rinsed, and then refilled the cup with fresh water to see if the flatworm would come back to life. After ten minutes - no movement! I conclude that, as long as the frags survive, that this will be a very effective treatment.

My plan is to dip every five-six days, depending on how the corals respond. I've got to pick up a couple containers at Walmart to dip in. They are the big round 16g containers. For $7 bucks, they should work pretty well to dip in. I'll probably pull the MP10 off of the 40B so I have some flow in there as well.

I'm thinking I may start next week - depending on work and my schedule.

secretreefer · Jul 6, 2011

thanks for keeping this updated ronnie, i heard rumours of reefers testing bayer insecticide in their main tank. was trying to find out if it's true and the affect on AEFW. btw how's your $500 efflo and pink lemonade after the 10ml in 1/2 cup treatment?