AEFW - Tank Dismantling - Advise / Tips Needed

[RMS18]

So how are things going now?

Sorry for the delayed update. So I have done 8 total dips. The first dip was the day I cut everything down. I had all corals on racks on the front glass and dipped them each week, every 7 days. I never saw a worm after the first dip... Which is scary.

After last week's dip I examined the dip tank as best as I could and didn't see anything. So I started to remount corals this weekend to the rocks.

I was feeling really good and excited yesterday... Then time and thoughts got to me today. What if I missed a small encrusted part of acro on the rocks, what If 1-3 worms have been living off this patch. Could they live off the coral skeleton foundation, that is left after the coral is killed off and scrapped? Even though I blasted the rocks every couple of weeks and used a brush at times as well this doubt will not go away.

None of the acro have any bite marks, now just dealing with white bugs, something I didn't notice before. Maybe the aefw keep white bugs in check?

The corals have recovered and color, pe and growth is good. It was cool to see how much growth I had while these sat on a frag rack.

Time will tell I guess, but the wind has definitely been taken out of my sale with the worry and doubt in my mind that I missed something. Part of me wishes I never glued anything back and waited longer. Then to make matters worst I read more threads today's, older ones but threads stated 3-6 months is needed to wait. Some people saying the worms can live 4 weeks with no food and may eggs up to that time. Meaning I could have eggs hatching now somewhere. I don't know maybe I got into my head to much.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sorry for the delayed update. So I have done 8 total dips. The first dip was the day I cut everything down. I had all corals on racks on the front glass and dipped them each week, every 7 days. I never saw a worm after the first dip... Which is scary.

After last week's dip I examined the dip tank as best as I could and didn't see anything. So I started to remount corals this weekend to the rocks.

I was feeling really good and excited yesterday... Then time and thoughts got to me today. What if I missed a small encrusted part of acro on the rocks, what I'd 1-3 works have been living off this patch. Could they live off the coral skeleton fountain, that is left after the coral is killed off and scrapped? Even though I blasted the rocks every couple of weeks and used a brush at times as well this doubt will not go away.

None of the acro have any bite marks, now just dealing with white bugs, something I didn't notice before. Maybe the aefw keep white bugs in check?

The corals have recovered and color, pe and growth is good. It was cool to see how much growth I had while these sat on a frag rack.

Time will tell I guess, but the wind has definitely been taken out of my sale with the worry and doubt in my mind that I missed something. Part of me wishes I never glued anything back and waited longer. Then to make matters worst I read more threads today's, older ones but threads stated 3-6 months is needed to wait. Some people saying the worms can live 4 weeks with no food and may eggs up to that time. Meaning I could have eggs hatching now somewhere. I don't know maybe I got into my head to much.

Great to hear. Most important was no eggs to tahch new one and populate.

 

[RMS18]

Great to hear. Most important was no eggs to tahch new one and populate.

Great to hear. Most important was no eggs to tahch new one and populate.

Thanks, yea hopefully I'm just in my head. I guess I'll blast the acros every week for the next 3 months... If all good then I think I can consider it a win....

 

[PBar]

Dear colleague,
I’m not sure if it was already shared, but there is an interesting papex from J. Barton about AEFW.

I recommend you all to read it:

(PDF) Biological controls to manage Acropora-eating flatworms in coral aquaculture

PDF | Coral aquaculture is expanding to supply the marine ornamental trade and active coral reef restoration. A common pest of Acropora corals is the... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Sixline and peppermint shrimp Lysmata might be a good support. We still don’t know how it would be the outcomes in big tank with other type of foods… as far as I know, that is the intention for the next research.

Good luck!

 

[RMS18]

Dear colleague,
I’m not sure if it was already shared, but there is an interesting papex from J. Barton about AEFW.

I recommend you all to read it:

(PDF) Biological controls to manage Acropora-eating flatworms in coral aquaculture

PDF | Coral aquaculture is expanding to supply the marine ornamental trade and active coral reef restoration. A common pest of Acropora corals is the... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Sixline and peppermint shrimp Lysmata might be a good support. We still don’t know how it would be the outcomes in big tank with other type of foods… as far as I know, that is the intention for the next research.

Good luck!

Thanks, good read. I did try peppermint shrimp but something ate them, maybe one of my wrasses. I may try again with larger ones of I can find them. The 6 line is going to be out of the question due to the wrasses I currently have. They just won't get along. If I was to find the worms again I'd rather toss every acro out this round and let the tank sit for months. Not sure if I'd try to go the dipping method again.

 

[PBar]

Hello!
that‘s the problem of peppermint shrimp… and Sixlines are also not easy with other wrasses.

By the way, did you hear the recent episode of Reef Beef podcast?
Rich Ross just spotted AEFW on his tank (around minute 4).

It is very interesting his approach, which is very similar the way that he handles any pest… again, his tank is already old and extremely loaded.
Worth to hear as well since he will update the topic weekly, I believe.

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

Dear colleague,
I’m not sure if it was already shared, but there is an interesting papex from J. Barton about AEFW.

I recommend you all to read it:

(PDF) Biological controls to manage Acropora-eating flatworms in coral aquaculture

PDF | Coral aquaculture is expanding to supply the marine ornamental trade and active coral reef restoration. A common pest of Acropora corals is the... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Sixline and peppermint shrimp Lysmata might be a good support. We still don’t know how it would be the outcomes in big tank with other type of foods… as far as I know, that is the intention for the next research.

Good luck!

Camel shrimp are actually supposed to be better for AEFW.

 

[ScottB]

Hello!
that‘s the problem of peppermint shrimp… and Sixlines are also not easy with other wrasses.

By the way, did you hear the recent episode of Reef Beef podcast?
Rich Ross just spotted AEFW on his tank (around minute 4).

It is very interesting his approach, which is very similar the way that he handles any pest… again, his tank is already old and extremely loaded.
Worth to hear as well since he will update the topic weekly, I believe.

Good vid thanks for the link.

The most interesting thing is how casual they are about an AEFW infestation. Clearly, they are battle hardened veterans.

I've had enough experience with AEFW not to freak out, but I have plenty of grief about it. Nothing difficult or tricky, just a lot of tedious repetitive work.

 

[PBar]

Hi ScottB!
Couldn’t agree more. I have to admit that Rich Ross seem way too calm about it
It was a similar reaction from Sanjay, stating recently that he still have AEFW on his tank.

I also fought them back in 2000 when they spread around all tanks in Brazil.
For sure, today I wouldn’t freak out as I did in the past… but also not stay so cool as they did

The trauma from AEFW remains till today: I cut all new corals from the base and dip them… if a flatworm comes out: return or garbage.
Still, I’m not naive… they might enter in my tank one day again…

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

They are calm because they know that there is not much you can do about it. You are either willing to break down the tank and dip everything or you not. In my tank several acros seem to be totally immune to the worms and the ones that are not are gone now. They don't touch two large blue staghorns i have or my bali green slimmer. They also seem to totally ignore pear berry, pinky bear and strawbery shortcake. Yet they would eat a myagi tort alive that is literally right next to them. I wonder why that is?

 

[PBar]

Hi recci,
those were very good points… not much to do indeed and also they seem to attack each coral completely different.
Apparently they have way more taste for some acros than others (smooth skin?). I observed that in my first tank.
Cheers!

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

Hi recci,
those were very good points… not much to do indeed and also they seem to attack each coral completely different.
Apparently they have way more taste for some acros than others (smooth skin?). I observed that in my first tank.
Cheers!

Yeah, i wander if any acro's are indeed immune from them or have some sort of defense. If that was the case then it would be possible to compile a list and allow people with AEFW to only keep those types of acro's. It also make me wander if the AEFW would die out in the tank if only those acro's were kept or if they can survive on them but just not do any damage.

 

[brahm]

I don’t panic anymore. Learned to live with them. baste w/a turkey baster or blast with a powehead keeps them in check if I see any piece looking like it’s taking a beating I dip it. Eventually when I plumb in my frag tank I’ll pop things off the rocks and go through a dipping cycle w/bayer. I’ve beat them before this way. If you keep the numbers down by blasting them things don’t get out of control. And as others said for whatever reason they tend to have a favorite coral so I keep an eye on those more closely. This time around for me it’s a few miliporoa and they seem to be completely leaving my smooth skin acros alone which is odd. In the the past my valida, or deep waters would have been prime targets.

blasting my rock and corals weekly seems to be a benefit to the tank. At first you’ll loose a little skin but it seems they hardy up when it grows back. also a great way to suspend and capture any detritus that didn’t make it to the roller mat.

last time my tank was packed with sps wall to wall growing to the waters edge with mature large colonies. this time I mostly have frags and a few frags that are just starting to turn into mini colonies so it should be a lot easier. As a bonus I can buy stuff from wherever and not worry about it I until clear the tank up

 

[ScottB]

@recci my experience matches your own with respect to strong specie preferences. My AEFW either love an acro or completely ignore it.

Always, millis are the preferred meal. Mine will travel some distance to find a milli while ignoring dozens of other acros along the way. I do have a couple smooth skins they like as well. It has gotten to the point where I just keep all their favorites on a couple racks and dip just those weekly. The rest I will dip in a month or so.

My last dip had no worms, so only 4 more weeks to go I hope.

 

[TnFishwater98]

Sorry for the delayed update. So I have done 8 total dips. The first dip was the day I cut everything down. I had all corals on racks on the front glass and dipped them each week, every 7 days. I never saw a worm after the first dip... Which is scary.

After last week's dip I examined the dip tank as best as I could and didn't see anything. So I started to remount corals this weekend to the rocks.

I was feeling really good and excited yesterday... Then time and thoughts got to me today. What if I missed a small encrusted part of acro on the rocks, what If 1-3 worms have been living off this patch. Could they live off the coral skeleton foundation, that is left after the coral is killed off and scrapped? Even though I blasted the rocks every couple of weeks and used a brush at times as well this doubt will not go away.

None of the acro have any bite marks, now just dealing with white bugs, something I didn't notice before. Maybe the aefw keep white bugs in check?

The corals have recovered and color, pe and growth is good. It was cool to see how much growth I had while these sat on a frag rack.

Time will tell I guess, but the wind has definitely been taken out of my sale with the worry and doubt in my mind that I missed something. Part of me wishes I never glued anything back and waited longer. Then to make matters worst I read more threads today's, older ones but threads stated 3-6 months is needed to wait. Some people saying the worms can live 4 weeks with no food and may eggs up to that time. Meaning I could have eggs hatching now somewhere. I don't know maybe I got into my head to much.

Sorry to hear about your experience. Can you post pics from the time you noticed the FW and steps you took to eradicate them. Looks like there might of been a thread before this one.

 

[RMS18]

Sorry to hear about your experience. Can you post pics from the time you noticed the FW and steps you took to eradicate them. Looks like there might of been a thread before this one.

Sorry I don't have many pictures outside what was left after cutting them all off the rock.

Steps included:
Cutting all acros off the rock and attaching to frag plugs.
Scrapping all encrusted acro/milli off the rock leaving no food for the worms in the rocks.
Did the first dip the day I cut everything off.
I ended up tossing out the entire colony's that were heavily affected or had eggs. I didn't want to chance letting eggs that I clearly saw back in.
Placed all acros on to racks on the glass.
Every 7 days for 8 weeks I dipped the racks in Melafix for 5 min. I would also bast the acros while wearing a led head lamp lol, looking for worms.
A few times throughout the 8 weeks I also basted the rocks where acros we're mounted that worms were affecting and also used a brush to brush the rocks.
I never saw a worms after the first day I cut them all off, which was strange maybe. Only one colony had eggs because the underside was dead.
The melafix was great gentle on the acros but the worms would fall right off. They didn't die right away, maybe 10min or so. But the dip ticked them off enough to let go of the acro.

The colony that had eggs I placed in a cup of bleach. It was very satisfying to burn those eggs off, then I made a decoration with the colony. Placed it on an black acrylic base and now it's on a shelf on the tank room.

 

[RMS18]

Hello!
that‘s the problem of peppermint shrimp… and Sixlines are also not easy with other wrasses.

By the way, did you hear the recent episode of Reef Beef podcast?
Rich Ross just spotted AEFW on his tank (around minute 4).

It is very interesting his approach, which is very similar the way that he handles any pest… again, his tank is already old and extremely loaded.
Worth to hear as well since he will update the topic weekly, I believe.

Thanks for the video. He was definitely more clam than I was. I think the part that may differ is when it happens to someone with frags / mini colonies it's hard to digest and deal with than a tank with large mature colonies. Frags will quickly be killed by the worms, where mature colonies may never show the stress. My largest colony at the time was a milli, and it was their favorite to eat. The colony was 5+ inches and they killed it.

 

[brahm]

That’s so odd to me that all the aefw everyone is talking about focus on Millis. I thought this new round was an anomaly for me. When I first found aefw back 10 years ago or so the consensus was they focused on smooth skin acros and stayed away from the hairy stuff. That is what I experienced then as well. Wonder when the shift took place and if they are a different strain or from a different region. I’m only a 13 or so months back after taking the last 7 or 8 years off, or so.

 

[ScottB]

That’s so odd to me that all the aefw everyone is talking about focus on Millis. I thought this new round was an anomaly for me. When I first found aefw back 10 years ago or so the consensus was they focused on smooth skin acros and stayed away from the hairy stuff. That is what I experienced then as well. Wonder when the shift took place and if they are a different strain or from a different region. I’m only a 13 or so months back after taking the last 7 or 8 years off, or so.

Mine "look" very traditional, but who knows. It is not ONLY milli for me, but still only very specific colonies/pieces are preferred. Perhaps if they had no other choice, it would be different.

One of the "Coral Magazine" issues of '20 or '21 included an article noting the discovery of "NAEFW". The "N" standing for "new". IIRC, they were discovered in Australia. Once Indo shut down, that is where a lot of our acros were coming from. Maybe a connection, idk.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Thanks for the update! I get how you feel with the paranoia and I went through the same thing, it doesn’t go away for a while. Don’t worry about it though, just keep your eyes on your corals. They will tell you when the worms are gone by showing more polyps and growth.
I always tell people to baste their corals and the rocks every two days if possible even when treating the corals for aefw. This really helps keep the fear of them living off some unknown fragment in the tank to a minimum.
And for what it’s worth I have gotten rid of them with weekly dips once and also another time using a flat worm stop double dose and lots of coral basting. The tank tear down isn’t one of two options anymore but I get for some with not a lot of time or patience it’s the only option. If you find them in your tank don’t panic, panic and quick harsh dips or rushed qt tank setups is always when I see people loose lots of coral.

Pests are part of the hobby and if your collecting corals still, and have not delt with them, then get ready. My suggestion is do your research before you get infected and always keep a close eye on your acropora. Once things get out of hand with aefw and their eggs, it’s really hard to get out of it with anything other than just fragments. Also, it’s a part of the hobby and the stigma that comes with pests is mainly from people who are scared and haven’t had them before.
If your constantly collecting and trading and you don’t have a true quarantine tank for acros, you will eventually have to deal with them. They are SNEAKY little worms!
IME, aefw have always came from other peoples tanks or local stores more so then wild or mariculture corals. Generally a new Mari or wild colony that’s just came in and has aefw will show bite marks very well.