AEFW eggs!!! for those who doesnt know what to look for

[imisky]

hey guys,

i just thought id share this with everyone since alot of people dont know what acropora eating flatworm (AEFW) eggs look like or how to locate them.

the eggs are usually at the base of the coral, that can be the plug that its on to LRR that they are attached to. If the coral is in any way STN/RTNing and showing bone white skeleton then where the flesh meets the skeleton becomes the base. this is where the eggs usually are but they can be found else where as well.

to keep him anonymous (unless he wants to chime in) i took some corals from a friend who was having issues with corals turning brown/STN/RTNing thinking maybe it was his tank parameter or something other then pests in his tank that made it happen. Since i had just setup a frag tank 2-3months ago and its empty i thought it lend him a hand and give him time to get things back in order for his tank so he doesnt lose anymore corals.

so i had the corals for a few weeks, the pieces he brought over all had PE once they were in the tank for a few hours and magically a piece died out of no where in a week. During the whole time i was inspecting all the corals and didnt see signs of RB or AEFW. some of the corals even started to color back up. so everything is starting to point towards water parameters and possible chemicals getting into his tank causing the RTN while he had it. Out of no where as i looked into the tank today i see a piece of his coral half bone white i took it out and looked at the coral and found....(picture blew). i instantly turned off all the flow and looked at the corals and wow can i see alot of RB all over the place, even on the pieces that were coloring back up.

so i ran to my room grabed the camera took some pictures, ran back to my room put the camera down, grabed a tab of interceptor and dosed it and now is the treatment for 2 more weeks on the tank to kill them all. at least i found the culprit that was killing the corals in his tank and browning everything out


and THANK GOD its in my frag tank and not the display, enjoy guys



EDIT:..it was actually AEFW eggs, it wasnt until lights out that i went and checked and saw big AEFWs on the corals munching away...

[danny zubot]

Yikes! thanks for sharing.

[Myka]

Eeep! Great photo though! I had a recent dash with RBs. They only affected one frag though, so I just ran the frag under tap water for about 2-3 minutes. I didn't have any Interceptor on hand at the time. I figured it would kill the frag, but I also figured that one frag isn't worth the risk of the RBs spreading! Surprisingly the frag made it and is starting to color back up. Who said Acros weren't tough?

I'm confused though...are there RBs and AEFWs? Or you just thought the AEFW eggs were RBs until you looked closer?

[Ephraim]

Red Bugs are just that, little bugs with a red spot, some type of copepod if i remember properly. AEFW are a flatworm. Red bugs will be slightly smaller than AEFW eggs.

Originally Posted by Myka

Eeep! Great photo though! I had a recent dash with RBs. They only affected one frag though, so I just ran the frag under tap water for about 2-3 minutes. I didn't have any Interceptor on hand at the time. I figured it would kill the frag, but I also figured that one frag isn't worth the risk of the RBs spreading! Surprisingly the frag made it and is starting to color back up. Who said Acros weren't tough?

I'm confused though...are there RBs and AEFWs? Or you just thought the AEFW eggs were RBs until you looked closer?

[imisky]

Originally Posted by Myka

Eeep! Great photo though! I had a recent dash with RBs. They only affected one frag though, so I just ran the frag under tap water for about 2-3 minutes. I didn't have any Interceptor on hand at the time. I figured it would kill the frag, but I also figured that one frag isn't worth the risk of the RBs spreading! Surprisingly the frag made it and is starting to color back up. Who said Acros weren't tough?

I'm confused though...are there RBs and AEFWs? Or you just thought the AEFW eggs were RBs until you looked closer?

there are both AEFW and RB, when i first saw the eggs i thought AEFW but i didnt spot any, and the marking on the corals looked like they were bite marks from AEFWs so i was thinking there was some but wasnt 100% sure until i checked when the lights went out. Then i went on the internet to find what RB eggs looked like and found surprisingly they dont lay eggs but instead like shrimps they carry them until hatched. Then i went to melvesreef to see what hi AEFW eggs look like and what do you know his AEFW picture looks just like mine

when i initially turned off the flow with the lights on all i could see were the RBs crawling about the corals staring me in the eye haha but what they didnt know was i had interceptor on hand ... now the AEFW dont come out until the lights go out and are a little bit of a different story when it comes to treatment and its a hell alot more work then RB, they require betadine (fluke tablets) for them to let go of the coral (pretty much get stunned) and even then they are STILL ALIVE!! annoying buggers the only way to get rid of them good is to quarantine all the SPS in a tank and dose betadine into the tank or a container and dip the corals turkey bast the coral in the dipping container to hell and hope u got all the AEFWs off

They only affected one frag though

most likely if they were on one frag they had already repopulated enough to have some on others which would be hard to see as they dont do much damage until they become plague sizes. grab a few tabs of interceptor and kill them!