AEFW plan of action

[m0jjen]

So. AEFW. Great.

About 4 months ago i started a full on war with AEFW. Removing all my acros from the display. Killed all the encrusted areas with kalkpaste and started dipping. I dipped for 9 weeks every 7 days until i got _3_ dips without eggs or worms in a row.

I placed the acros in my fragtank which share sump with my main display. And figured, go to the display. I dont mind. Ill kill you all on the corals and rins / clean my fragtank equipment.

Well ****. Not really. Today i saw 3 of these little lifesucking homewrecking goodfornothing buggers on an acro. I dont know what happened. Guessing some eggcluster was placed somewhere where i didnt clean? They couldnt have survived as worms for 3 weeks without visiting an acro?

Anyway. Here i am again with my pants down and jellybeanlooking worms all over my corals (no idea if its both display and fragtank but assuming both).

So what do I do now? Previous approach didnt work to well. Things to factor in:

* I can do everything I did last time
* Cant start a seperate hospital tank due to lack of actual tank, finance, place, a toddler that would dive into anything on the floor, dogs that would do the same.

So. Any plan of action with the factors i've mentioned? Could cut of the fragtank from the display with ballvalved but I would not be able to keep parameters stable or good due to no filtration, no biomedia, no addition of elements and what not.

 

[AfaceInTheCrowd]

if it’s an infestation then continue dipping, The corals don’t like it but lesser of two evils.. if you tank can sustain them add a load of wrasses…
* does flatworm exit work for aefw also?*

 

[ReefBeta]

I'm that kind of guy that do management instead of eradication. I just updated my build thread on AEFW treatment.

Basically I do not remove any of the frag. I have over a hundred frags that there just too much work to be practical. I did couple things. First, I use a powerhead to blow to all frags to try blow the flatworm off water column, every other day or so for couple week. The first couple day there are visible big flatworm falling off. Second, I start doing Flatworm Stop since so many people have good experience with it. Last, I start doing UWC Purge treatment.

So hopefully, that will eradicate all AEFW. But I don't think it will be guaranteed. If they come back, usually showed as a frag suddenly losing color for no obvious reason, I will resume the blasting section and dipping problem frags. So far, it didn't cause too much damage. I lost less than 10 frags from it. So it's less than 10% casualty. That's nothing. It just explained why those frags died.

Basically, don't overreact. Learn to live with it will probably be easier to try 100% eradicate it.

 

[m0jjen]

I'm that kind of guy that do management instead of eradication. I just updated my build thread on AEFW treatment.

Basically I do not remove any of the frag. I have over a hundred frags that there just too much work to be practical. I did couple things. First, I use a powerhead to blow to all frags to try blow the flatworm off water column, every other day or so for couple week. The first couple day there are visible big flatworm falling off. Second, I start doing Flatworm Stop since so many people have good experience with it. Last, I start doing UWC Purge treatment.

So hopefully, that will eradicate all AEFW. But I don't think it will be guaranteed. If they come back, usually showed as a frag suddenly losing color for no obvious reason, I will resume the blasting section and dipping problem frags. So far, it didn't cause too much damage. I lost less than 10 frags from it. So it's less than 10% casualty. That's nothing. It just explained why those frags died.

Basically, don't overreact. Learn to live with it will probably be easier to try 100% eradicate it.

That is one course of action, while I do understand that people that cant remove all their corals will do so I will not. The corals just got glued back so its not hard to remove them. I dont have that much after a crash / dino / first round of aefw so cant say its to much of a problem to dip everything

Thanks for the input!

if it’s an infestation then continue dipping, The corals don’t like it but lesser of two evils.. if you tank can sustain them add a load of wrasses…
* does flatworm exit work for aefw also?*

I will start dipping again. As stated in the first post I didnt see them for 3 weeks the first time to I dont know for how long you should dip after you stop seeing the..

 

[Perry]

I'm that kind of guy that do management instead of eradication. I just updated my build thread on AEFW treatment.

Basically I do not remove any of the frag. I have over a hundred frags that there just too much work to be practical. I did couple things. First, I use a powerhead to blow to all frags to try blow the flatworm off water column, every other day or so for couple week. The first couple day there are visible big flatworm falling off. Second, I start doing Flatworm Stop since so many people have good experience with it. Last, I start doing UWC Purge treatment.

So hopefully, that will eradicate all AEFW. But I don't think it will be guaranteed. If they come back, usually showed as a frag suddenly losing color for no obvious reason, I will resume the blasting section and dipping problem frags. So far, it didn't cause too much damage. I lost less than 10 frags from it. So it's less than 10% casualty. That's nothing. It just explained why those frags died.

Basically, don't overreact. Learn to live with it will probably be easier to try 100% eradicate it.

This!
And I will also offer up the method for powerhead/ turkey baster method can work, takes diligence, but so does stressing corals due to excessive dipping. The idea:
Using KZ Flatworm Stop and KZ Coral Booster is not to kill worms. This combo does two things, one, increases slime coat, and two, promotes coral health. I use this method without AEFW, and will always do so as my corals are very healthy and colorful. The slime coat is said to repel AEFW, therefore ultimately starving them, as healthy tissue is not as desirable. Coral Booster helps the acros to recover, not just from AEFW, but from fragging, or other issues that effect them. This combo I continue to use and plan to always do so. While KZ products are costly, so is replacing corals, a small cost, imo.
Turkey basting method is too much to explain here, but a simple google search should yield threads both here and "RC". I have used and documented this method personally, in several threads. Point with this method is to train your fish to eat them. Therefore, each time you baste, they feed on ones detached from basting. Every fish in my aquarium that I had while doing so, in that system, consumed them, and saw them as a food source. Wrasses would hunt better, even chromis hunted them.
Best of luck, sometimes the cure can be worse than the symptom.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

I had a fairly mild infestation in my 14g, caught it early. I dosed flatworm stop daily and inspected the tank/turkey basted the acros daily for like 3 months. That did it, it’s been almost 4 months since the bottle ran out(and everything was moved to my 40b) and I haven’t seen another one.

I only actually dipped them once, close to the beginning.

 

[m0jjen]

Dipped about 15 frags today from the fragtank. 9 Worms found, No eggs. Inspected 4 corals in the display no bites no eggs no worms. One of the acros in the display was a Valida which is lika candy for them.

The eggs might be on the eggcrate in the fragtank so swapped it out.

Main question is, could they migrate from fragtank, down 3 meters of pipe, through the sump, into the return and up in the display and actually survive? Im guessing the infestation in the fragtank is 100% due to me removing all the display acros previously and having them there while dipping.

I might have missed a worm or a eggcluster?

 

[sdreef]

Dipped about 15 frags today from the fragtank. 9 Worms found, No eggs. Inspected 4 corals in the display no bites no eggs no worms. One of the acros in the display was a Valida which is lika candy for them.

The eggs might be on the eggcrate in the fragtank so swapped it out.

Main question is, could they migrate from fragtank, down 3 meters of pipe, through the sump, into the return and up in the display and actually survive? Im guessing the infestation in the fragtank is 100% due to me removing all the display acros previously and having them there while dipping.

I might have missed a worm or a eggcluster?

Wondering how things are going with this? What is your dipping regimen and set up?

Based on the attached study, it would be possible for newly hatched worms to swim through an interconnected system. Hatchlings were able to survive up to 9 days without acropora tissue and the time for eggs to hatch was influenced by temperature.

 

[m0jjen]

Wondering how things are going with this? What is your dipping regimen and set up?

Based on the attached study, it would be possible for newly hatched worms to swim through an interconnected system. Hatchlings were able to survive up to 9 days without acropora tissue and the time for eggs to hatch was influenced by temperature.

I cant really say anything yet. I've dipped afew display acros (tricolor valida e.g. which seems to be the goto acro for AEFW) and havent found anything on them.

Im on week 4 of dipping and dip #4 resulted in no confirmed AEFW on the frag tank acros. All my display acros are coloring up and growing while also starting to display more PE.

Based on dip results, improving health and visiual status of my acros id say my display is AEFW free.

The fragtank acros seem to improve alot aswell.

What i've done different this time for the fragtank is that i changed fragrack everytime i dip. I have never found eggs on acros or plugs so i figure they'd put them on the rack. First time around i did not change racks and I think they came back from an eggcluster located somewhere on the rack.

 

[sdreef]

I cant really say anything yet. I've dipped afew display acros (tricolor valida e.g. which seems to be the goto acro for AEFW) and havent found anything on them.

Im on week 4 of dipping and dip #4 resulted in no confirmed AEFW on the frag tank acros. All my display acros are coloring up and growing while also starting to display more PE.

Based on dip results, improving health and visiual status of my acros id say my display is AEFW free.

The fragtank acros seem to improve alot aswell.

What i've done different this time for the fragtank is that i changed fragrack everytime i dip. I have never found eggs on acros or plugs so i figure they'd put them on the rack. First time around i did not change racks and I think they came back from an eggcluster located somewhere on the rack.

What solution are you dipping in and for how long? How many weeks total did you dip the first time round?

 

[m0jjen]

What solution are you dipping in and for how long? How many weeks total did you dip the first time round?

I dipped every 7 days and alternated between Seachem reef dip which is iodine based and FM The dipwhich I dont know what its based on, smells like a pesticide. Now i use Aquaforest coraldip which seems the be some white solution pesticide and simular to bayer or something.

Dipped for a total of 8 weeks (kept dipping aslong as i found worms + 3 weeks without worms.)