Living with AEFW

[fritz]

I'm pretty sure that a millie colony and my blue tort have got the AEFWs. I'm thinking that they got into my tank as eggs attached to some LR that had no sps on it whatsoever. The Millie colony seems no worse for wear with the exception of a few spots that look chewed up and have no PE. The rest of the colony is actually thriving. The Blue Tort is the same, one spot is chewed up but the rest of the colony seems fine.

The millie colony has an acro crab which in spite of his presence the AEFWs seem to be attacking the colony in several places. The blue tort is defenseless. I know Randy is living with AEFWs and I suspect that many an sps keeper in here is as well and don't know it. These pieces came from other members and we've all swapped some frags in the last 6 months so I know I can't be the only one.

Anyone have any new info on this, new insight? Opinions?

 

[jhale]

I know that people are using a turkey baster to blow the worms off the coral, if you have enough fish they make quick work of the worms. using this method you can stay ahead of the worm population and eventually they may die out ( big maybe) if I had known this a year ago I might have tried this method rather than breaking down my tank and dipping all my coral. I ended up loosing more coral to the transfer and dipping than to the worms.

 

[prattreef]

You are correct I am living with them, and quite comfortably I might add, BUT if it were only 2 colonies that were affected, and you aren't keeping a lot of SPS anyway, I would remove them and dip them. It just wasn't worth it to me in my situation, so I went a different route. Interesting about the acro crab-- kind of shoots down one of my privately held theories. Randy

 

[fritz]

My fear is that eggs may be attached to non acro rock. I suspect that these guys hitchhiked on a rock not on sps, if that is indeed true I fear that I may have eggs on an acan, some sand or just some random LR and that dipping the corals will clean them but they will soon be reinfected.

Anyone know how well these guys can travel? If fish make quick work of them I doubt they'd be able to swim around looking for a host, which would kind of kill my theory.

 

[Wes]

that sucks man sorry to hear it.

 

[prattreef]

My sense, is that they don't travel well, certainly not water borne. I also think they require an Acro to lay their eggs on.

 

[jhale]

I agree with Randy. I do not think they lay their eggs on rock, just acro's.

I also think they tend to crawl from one coral to the next. this is from observing them. while in the water column they are helpless. they don't swim well and they last about 3 seconds with any fish present. also the way they spread out in my tank, they only made it to the corals right next to the colonies that were originally infected. there was no coral further than 6" away that had any worms on them. I think there is a reason they evolved into masters of [SIZE=-1]camouflage[/SIZE], they are helpless once off the acro.
that's my theory and I'm sticking to it

 

[fritz]

Hmmm. Last night I searched the AEFW threads on RC but most of the info was anecdotal at best. Full of "I think", "they might" and all sorts of conflicting info on treatments, dosages, life cycle etc.

(Off topic warning)

It did however cause me to stumble upon a few gems such as:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=52876

(Back to Topic)

 

[fritz]

I agree with Randy. I do not think they lay their eggs on rock, just acro's.

I also think they tend to crawl from one coral to the next. this is from observing them. while in the water column they are helpless. they don't swim well and they last about 3 seconds with any fish present. also the way they spread out in my tank, they only made it to the corals right next to the colonies that were originally infected. there was no coral further than 6" away that had any worms on them. I think there is a reason they evolved into masters of [SIZE=-1]camouflage[/SIZE], they are helpless once off the acro.
that's my theory and I'm sticking to it

Hmmmm. Very interesting. It certainly would seem like this is true. My two infected acros are on the same rock. I have one other acro on another rock that I will have to inspect tonight.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I don't have AEFWs to my knowledge, BUT I do have a persistent case of red bugs that has seemingly disappeared after 3 different treatments of interceptor. All signs of them are gone and then a few weeks later I see a few again. The last interceptor treatment killed off 3 of the corals they were on mostly, leaving a few spots of flesh that are now regrowing. I added a vortech pump to my tank and I think the increased flow has actually hampered their reproduction by blowing some of them off into the water column and making it hard for them to stay on their favorite corals ( 2 left in the tank but they are small frags).

 

[mshur]

fred,
I had those suckers last year.. took me a long time to get rid of them.. If you have only two acros and you 1oo% sure they infected i would toss them and run your tank acro free for 4-6 weeks. AEFW canot live without acros, that has been proven.
If you need Pro-cure , I have a few bottles. They do lay eggs near acro.
but, i can tell you.. No one know for sure about this suckers)

m

 

[jhale]

what Mike says is true also. there may be different ones that we are dealing with. they might operate in different ways. if there was an aefw that adapted to swimming well you would be screwed.

 

[fritz]

Thanks I have some TMPC I'll dip them tonight and see how it goes. The Tort seems the most effected by it so perhaps the crab is providing some relief but it could just be how each coral reacts to them.

 

[mshur]

Did you find any eggs?

 

[prattreef]

Before you treat them ( and i think you should) give them a few good blasts with a baster and see what happens. It is very satisfying when the fish gobble up the little suckers.