AEFW or Black Bugs

[Mrcote1]

Hi Everyone, im rapidly losing SPS frags and these little blackish grey things are all over the frags. Ive lost 3 frags so far and 2 others are dying. I have 3 large acro colonis im terrified of losing. Are these AEFW or black bugs and any recommendations on ridding them?

 

[Mrcote1]

 

[Mrcote1]

 

[Sam7]

looks like it to me but im no expert...flat worms that is.

 

[maroun.c]

Both flatworms and bugs wont kill corals that fast to have a fully bleached frag all of a sudden you would see signs and loss wont be that fast. This would be just RTN. The grey things on the frags are just pods.

 

[Notorious Reef]

Sorry to see this my man.. Dealt with these fellas earlier this year, on the bright side they are eradicable. The down side they are destructive lil buggers as I was rapidly losing acros similar to you.

Here is what they are:


definitely similar to AEFW but slightly different it seems.

The thing that fixed mine was following most of Monti Mikes guide as he ran into the same issue (Pages 7-8) https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-sea-reefer-200xl-build.694679/page-7

My steps (your mileage may vary, no promises):
Every 7 days for 6-8 weeks
- 7 minutes melafix dip
- 7 minute coral rx and flatworm exit dip
- Quick swish around in saltwater before returning to tank
Nightly
- Flatworm stop dosed directly to tank

From March 2026:

Same acro I took a frag before it got completely decimated September 30th 2026:

Hopefully this was helpful. There was like no information or barely any out there I could find when I first came across these. Good luck!!