Where did you get AEFW from?

[Memory and Destiny]

I see threads of people complaining that they recently acquired parasites, but people dont seem to be mentioning where the parasites came from. When we know which vendor gave us the parasites, why not share this on the forum? Some of you are certainly 100% sure of the source (infected acro is the first and only acro in your system.)

Frag consumers could maintain elaborate quarantine protocols, but it would be far more efficient for the coral farmers to just sell us parasite free frags.

I doubt it would be that hard for the coral farmers to create a parasite free system and then stop introducing potential sources of parasites. We have organic produce, free range chicken, etc. Coral farmers should be advertising their parasite free status and consumers should be keeping them honest.

 

[FaviaFreak]

the problem with AEFW is that they are so stealth and camouflaged that it's so easy to let one slip through the cracks

 

[redemer123]

Coral farmers and vendors have thousands and thousands of corals on hand, for them to dip and QT every piece would be quite a task. Im sure most of the vendors go through some process to ensure the corals are healthy and parasite free. However to assume it is their job and that its even possible to eliminate parasites on thousands of corals is a little ridiculous. Ultimately its up to the consumer, you set up a coral QT, you dip your corals and ensure they're parasite free.

 

[FaviaFreak]

I always tell my people that they also bear some of the responsibility for inspecting and dipping new acquisitions, you cannot put full blame on the vendors and lfs

 

[apicturepaints]

For the price you can pay for a frag from a vendor, it would seem good business for them to be pest-free. I can go to any local reefer and get frag packs of really nice SPS that will equate to maybe $5+ a frag, and the hobbyist will let me know if they have pests or not. I agree that it should be a regular routine to dip any frag before you put them in your tank, but I buy frags from vendors because they are reputable or because they have something I can not find. That being said, my LFS gets frags from several different vendors. It would be a crazy time-consuming hassle for them to dip each frag. It would definitely seem really out of reach for a vendor to guarantee pest-free frags.

Conclusion: Vendors - Never guarantee pest-free. Consumers - Always dip your frags!

 

[All Delight]

While that would be an ideal it's not realistic. I can only imagine if you wanted something close to those practices done, expect prices to hike up by about 500% or more. Proper QT takes time, the longer vedors have corals in the possession, the more risk or them dying (and I'm sure those percentages will rise), with more losses, more work, more energy consumption, all those will result in more expensive corals. So while some complain that $100 frag is expensive, would you be ok paying $500+ for that same frag w/ the assumption that it will be parasite free? But regardless of how much more we'd be willing to pay I just don't think it's realistic. Even if it was something to be attempted, then if anyone got a parasite from a particular vendor, you'll go out and bad mouth their business into the ground.

I know sooo many of my LFS that have aefw. With all the corals that come and go from their business it's unavoidable.

What you're asking of a vendor would be equilivant to asking all parents to be certain that their child is free from any contagious illness prior to sending their child to school so your child wouldn't get sick.

I'm sure most of the reputable vendors dip their corals when they recieve them, but dipping isn't fullproof. Things still slip through.

But I do love the thought, because it would be ideal. Just not realistic.

My 2 cents.

 

[All Delight]

For the price you can pay for a frag from a vendor, it would seem good business for them to be pest-free. I can go to any local reefer and get frag packs of really nice SPS that will equate to maybe $5+ a frag, and the hobbyist will let me know if they have pests or not. I agree that it should be a regular routine to dip any frag before you put them in your tank, but I buy frags from vendors because they are reputable or because they have something I can not find. That being said, my LFS gets frags from several different vendors. It would be a crazy time-consuming hassle for them to dip each frag. It would definitely seem really out of reach for a vendor to guarantee pest-free frags.

Conclusion: Vendors - Never guarantee pest-free. Consumers - Always dip your frags!

Really? I've seen so many people I know that have pests, say they don't have pests. I've seen people post they have aefw, then say I treated my tank last week so I'm pest free. I guess they forgot about all the eggs, or even the possibility that not all the aefw were killed. What about people who think they are pest free, but aren't? I knew someone that about a maricultured acro from a vendor. Nearly 5 months later he discovered he had aefw. He hadn't added anything after that. It took him 5 months to even notice he had aefw.

 

[chort55]

Dips n wrasses, neither are a guarantee but they are sure better then nothing :)

I actually know a guy that no matter what it is who it came from if a aefw falls off during a dip he will throw the whole frag out!

 

[WesF]

+1

That's the tricky part. When you discover them, you never really know how long you have had them so it would be unfair to blame the source of your last coral.

Chances are they have been living in your system way before you ever notice them.

 

[Memory and Destiny]

It would not cost any extra money for a mail order coral farm to close their system. They dont have to quarantine everything. They just have to stop introducing new corals and propagate the ones they already have. And if they do feel the need to add more corals to their system, then they can time quarantine it once, keeping the system clean, so then 100s of customers dont need to. It is inefficient for every consumer to quarantine every captivation grown frag.

Once a couple of coral farms develop a reputation for parasite free status, then it is easy for even for your LFS, who imports wild corals from all over, to sell you parasite free corals. They just have to keep the certified parasite free corals in a separate system.

 

[uall8up]

what are AEFW???

 

[uall8up]

:redface: sorry, double post

 

[cdness]

I do think this would be an ideal situation, but we all know it will hurt profits so in the end hurts prices. I dip and inspect everything and treat it as part of the hobby.

I do think a "Certified Parasite Free" status is something a vendor could offer with their captive grown corals. I assume there would be a slight premium for this service, but I know many who would easily pay for it too. Unfortunately with most live corals it is all an unknown for what hitchikers are on the corals.

 

[Memory and Destiny]

Lots of people set up a new tank, and then stock the system from a single supplier. You then get parasites, and you surely know where they came from.

Similarly, the parasites will die without acros, right? So if I have a stable tank that has had no acropora in it and no new additions of any kind for at least a couple of months, and then I buy one (or 10) from a vendor, and then I have parasites, I will know where they came from.

This is how I plan to stock my tank. I will cycle the tank, stock it with fish, and test it with a couple of easy corals, and when everything is doing well and stable, I will then buy a bunch of frags from a single source to save on shipping and time. Say I buy 10 acros. I am going to place them in 10 separate quarantine tanks for a month? Or I will buy 1 coral per month for a year, pay 50 bucks for shipping each time, and live with an empty tank during this prolonged process?

 

[chort55]

It would not cost any extra money for a mail order coral farm to close their system. They dont have to quarantine everything. They just have to stop introducing new corals and propagate the ones they already have. And if they do feel the need to add more corals to their system, then they can time quarantine it once, keeping the system clean, so then 100s of customers dont need to. It is inefficient for every consumer to quarantine every captivation grown frag.

Once a couple of coral farms develop a reputation for parasite free status, then it is easy for even for your LFS, who imports wild corals from all over, to sell you parasite free corals. They just have to keep the certified parasite free corals in a separate system.

It would infact cost them alot of money to close their systems down and do like you talk.....

1. if they didn't close everything down only certain pieces could be "bug free" and like mentioned with AEFW that isn't a garaunteed for quite a while, your talking months not days. Now blow that out wide scale to an operation with say 15 coral tanks/ vats (I know some have MANY more especially wholesale level... but we will say medium retail guy for now...) to shut down that many pieces of coral you would infact lose sales during that time to make them pest free not including the money the dips, treatments and labor involved of doing this to say 500-1000 pieces.... and if you want them to do this to SPS they should be doing it to zoas and anything else too right.... my LFS has several thousand zoa frags alone.... it wouldn't cost them money to ensure pest free status???? (the guy that runs it has actually gone through and dipped everything several times before tho and runs a good shop but still it has costs involved).

2. Don't introduce new corals??? REALLY????? A company thats sole business is producing corals for us to enjoy and you don't want them to bring in new stuff because it might have a bug or two that you don't want to possibly deal with? No new coral = no new demand. I don't like looking at places sites and seeing the same old stuff I bought 10 yrs ago still being the only thing they have, and sure wouldn't buy it again just to keep them in business lol

3. Also these couple coral farms are called like... BALI, INDO, Aussi... they are country's surrounded by bodies of oceanic water, not tims back yard coral emporium, its kinda hard to keep bugs/ pests out of an entire oceanic system to ensure you don't get a pest..... can you imagine the cost (in $$ and ecologically) that would be incurred to wipe out all the pests in the oceans, I mean besides the $$$ your talking about now possibly starving creatures that feed on these bugs/ parasites.... nope no cost there LOL


IF a company did even do all these things and they did rid the sea of all the bugs so our tanks could be clean and pristine despite the costs w/o our own intervention not only would the $$$ go up on the frags we buy, but people would still find something to complain about..... like the salinity in the bag is different then mine, they sent it on a square plug instead of round, or I run pc's and my coral looks different then the picture... should they buy you t5's or led's also? lol

Even still, say they did do all this, it would not be 100% guaranteed that they would be pest free and really you should still dip everything on your own for your own tanks safety and cleanliness! If you do not want to take responsibility for your tank, then don't be surprised when you end up with things you don't want to have in it....

 

[Memory and Destiny]

2. Don't introduce new corals??? REALLY????? A company thats sole business is producing corals for us to enjoy and you don't want them to bring in new stuff because it might have a bug or two that you don't want to possibly deal with? No new coral = no new demand. I don't like looking at places sites and seeing the same old stuff I bought 10 yrs ago still being the only thing they have, and sure wouldn't buy it again just to keep them in business lol

There will always be demand for classic corals which are hardy, fast growing, and look nice. Green slimmer, various polyps, green and pink pocillopora damicornis, etc. Lots of people are new to the hobby and are not bored with these. Plenty will have their system crash and have to rebuild. There is more to corals than just novelty.

I know people who have these classic corals, and they grow so fast they just throw them out. There is still a strong demand for these, but supply far exceeds it. All you have to do is stop buying new corals for a couple of months, and then you can advertise the fact, and sell pocillopora damicornis frags for 40 bucks each instead of throwing them out.

 

[FaviaFreak]

classic corals don't pay the bills...vendors and lfs have to continuously keep bringing in new product to meet they demands of finicky hobbyist, what's new and exciting is the name of the game

 

[impur]

I keep tabs on who has what pest in my club, then make sure not to buy from them. Its amazing how many people KNOW they have AEFW, or redbugs, or one of the bad nudibranchs, and still sell corals with no regards to what the buyer is going to have to go thru. Obviously this is different from getting them from a vendor or LFS, but most of the corals I have are from people not vendors.

I don't trust ANYTHING to go into my tank unless its been thru my QT tank and procedures.

 

[MattL22]

I feel like vendors selling sps for $50 and up for a frag better be taking precautions I'd be seriously ****** if I paid 300$ for frag pack and got red bugs or god forbid aefw! I have used a few of the high end sps vendors and frags have always been clean

 

[uall8up]

that's ok, I googled it