AEFW and Red Bugs

[Rickyrooz]

What is the best method of treatment for AEFW and Acropora Eating Red Bugs? Can the tank be treated for these two pests or will they need to be dipped in a solution? I have interceptor for the red bugs but what is the most effective treatment for AEFW? Can I mix the Interceptor with the AEFW treatment in a bucket and treat the coral or do I have to have each treatment solution in a separate bucket?

 

[prattreef]

Treating the whole tank with Interceptor is no big deal. Just follow Dustin's protocol (easily found on-line) and know that systems can easily tolerate much higher doses than stated, so there is little to worry about unless you are an arthropod
AEFW are much more difficult to deal with and there is no proven in-tank treatment. A variety of dips are said to be effective, but they must be repeated as they don't kill the eggs. These treatments can be pretty harsh and stressful to the corals and many pieces are lost during treatment. I ( and many others) have chosen to try to live with the little pests by keeping the population under control via frequent blasting of the colonies with a turkey baster which knocks the adults off where they are very quickly eaten by almost all species of fish. This is not a cure to be sure, but you can keep the damage to a minimum and over time the AEFW's seems to pretty much disappear. You do need to really stay on top of it though.

 

[Rickyrooz]

Thanks for the reply, I think I'll blast them until December when I will be home and can frag the corals up. I plan to re-aquascape the tank so this would be the best time to dip the corals.

 

[prattreef]

IME short quick bursts with the baster are more effective than a constant current via a powerhead etc. get the tip down in between the branches near the base if possible as this is where they seem to congregate. You can at times blow the flesh off a little so be careful, but they seem to recover quickly from that. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[mcnuggget]

sometimes the cure is worst than the disease. aefw is the nitemare for sps keepers

 

[SevTT]

If you can treat the whole tank, do that -- but make sure to take your refugium offline if you have one. If not, then you must remove the acropora colonies to a tank where they can be treated and isolated from the main tank. It takes less than a week for red bugs to die off in an acropora-less tank.

I'm less familiar with AEFW.

 

[Rickyrooz]

I set up a 5 gallon tank to use as a quarantine tank yesterday afternoon. I’m using the Koralia nano for water circulation, a 50/50 spectrum 40 watt power compact light fixture and a 50 watt heater. I did this so I could inspect a few of my corals that have a few bite marks on them possibly from Acropora Eating Flatworms (AEFW). I also wanted to make sure the red bugs were gone so I added 1/16th of a large dog tablet of Interceptor. I plan to dip these corals in TLF ReVive for 10 minutes to see if the AEFW’s fall off any corals. I will keep you updated on my progress.

The ORA green acro with blue polyps on the left has a few bite marks and is turning brown.

You can see the Tri-Color on the right has a few bite marks and is turning brown.

 

[kevinckr]

I did use many kind of dip solutions, but couldnt get the AEFM out of my corals. how about CoralX ? is it proven to be more effective than the other dip solutions?

 

[Rickyrooz]

I used ReVive. I dipped the coral for 10 minutes and they fell right off. They curl up and die in this solution.

 

[ecvernon]

now all you have to do is find the eggs

 

[kevinckr]

I tried to remove the eggs ( the ones that I could see ) with a toothbrush. I also brushed the damaged parts. Besides adding more wrasses including green and yellow, there is nothing I can do but praying

 

[Rickyrooz]

now all you have to do is find the eggs

One treatment a week for six weeks should take care of everything.

 

[ROGERWILCO357]

nice

what do you use for the filtration? since you need to have them in there for such a long time how do you filter the tank ? or do you just do water changes constantly?

I set up a 5 gallon tank to use as a quarantine tank yesterday afternoon. I?m using the Koralia nano for water circulation, a 50/50 spectrum 40 watt power compact light fixture and a 50 watt heater. I did this so I could inspect a few of my corals that have a few bite marks on them possibly from Acropora Eating Flatworms (AEFW). I also wanted to make sure the red bugs were gone so I added 1/16th of a large dog tablet of Interceptor. I plan to dip these corals in TLF ReVive for 10 minutes to see if the AEFW?s fall off any corals. I will keep you updated on my progress.

The ORA green acro with blue polyps on the left has a few bite marks and is turning brown.

You can see the Tri-Color on the right has a few bite marks and is turning brown.

 

[Rickyrooz]

Not constantly since there isn't much waste being produced. I used tank water from the display.

 

[anthony27]

I have a yellow corsis wrass and he went to town so

nice tank by the way

 

[Atsoi88]

Is there any update on this thread since i'm not sure if I have AEFW and would like delve deeper into this problem in our tanks?

 

[prattreef]

Is there any update on this thread since i'm not sure if I have AEFW and would like delve deeper into this problem in our tanks?

Out of tank treatments have improved, but to date there is still no proven in-tank treatment.

 

[Rickyrooz]

Is there any update on this thread since i'm not sure if I have AEFW and would like delve deeper into this problem in our tanks?

Your best bet is to start fresh, that's what I ended up doing.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

Your best bet is to start fresh, that's what I ended up doing.

Plus one , the $ to save the always cost more than starting from fresh IMO
Some people can fight it but when I has them real bad it was too late

 

[reefoman]

Red bugs are easy to fight you can treat whole system and get ride of them, aefw is different story...
Recently fighting with acropora eating flat worms, today took all sps from my tank to deep them one by one...
Some colonies grow over a live rock so I used long knife and hammer to chop them off the rock but carefully to not destroy them.
Today I killed hundreds of flatworms, and scraped off many eggs. The only sps I couldn't find them on was German blue, plana, echinata, and 2 other that names I don't remember.
3 more weeks and they gonna be gone.
Flatworms are reproducing slowly, slower than red bugs and in well maintained tank with some 6 line or 12 line wrasse many people don't even know that something is eating them sps, fish can keep them under control.
Eggs need more than 2 weeks to hatch so there's big chance to kill them all.

Here are pic of 1,1/2"- maybe 2" big frag of sps I couldn't believe that on this little piece was so many flat worms...

This coral lost colors almost completely and didn't expose polyps at all, 2 hours after deep I can see polyps, I'll try to snap some pic tomorrow cause only actinic light are on right now.