"Uh-Oh I have AEFW"

[myzislow]

Disagree. I know a few people who managed to remove them with just blasting/basting, and my tank has been living with them for over a year doing just that without ever loosing a single piece to being over by AEFW. (anything I lost was due to dipping, and or over reacting to the flatworms)

agree to disagree then. I've read your thread on RC and would never take the approach that you have. Spinning your wheels IMO.

 

[swannyson7]

Repeated dipping in QT is tried and true, so that's probably your best bet. I've known a couple people that have managed to beat them with basting as brahm suggested, so I wouldn't rule that out completely either. Both require a great deal of diligence on your part and the basting is more likely to control them rather than eradicate them, although it is possible. The FWS is far too new to come to any conclusive results, but I'm interested to see what the masses are saying a year from now...

 

[-Logzor]

Disagree. I know a few people who managed to remove them with just blasting/basting, and my tank has been living with them for over a year doing just that without ever loosing a single piece to being over by AEFW. (anything I lost was due to dipping, and or over reacting to the flatworms)

This remains true until a year later, they can potentially pop up again. They're quite sneaky. Picture a single AEFW surviving, it's going to take a long time to notice and reproduce enough to have a visual impact.

While basting is a excellent temporary solution, complete eradication purely with basting is highly unlikely. If they're actually free of them I'm suggesting another variable is at play, perhaps they have a type of wrasse that is actually eating AEFW off of the acros.

 

[PolandSpring]

well...what nice looking wrasse should i put in my DT that will eat the AEFW the best? i'll be putting a 6-line in my QT

 

[brahm]

The only problem with this is you're a "carrier". Are you prepared to never sell, trade, or give anything out of your tank to other hobbyists.

Unless you don't inform people first. You can get them from anywhere. All no additions should be dealt with as if they are infested.

 

[brahm]

agree to disagree then. I've read your thread on RC and would never take the approach that you have. Spinning your wheels IMO.

Spinning my wheels? My tank is growing very well. I kept them contained without loosing corals. I went from a demand of 36ml to 120ml of 2 part within 5 months. I don't think I would call that spinning my wheels.

 

[myzislow]

well...what nice looking wrasse should i put in my DT that will eat the AEFW the best? i'll be putting a 6-line in my QT

Nothing beats a yellow "choris" wrasse in this department. Six line is another decent choice, but the yellow coris is boss when it comes to eating all sorts of pests.

 

[brahm]

This remains true until a year later, they can potentially pop up again. They're quite sneaky. Picture a single AEFW surviving, it's going to take a long time to notice and reproduce enough to have a visual impact.

While basting is a excellent temporary solution, complete eradication purely with basting is highly unlikely. If they're actually free of them I'm suggesting another variable is at play, perhaps they have a type of wrasse that is actually eating AEFW off of the acros.

.. They aren't going to just vanish for a year and come back unless you re-infect yourself with the same bad practices that got you infected in the first place. A couple weeks sure, MAYBE a month max. But a year later..

 

[myzislow]

Spinning my wheels? My tank is growing very well. I kept them contained without loosing corals. I went from a demand of 36ml to 120ml of 2 part within 5 months. I don't think I would call that spinning my wheels.

I'm not here to debate with you about your tank; if you are happy with what you got fine, good for you. I still would never take the approach that you have.

I'd never be happy with my tank knowing that they could still be lurking in my system, even if they are kept at bay by basting or whatever...

 

[brahm]

Spinning my wheels? My tank is growing very well. I kept them contained without loosing corals. I went from a demand of 36ml to 120ml of 2 part within 5 months. I don't think I would call that spinning my wheels.

er.. wanted to add this but it was to late to edit

Many of the other treatments are far to risky. I lost a lot of pieces dipping stuff at first until I figured out what I can and can't dip. Look at all the people that jumped on the levinsole band wagon and lost there ENTIRE tanks. Nothing happens quickly in this hobby (nothing good). I kept my tank going (and growing over the past year), now there is a supposed treatment out there that I am trying, and if I need to blast/baste once or twice a week (which I would do anyways to help with detritus clean up). It's no big deal, it's a good husbandry practice. But yes at times you do need to dip as well but I'm not going to rip apart my tank and do the same thing i can do in my DT in another tank with stressed out corals in a less stable system, and if you are just doing the treatment in another tank connected to your DT you still risk reinfecting your tank.

 

[-Logzor]

Have you tried using a maxi-jet pump rather than the baster?

 

[brahm]

Have you tried using a maxi-jet pump rather than the baster?

I use both. Maxijet when I'm doing a water change or something on the tank but when I don't feel like plugging things in and getting my hands wet and I'm just staring at my tank after work or before bed I'll grab a turkey baster and baste around for good measure before I go off to do something else.

 

[WesF]

er.. wanted to add this but it was to late to edit

Many of the other treatments are far to risky. I lost a lot of pieces dipping stuff at first until I figured out what I can and can't dip. Look at all the people that jumped on the levinsole band wagon and lost there ENTIRE tanks. Nothing happens quickly in this hobby (nothing good). I kept my tank going (and growing over the past year), now there is a supposed treatment out there that I am trying, and if I need to blast/baste once or twice a week (which I would do anyways to help with detritus clean up). It's no big deal, it's a good husbandry practice. But yes at times you do need to dip as well but I'm not going to rip apart my tank and do the same thing i can do in my DT in another tank with stressed out corals in a less stable system, and if you are just doing the treatment in another tank connected to your DT you still risk reinfecting your tank.

I agree. The treatment is often worse than just living with them and controlling the population. Most of the AEFW horror stories we read about end with people killing all their corals with the latest experimental treatment of the month. There are many people who have been successfully living with AEFW for years by just doing regular bastings.

Here is one example:
http://reefbuilders.com/2012/04/10/sanjays-joshi-reef-tank/

He discusses it further in his reefkeeping TOTM article.

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/66-tank-of-the-month?start=1

 

[SteezySPS]

This is my obeservation after doing a massive dip today. I discoverd aefw beginning of April. Been using FWS since then. I still find eggs and aefw. One larger colony had over twenty aefw but the coral was nicely colored. All the eggs I discovered today were underneath the frag plugs and none on the acros although I did discover eggs on one acro a couple of weeks after initial treatment.

 

[PolandSpring]

The wierd thing is that when i dipped my sps last week i did not see any AEFW, however, i know i have them because just the other day i was inspecting my pieces again and found eggs on my tyree tri-color. I've only found eggs on 3 pieces: Tri-color, Red Table, Jesus stag.

I found AEFW (large ones) on my german blue polyp 2 weeks ago which caused me to start my AEFW dipping process for the next 6 weeks. Some of my sps are already looking better. The only losses i have had so far is my ORA Hawkins and my Tyree Fireball (from WT).

Is it wierd that i haven't seen any AEFW come off in my treatment of all my sps? i'll be doing another dip on sunday and let you guys know.

 

[spsaddict]

I thought I would chime in here because I have some experience with AEFW on the large scale. I work for a store that has good practices for quarantining new corals and they still sometimes make it through. All corals are dipped in Coralrx pro for a minimum of 10 minutes and inspected closely for eggs. If I see eggs I scrape them off with a dental tool. I add a relitivley strong powerhead to the dip container and just before I'm about to move the dipped coral to the rinse I blast it with the powerhead. From my experience if you have AEFW dipping every 3-4 days for 3 months is the only way to rid them completely. The gestation period for eggs to hatch is a minimum of 14 days and live flatworms can live for months given a steady food source, reproducing very quickly. AEFW without a food source can only survive about 5 days. With that said, if Flatworm Stop actually works it could be a great preventitive. There definitley are some acros that dont like dips like Turakis, echinatas, and some deepwaters and you may have to dip for less time and dip more frequently if you are qting. Dipping every 3-4 days is key as you are trying to kill them before they have a chance to lay more eggs. Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

 

[neuwave]

I thought I would chime in here because I have some experience with AEFW on the large scale. I work for a store that has good practices for quarantining new corals and they still sometimes make it through. All corals are dipped in Coralrx pro for a minimum of 10 minutes and inspected closely for eggs. If I see eggs I scrape them off with a dental tool. I add a relitivley strong powerhead to the dip container and just before I'm about to move the dipped coral to the rinse I blast it with the powerhead. From my experience if you have AEFW dipping every 3-4 days for 3 months is the only way to rid them completely. The gestation period for eggs to hatch is a minimum of 14 days and live flatworms can live for months given a steady food source, reproducing very quickly. AEFW without a food source can only survive about 5 days. With that said, if Flatworm Stop actually works it could be a great preventitive. There definitley are some acros that dont like dips like Turakis, echinatas, and some deepwaters and you may have to dip for less time and dip more frequently if you are qting. Dipping every 3-4 days is key as you are trying to kill them before they have a chance to lay more eggs. Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

+1 to this.

I had aefw and every 3-4 days I did exactly that. Dipped in revive since I noticed it coralrx wasn't getting them all. It was getting "some". Either way the eggs survive with either treatment. So with a led flashlight and a small razor blade I scraped off every egg cluster I would see. After three months of this, not a colony dead but red mili is slowly coming back. Haven't seen any aefw since March.

 

[PolandSpring]

I thought I would chime in here because I have some experience with AEFW on the large scale. I work for a store that has good practices for quarantining new corals and they still sometimes make it through. All corals are dipped in Coralrx pro for a minimum of 10 minutes and inspected closely for eggs. If I see eggs I scrape them off with a dental tool. I add a relitivley strong powerhead to the dip container and just before I'm about to move the dipped coral to the rinse I blast it with the powerhead. From my experience if you have AEFW dipping every 3-4 days for 3 months is the only way to rid them completely. The gestation period for eggs to hatch is a minimum of 14 days and live flatworms can live for months given a steady food source, reproducing very quickly. AEFW without a food source can only survive about 5 days. With that said, if Flatworm Stop actually works it could be a great preventitive. There definitley are some acros that dont like dips like Turakis, echinatas, and some deepwaters and you may have to dip for less time and dip more frequently if you are qting. Dipping every 3-4 days is key as you are trying to kill them before they have a chance to lay more eggs. Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

Thankyou for that, it was very helpful

 

[Starblenny]

+1. That's really good advice. I'd like to shop in that LFS you work at spsaddact.

 

[FaviaFreak]

the way I was explained how FWS works is it makes the slime on the coral taste horrible so the AEFW won't eat it

essentially you give me a big juicy steak I'm eating it, you give me a big juicy steak that has been sitting in the bottom of a nasty, foul, trash can I'm gonna pass.

does it work? I dunno jury has come back with a verdict yet