Acro Eating Flat Worms , it's on.

[jhale]

Thanks D.

Dip them all, okay.

I have hundreds of eggs waiting for Solbby to experiment with.
Maybe he will be able to determine the exact life cycle.
The only estimate I have found so far is around two weeks to hatch,
and I have not found yet how long before they can reproduce.
I can't wait to see pics of these guys under the microscope.

 

[Kedd]

John,
Have you seen these on caps also?

Kedd

 

[jhale]

Kedd,

No I've not seen them on anything other than accropora.

They apparently LOVE valida species. I lost a Larry Jackson colony I grew from a frag I got from Shaun. And I also had a aquacultured colony from Bali that died, this was the source of them I think.

So far I only read one instance of them eating anything other than acropora, someone on RC said he saw one eating a hairy milopora.

All the info to date says they will die in 5 days without acropora to eat.

It is possible eggs may be laid on a cap that is next to an infected colony, I could see that scenario happening.

 

[LeslieS]

Wow J, that really sucks. Thanks for giving such a great lesson though.

 

[mshur]

JOn,
good luck with this battle,its not easy ,but i gonna win.. Just keep dipping corals once a week..Do what i explaint to u on the phone and u willbe fine. Unfortunatly u gonna loose some corals,but nothing u can do about.Make sure u cut off all bases from AC colonies..


mike

 

[herman]

The way I see the AEFW situation is that it is a new bug. A couple years ago it was red bugs. Same response from people.

With Jhales tank we started to notice recession on the Nana about 1.5 months ago. That incidentally was after Jon had gotten the procure. Another thing is that we treated and dipped corals on the other side of the tank. They all came up negative so we thought he was in the clear.

Dipping in Jons tank made me realize that the AEFW is very picky. It definitely has its favorite corals. All six colonies we dipped were all adjacent to one another. Half of the came up with nothing. The Nan had a few of the and the Larry Jackson was infested with litterally hundreds of them. Watching them peel off during the first two minutes of the dip was very very very surprising. There is no way to see the worms on the coral or the eggs prior to the dip. The only reason we can somewhat see it in the pics is due to the discoloration from the iodine.

We scrambled to "save" some FWs as the litterally melt away when they die. while dipping you have to be there to see them. You cant just dip and walk away cause youll end up thinking you dont have worms..

The way I see it is that Jon will win the battle quite easily now that he can identify the symptoms. When even the tiniest symptom appears, DIP IT. I dont see the point in dipping every single coral in your tank all at once as some corals will not survive the process.

Rich and Dave once preached that everybody has it. I now believe that statement. The only reason why the dips came out negative during the fragswap is that the frags were all from the tips of the coral. we dipped a fragged infected Nana colony and only found FWs on the base and main stalks where damage was visible. The tips were okay.

Flatworms are harmless in small numbers, but in our elclosed systems with abundant food supply they can quickly hit saturation point where they kill the host. It is not very comon in nature for a parasite to kill its host off completely, but with the lack of predators in our system, well we know the outcome.

Another thing we observed with these suckers is how they move. They seem to have a lot of trouble latching on . The worms that failed to latch on simply died whereas the ones that got a hold retrated and turned darker. I dont think these guys travel throughout our system with the flow but rather they have to crawl from one coral to the other. That would explain why only one section of Jons tank was infected but not the others.

 

[herman]

The pics turned out great btw!!!

 

[masterswimmer]

Fantastic narration Herm. Thanks.

swimmer

 

[jhale]

Fantastic narration Herm. Thanks.

swimmer

I agree, where's Herman and what did you do to him ?

:givebeer:

Quarantine all your coral
​

 

[herman]

Im right here dammit. :irked:

 

[jackson6745]

I lost a ton of acros to those little fluckers. I lost the battle
Jon, LMK if I can help.

 

[loismustdie]

Sorry to hear about this Jon. Some guys have seemed to pull through it okay, sounds like you're on track to being one of them. Steve (stingnyc) told me that anything comming out of Bali right now should be avoided since it seems as if this is where most pests are comming from. Do you see any truth to this? I know the colony that I had gotten from Dr.Mac with AEFW was a Bali Maricultured colony.
Thanks to Rich (Jackson6745) the problem was detected almost immediately. I think he got them before they moved on and caused me serious heart ache. Everything in my tank has been dipped, more than once and that was the only colony to show them. I still keep a close eye on stuff and TMPC on hand.
Wish you the best in dealing with this. If I can help restock, let me know.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Don't you have couple yellow wrasses which are supposed to eat flat worms? They went on strike?

 

[jhale]

Steve (stingnyc) told me that anything comming out of Bali right now should be avoided since it seems as if this is where most pests are comming from. Do you see any truth to this?

Chris, one word Yes. From what I have read it seems both Bali and Figi.
On the reefs there must be plenty of critters that eat the worms, in our tanks not so much.

I'm doing okay, it was just two colonies so far. One was an aquacultured colony I got from Steve, I believe that's how they got into my tank. The other was a full "Larry Jackson" colony I grew from a frag Shaun gave me

The worms can be beat, it just is a pita process, but it's not the end of ones tank by any means.

Don't you have couple yellow wrasses which are supposed to eat flat worms? They went on strike?

I had two wrasses, both were killed by the pseudochromis in the tank :irked:
I'll be taking that fish out and a yellow tailed damsel, both will be free to a good home. After that I will have a tank of worm eating wrasses!
The WEW Crew

 

[Kedd]

Has anyone heard if this is a problem for people on other websites and other parts of the country?

I'm scared to even think about getting any new corals.

Kedd

 

[scarf_ace1981]

Has anyone heard if this is a problem for people on other websites and other parts of the country?
I'm scared to even think about getting any new corals.
Kedd

are you asking if anyone has ever heard of acro eating flatworms?? if that is your question then yes. it's nothing new and some precausionary measures can be taken if you treat new corals for flatworms.

maybe jonathan can chime in here but i believe you have to treat the corals several times over a period of weeks, so when the eggs hatch you kill the babies too.

 

[jhale]

Kedd there are a bunch of threads on RC about them.

The nasty worms have infected many outstanding reef tanks across the country. But people are learning how to deal with them and win the war of the worms

If you do plan on getting any new colonies SET UP A QUARANTINE TANK.
Just dipping the colonies once will do nothing to protect you. the dip will not kill the eggs, then your screwed if you place it in your tank.
People are recommending QT times of at least 2-3 months now, it's no joke.

If I were you Kedd I would have a small tank set up to house any new acquisitions. If the heat is a factor don't get any new coral till the fall.
It would be a crying shame to have to treat your tank for the worms.

 

[Kedd]

Thanks Jonathan,
That was what I was asking I haven't been on RC for sometime.
Well this makes it an easy decision not to spend more money on corals.

Kedd

 

[ShaunW]

Kedd there are a bunch of threads on RC about them.

The nasty worms have infected many outstanding reef tanks across the country. But people are learning how to deal with them and win the war of the worms

If you do plan on getting any new colonies SET UP A QUARANTINE TANK.
Just dipping the colonies once will do nothing to protect you. the dip will not kill the eggs, then your screwed if you place it in your tank.
People are recommending QT times of at least 2-3 months now, it's no joke.

If I were you Kedd I would have a small tank set up to house any new acquisitions. If the heat is a factor don't get any new coral till the fall.
It would be a crying shame to have to treat your tank for the worms.

This is the best advice that anybody can give. My QT tank is active and in use. My main tank is in SPS lock down, I have 40+ SPS colonies and frags, I have enough corals at this point. No new corals are entering my main tank, :irked: .

Jon, I'm so sorry (you were my SPS bank), if you do lose the battle at any point, just bite the bullet, kill all SPS, wait, and I will restock you tank with SPS.

 

[jhale]

if things got that bad I would set up a hospital tank for the SPS.

I would have them sitting on eggcrate for a few months while the main tank was purged of the worms. A few months of dipping once a week should be sufficient to kill the worms in the hospital tank.

Before it gets to that point I will be rearanging the main tank.
I'll be taking the SPS off the large rocks and bottom to make it easier to to random dips, and like I said before I'll be adding some wrasses to help out.