Honest opinion needed re. frags & AEFW's

[fishmaster]

O.K. Sorry for the long story...
Well, lately I've had a hard time finding the time for this demanding hobby. I'm running a 55gal which is crammed with SPS. Meanwhile, I've been building a 120. It just seems to be taking me forever to get it built. I travel a fair amount for work and it seems every time I leave town, something goes wrong with my tank. I've maintaind a positive attitude and continued to push ahead. Until about a week ago. It turns out that I have acro eating flatworms..!!!:twised: At this point, I'm thinking I will shut down the SPS tank. I do have a frag tank running that is AEFW free. I had an infected colony which I fragged and disposed of the badly affected parts. I've also dipped several of my other healthy colonys and not found any. I do assume the AEFW's are now in my system. The only way I can be sure to get all the eggs is to frag the colonys. What I want to know is:
Assuming I was sure the frags are AEFW free & you would dip & quarantine anyways. Would you buy frags from someone who has had AEFW's? A simple yes or no is fine. I do have allot of nice pieces, and it would be sad if I can't get anything back for them.
Thanks, your opininons are appreciated.
Shaun.

[untamed]

Sorry man...I would not purchase from you if you knew that you had AEFW. I dip prior to introducing new coral into the tank, but that is a critter I do not want to mess with.

[Borderjumper]

I would not buy. I have no quarentine tank, and its just too risky IMO. All it takes is one missed egg...

[fishmaster]

I would not buy. I have no quarentine tank, and its just too risky IMO. All it takes is one missed egg...

Seriously man, for the love of God, get a quarantine tank! Learn from my bad experience! This pest exists in Victoria! People have it and don't know it.

[justinl]

honest answer is no. like untamed said, precautions or not, this is one critter that i would not want to mess with. Kudos to you though. it was responsible of you to come clean and ask this; i know there are people who would just sell it all off and not mention the worms.

good luck with the extermination.

[mark]

As well, no.

[Snappy]

I would buy them, dip and quarentine. Unfortunately unless it is something very rare or special I am not in the market.

[Borderjumper]

Seriously man, for the love of God, get a quarantine tank! Learn from my bad experience! This pest exists in Victoria! People have it and don't know it.
Im not a man:wink: I know in a perfect world I should have a Q tank... but I just plain and simple dont have the room for one!. There is no way new pieces would go in my reef tanks.. they do spend some "quality" time in my frag tank. Sorry to hear about your AEFW. I noticed you and Sarah are both in Campbell River, did you have the same source for the aefw?

[fishmaster]

honest answer is no. like untamed said, precautions or not, this is one critter that i would not want to mess with. Kudos to you though. it was responsible of you to come clean and ask this; i know there are people who would just sell it all off and not mention the worms.

good luck with the extermination.

Thanks Justin.:smile: I couldn't honestly bring myself to mislead fellow reefers by not telling the whole story.
Bottom line is, people need to quarantine and KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR! The infected corals were quarantined and treated with interceptor incase of red bugs. The AEFW's were missed! An Iodine bath is needed. Use a white bucket so they are easier the see. Blow off the whole coral with a turkey baster. The AEFW's, will fall off. . Some are quite small, so you will need to be looking for them. Also, inspect very carfully for eggs. The iodine will not kill eggs. They need to be scraped off manually. That is why I chose to frag, so I don't miss any eggs. I honestly beleive these things are more common that once thought. People have them and don't even know. If you have a coral that is misteriously browning out & not doing well, dip it and see what comes off. The Tips can still be healthy looking & coloured, but the base is starting to brown out and slowly die. It looks somewhat like STN. Classic symtoms of AEFW's.

[marie]

I would buy :biggrin:

And for those that say no they wouldn't buy, does that mean you won't by frags privately? :confused: Hes not saying that you are buying flatworm infested frags just that he had flatworms once in his system.


Quarantining is the only way to avoid problems and a coral quarantine is even easier to set up then one for fish

[fishmaster]

Im not a man:wink: I know in a perfect world I should have a Q tank... but I just plain and simple dont have the room for one!. There is no way new pieces would go in my reef tanks.. they do spend some "quality" time in my frag tank. Sorry to hear about your AEFW. I noticed you and Sarah are both in Campbell River, did you have the same source for the aefw?

Sorry for calling you a man!:biggrin:
Well, as far as the source goes. I don't want to turn this into a finger pointing session. After all, we should have caught it ourselves before the corals went into our tanks. Let's use it as a lesson to everyone who doesn't already practice strict quarantine methods. Again, KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR!!! We did quarantine, but didn't looks for AEFW's. Also, people who havn't strictly quarantined in the past & looked for AEFW's should be checking for them already in their tanks. They don't eat your tank overnight! They can go unnoticed for a long time. You might think you are slowly loosing corals to STN.

[andresont]

How about keepeing these hungry shrimps in the sump to help with AEFW and eggs ?
IF this method works SPS can be placed in the sump for an hour or so.

http://www.korallen-zucht.de/index.php?article_id=52&clang=1

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=37579

[Myka]

I would buy them, dip and quarantine.

Me too. :)

[fishmaster]

RE: Andresont's Camel shrimp post.

Yes, Sarah(chaloupa) will be trying that method. I'm just thinking of getting out for a while. I'd feel much more comfortable fragging everything to be sure there's no AEFW's before attemting to pass them on to others. I might use them as part of my quarentine before moving corals to my frag tank.

[michika]

I would buy, dip and QT for sure. Although I would definitely appreciate the heads up, just so I make sure I look that extra bit closer.

[Chaloupa]

It's a tough call....I would most likely purchase corals that had been treated for AEFW and were clean...but I would Q tank them, dip and see how they fared and then put into my display tank after 6-8 weeks. I totally get where you're coming from of course having them myself. Throwing them away is really really hard:cry:

[fishmaster]

Thanks for the feedback! More would be very much appreciated:biggrin:

[tang daddy]

honestly I would buy we already buy sps infected with aefw's most times and dont even notice it. I just make sure that no eggs or bastards get in to my system via qt. People that have had severe experience with these pest dare not to buy corals and drop it in their tank without qt. Unless you've had them before it's hard to tell what you have just by looking in a tank but a sure way is white spots on the underside and if you pull the acro out for a minute to let it dry they appear shiny on the fading spots.

[Puff]

i dont have a QT tank and am kind of embarrassed. im thinking of setting one up once i get back after my trip in february. im thinking of making it just live rock and a couple of fish. that way i can use it as a QT tank for my corals...as i rarely buy fish.

[fishmaster]

Thanks for the honest opinions everyone! I've decided that fragging everything is my best option. I'm confident I can eliminate these pests. Stay tuned for the new frag tank build! I'll get it going in early January.
Merry Christmas & happy New Year!!!
Shaun.