Acro eating flat worms

[super7]

I was wondering what you would use to eat/kill them before putting them in your tank.
Thanks Super7

[phillybean]

http://www.melevsreef.com/aefw.html

If you have a coral that has them, don't risk putting it in your tank until they are all gone.

[super7]

I know, that is why I want to figure out how to rid corals of them before I add them to my tank.
Thanks Super7

[michika]

So your asking about how to QT corals that have flatworms? What kind of corals? SPS, LPS, softies?

For SPS I use a dip with Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure (iodine dip), and then I treat my QT tank residents with interceptor. I try to treat to avoid three things; red bugs, nudibranchs, and monti-eating flatworms.

[Aquattro]

So your asking about how to QT corals that have flatworms? What kind of corals? SPS, LPS, softies?




This is about acro eating flatworms, so it would only apply to acropora...

I was recently told that camel shrimp eat them, just heresay at this point. Anyone have any experience with these?

[michika]

I heard that they could travel on other SPS though.

I haven't run into the camel shrimp thing yet. Sorry.

[Aquattro]

I heard that they could travel on other SPS though.



I suppose they drift between different colonies to spread, so it's possible that some may land on something other than an acro. Just to make it more fun :)

[Chaloupa]

I HAVE Acro Eating flatworms...sad thing is you don't know you have them even AFTER 6 weeks of QT! There are quite a few threads that discuss using Camel Shrimp in your sump, rotate corals through there but not leaving the coral for longer than an hour in the sump exposed to the shrimps as they will eat the coral once the flatworm and eggs are gone. There also another suggestion to remove ALL acros from the tank, scrape off any remnants, and QT them using the above camel shrimp in the sump, and picking off any eggs that you can under a scope.....it is a nasty nasty nasty thing to have. Then you leave the display tank acro free for...well as long as you can but not less than 2 or is it 3 months...can't remember...

Right now I am just living with them..they do damage... ALOT of damage....but....I don't trade corals and am just living with it until I decide that I want to do something.....now Monti eating Nudi's....had those too...NASTY too...! I'd take redbugs any day over either of those.....and so far I haven't actually heard of a monti eating flatworm...just the acro eating flatworm and red planaria flatworm.

[Chaloupa]

From all the reading I have done, they must have an acro to survive and reproduce

[whiteice669]

the only sure fire way I know of is to aquire Dino's (aka brown snot ) after a real short time nudi's,flat worms and red bugs are a thing of the past...

[michika]

I ment acro eating nudis, not monti, I clearly need some sugar/coffee or a nap...sorry about that...my bad.

Can you point me towards anything about the camel shrimp? Its very interesting, I haven't heard anything about this before now!

[Haloreef]

Matchika, I believe that I read on the Zeovitt web site that they use Camel shrimp to treat their Acro's. It was around two weeks ago that I read this so my memmory is a little scethchy. I think it said that they keep a tank of Camel back shrimp for just this treatment but it did say that there was a time limmit. (20-30min.)? The danger was that the shrimp would eat all of the flatworms and eggs and start on the Acro.

Hope this helps.
Check the Zeovitt site and, maybe you can find the article.
I think it was Zeovitt.
Man now I have to find, and read it again.

[Aquattro]

Check the Zeovitt site and, maybe you can find the article.
I think it was Zeovitt.
.


Ya, I heard this info was obtained from that site...

[Chaloupa]

I heard it/read it on the Manhattan Reefers or Boston Reefers Site...can't remember...will try to find it again.

[fishmaster]

the only sure fire way I know of is to aquire Dino's (aka brown snot ) after a real short time nudi's,flat worms and red bugs are a thing of the past...

Great way to rid your tank of those pesky corals too...:biggrin: :cry:

[fishmaster]

An iodine dip will wash off the flat worms. You will have to carefully inspect for eggs. They are small, hard to see & iodine does not kill them. The only way to be sure is to manually remove them. I use a jewlers loop to carfully inspect each piece. If it is an infected colony, I figure it's almost impossible to be sure you've caught all the eggs. Therefore fragging the colony is the best alternative to be sure you get all the eggs.

[Chaloupa]

Great way to rid your tank of those pesky corals too...:biggrin: :cry:

yeh, how true is that!:cry:

[super7]

Thanks for all the comments. The Camelshrimp might work for me as well as the iodine treatment.
I think it was tang daddy (?) who told me about some way of ridding acro eating flatworms from a tank.
Thanks Super7

[tang daddy]

tmpcc 10x the recomended dose for 45mins and then use a maxijet or turkey baster to blast the coral after inspect under a desk lamp for eggs and stragglers that may have hung on, take no prisonners!!

[Snappy]

Catherine,
Here is a link about AEFW & camel shrimp.
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31109

[michika]

Thank you.

[super7]

Thanks tang daddy, Really appreciate all the help.

[Snappy]

Thread link to a good AEFW discussion.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=899108&perpage=25&pagenumber=32

[super7]

Thanks snappy, interesting discussion. I wonder where you could get fluke tabs from. Any suggstions.
Thanks Super7

[andresont]

http://www.melevsreef.com/aefw.html

[fishoholic]

I bought a hammer coral for someone the other day that let us know he had flat worms (not sure what kind) in his tank. We did a fresh water dip on the coral for little bit over a minute then we put it in our frag tank. We saw about 3 small worm like things in the water after the fresh water dip. We don't have any SPS corals in our tank, just softies and some lps, should I try the betadine dip method on the coral and turkey blast it or do you think the fresh water dip was enough?

[fishmaster]

If they are AEFW's and you don't have any acro's, they will just die off on their own. AEFW's are tranparent, and hard to see. The regular kind are usually red in coulour and harmless. They can infest your tank and look unsightly, but I don't think they hurt anything. I also wouln't recomend a freshwater dip on LPS. You should to an Iodine dip in Tankwater.

[fishoholic]

If they are AEFW's and you don't have any acro's, they will just die off on their own. AEFW's are tranparent, and hard to see. The regular kind are usually red in coulour and harmless. They can infest your tank and look unsightly, but I don't think they hurt anything. I also wouln't recomend a freshwater dip on LPS. You should to an Iodine dip in Tankwater.

Happy to say that even though we knew it might be a bad idea to fresh water dip lps (thought it would be better then flat worms) the lps is doing fine. The worms that came off were red in colour, so maybe we'll be ok, I hope.

[super7]

thanks for the link andresont

[Delphinus]

Reviving this old thread (well, 10 months, could be worse I suppose)

For those that were certain they had AEFW, what was the damage like to the corals? I've seen the pictures at melevsreef but I'm curious if anyone noticed, specifically, tip burning that in the end proved to be AEFW?

More to the point, in the last 10 months since this thread, have you overcome AEFW?

[Chaloupa]

I had areas of flesh that were noticeably bare of polyps...it is a strange look. I had areas that were dying off and stressed. This was almost a year ago for me and now I have no AEFW. I know I had them as I found them. I can say I am AEFW free now.....wouldn't wish them on anyone. I threw out many colonies that weren't worth trying to save, as did a couple of friends that also bought into a group of corals that were for sale. They lost almost everything....and I lost a good portion of what we bought. It was sad.

[tang daddy]

Ah the million dollar question......

If there was a hundred percent cure to rid aefw I would love to know.


"tip burning that in the end proved to be AEFW?"


usually aefw eat the coral from the bottom up, never really seen them start eating at the tips. I find that they like dark shaded areas also low flow areas on a coral.

Burning tips usually points me toward alk issues only going by what I seen and heard in the past never experienced it, however I could be wrong.

It seems that everyone gets it one time or another when keeping sps even the most experienced on RC, However many have overcame this minor setback and go on to grow the most amazing colonies.

For every coral out there there is a predator I wish more research could be done for these particular pest to find a cure. They found one for red bugs, monti nudi's so why not aefw?

[Delphinus]

Yeah the more I look at pictures of AEFW damage the more I am convinced my tip burning is likely not AEFW. While relieved at that, it still leaves me wondering what is the cause. I agree - it ought to be alkalinity burn but my Alk is testing at 8dKH. (Two different test kits confirm the #'s but they are both Elos - so unless there's something causing interference I am inclined to believe the number is correct). Other params are also suitably within normal tolerances (Ca=390, Mg=1200, NO3=2). Anyhow, sort of a good news/bad news scenario. I think I'm happy that at least it doesn't appear to be AEFW though.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

My Arrow crab eats Red Bugs...I didn't have too many but he cleared the tank out in a day. Actually he eats anything he can find...slugs, bugs, snails, other crabs :neutral: He is about 7" though. I don't know if smaller ones are aggressive as mine.

I bet he would eat the flat worms if they were big enough. Or even small maybe. I have seen him eating pods as well. Best scavenger I have ever had. He keeps the tank spotless.

He eats small fish too.

[tang daddy]

^^Red Bugs I've seen are smaller than a grain of pepper maybe the really small sugar sand, really hard to see unless you have good eyes does the Big crab suck them up?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

^^Red Bugs I've seen are smaller than a grain of pepper maybe the really small sugar sand, really hard to see unless you have good eyes does the Big crab suck them up?

Must not be Red bugs then :)

They were more like the size of pods and quite red. I thought red bugs but from your description I would say no.

Whatever they were, I am glad they are gone.