"Trusted members" has nothing to do with it. Every single person on these forums is at risk of infecting their own tank if they are adding corals to their tank. No matter how diligent a person is, at some point something will sneak through. Everyone's tank is "clean" ...until it isn't. I don't actually think that anyone should say their tank is "pest-free". When people ask me, I say "There are no pests in there that I currently know about". :lol: I always tell people to dip frags no matter where you get them from - even if you buy them from me. Dipping is your insurance! At the end of the day though, there are very few pests that I am particularly concerned about. AEFW is #1. :eek:

Seriously though, who is it? I bought some AEFW from Oceanic Coral a few years ago and it was the worst issue ever. Watching my acro die as I did weekly dips to try and stop the infestation almost made me give up on this hobby.

I dip every frag I buy by the eggs can make it through the dipping process. This seller should stop selling until they are 100% sure they are not selling infested frags.

That name isn't gonna get mentioned unless you want the ban hammer coming down...lol Wardog is always hammer happy....just kidding. Let's just grab our pitchforks and go for a good old witch hunt....burn the tank and house down.

All jokes aside, I am a firm believer on buying only fresh cuts on sps or any other corals that I can cut for that matter. Even stuff with a skeleton like most lps, I would use epoxy or glue to cover all that exposed skeleton after dipping. Frag plugs and maricultured sps colony cement bases are the worst for harbouring aefw eggs and other pests like majano, aiptasia along with nuisance algaes like bryopsis. Never really get why people are adamant to have it on a frag plugs, you are just buying someone else's hidden problems. Don't be a cheap fart trying to save that extra little bit coral by not cutting the base off and end up with pain and suffering for losing your whole tank.

Word of advice, if you are like me and have thousands of dollars invested in the tank, please due diligence when it comes to your tank. No one is to be the blame except for yourself.

Do you find that fresh cuts have a higher mortality rate? I've bought 2 fresh cuts and both RTN'd pretty quick, I figured they didn't have time to heal before being taken from one tank to another and the shock of the difference in parameters or flow or light was too much on them.

Maybe I'll start an all Acan reef, no one ever reports issues with Acans...lol

This is not good for those that are currently selling Acro's in the lower mainland. Or for anyone wanting to buy Acros from the lower mainland. We are in a Catch 22 right now. Dammed if we do dammed if we don't. Everyone is considered potentially guilty until we know whose corals are infected.

Maybe the best option is the person that is selling the infected corals to stop selling any corals from his system until it can be verified that he is AEFW free for at least 3 months. Once he stops selling his corals the Mods that know who he is can say it is now safe to buy Acros again from the lower mainland.

The other option is for Canreef to list all those hobbyists selling Acroporas that are verified to be from AEFW free systems.

I used to be a BCA member way back my planted tank and discus days addiction, the feature that I missed moving to Canreef is the Feedback/Rating to all transactions that is done through the BCA Buy/Sell Trade.

Can Canreef add the same feature?

Just asking. :)

so... if we know this AEFW seller, should we keep this info to ourselves?

Canreef respectfully requests you keep all names and locations OFF the forum. What you do amongst yourselves is your business.

On a side note, this seller should make buyers aware he has a problem when you show up to purchase. Also discussing proper dipping techniques and quarantine. All good retailers do. Knowingly selling coral infected with AEFW and Monti Nudis without informing the buyer is pretty low.

I wouldn't point my finger at anyone unless I have proof myself. It is such a sensitive subject in this hobby and I wouldn't be happy if someone wrongfully accused me for that. Don't get me wrong, I totally agree with everyone that if you know you have aefw or any other pest, as a seller, you needs to disclose that information with potential buyers, its the only RIGHT thing to do.

I have my suspects but here is how this all started, a person traded in some sps coral frags to one of the local store and someone was told by that store the sps carried aefw and had some bad effect on the store system. Take it for what it's worth and direct your questions to the proper source.

Very good point and attribution. I would love to see this as it is a key factor for me to purchase used stuff on other forums. MODS, upgrade time, Wardog, Mindy, Kien, Titus? Inputs?

lol, I don't think that's necessary although an acan only tank would be sexy as hell. lol

I would say fresh cuts are only as healthy as the mother colony. A weak colony will yield weak frags and might not withstand that extra bit of stress of being fragged or dipped, so pick your sellers wisely. Others can just be the specific species of the sps coral, my accidental frags of the teal dragon always peels, don't ask me why, it just does. It's not like we don't have enough shit to worry about running a sps tank. lol

AEFW?
 

Could someone tell me what this acronym means? Is it possible the seller doesn't know about this infection/infestation? It's not me btw - haven/t sold a frag in 1 or 2 years.

AquaAddict