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melev

melev

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Acropora Eating Flatworms: I finally got my own collection of them, so I can put some on my I.D. page.

My A. valida looked pretty bad over the past week, and I thought it was an alkalinity issue. Turns out I was wrong.

Here is is, back on June 13, looking happy:
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And then again, on July 28th, super close up:
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Several people informed me early this morning that they are AEFW. Not really sure, I pulled the coral out of my tank, and blasted it in a while bowl of water (.25g perhaps) with 4 drops of Lugol's Solution. Here's what I found.

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Some were large, like the one above, and many were very tiny. They are virtually invisible to the naked eye when studying a coral. A few more pictures to give you some perspective.

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And finally, my little coral. It was a mere twig last September, and finally it is something I can hold in my hand. The question is will it survive... I blasted it off repeatedly, and redipped it in new bowls of iodine three times. When I put it back in the tank, the flow caused many of the now-white flatworms to blow around, only to land elsewhere. Now the rest of my corals can be part of the party too. :rolleye1: My Copperband Butterfly ate a few.

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I seriously doubt I'll treat my corals in a separate system. Humm.
 
Ouch...

...Other than taking the corals out and dipping them in iodine baths, what IS the treatment?


Good luck!
 
Brian,
The only treatment that will work is a 4 week QT of levamisone (sp?). Most people end up loosing a few corals in the process, but at least they don't have any AEFWs left.

Marc,
Have you looked into the Christmas Wrasses? The one that I got seems to have helped with my FWs (not sure if I have AEFWs, but I suspect that I might).
 
Arghhh! An SPS keeper's nightmare. The STD of acros. :evil:

Such a shame it had to happen to such a beautiful piece.

Hopefully, that's the only colony that had it.

Marc, can you tell us where you originally got this frag from. No names need to be mentioned but was it from an LFS, another hobbyist, online vendor?

I'm always so weary of putting frags in my tank from other systems unless I know for sure they are AEFW free.
 
I dip every new piece in interceptor and occasionally if I dont know the source at all, a 1 minute RO bath. I have seen it kill flatworms. Though a lugols bath would be less stressful
 
Those things scare the crap out of me... :shock:

Hang in there Marc it's going to be a tough road ahead...
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This is my Tyree frag that I've had 1.5 years. Odds are they came in on something else. I don't know when they arrived or how they arrived, nor how long they may have been sitting in my tank.

I'm going to be doing a lot of reading on this topic now, and try to figure out what they prefer to hang out upon. One post indicated they like millepora too. None of my millis give me any indication that they are affected. I did lose a milli last month, but it was most definitely RTN.
 
Those damn things have a specific affinity to both Valida and Milli's. Once they are finished they will begin to ravage your tank. Please collect some and mail them to Borneman. He will reimburse you for the shipping I believe.

There are many different antecdotal evidence for fighting these things. Prophylactic betadine is really cheap. Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure (TMPCC) and Levamisole is the way that most people have been doing it. The problem is, if you don't get them out and treat them you will lose every acro that you have over time. Don't let them run their course.


Praziquantel IMO will likely be the best in tank treatment options based upon human studies for Trematode/Nematode and other Fluke infections. The problem is that no one has studdied the right concentrations to kill the worms


Read and post in this thread, there are great replys. Waiting on Matt to do some testing.


Let me know if you need any betadine.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=858834
 
Thanks Ryan. As you may know, I did lose a milli a month ago, even after it was fragged it continued to die even divided up in the reef and prop sections.

I had two other frags that were RTNing, so I did the iodine and turkey baster test, and no flatworms whatsoever. Relieved and confused... :shock:
 
@Marc wrote:
Thanks Ryan. As you may know said:
Don't settle for a false since of security. THe general consensus is to quarantine for at least 2 months.

When was the last sps colony put into the tank? Who did you get it from. (I don't really care, rhetorically speaking, I will not get any more colonies. ONLY frags from well established systems without new corals for > 3 months) Talk about paranoid! I don't EVER want these things. THey are in plague proportions and something NEEDS to be done.

Maybe the store that you got if from can contact the vendor/distributor to see if they are sending out infected colonies. Was the last SPS coral aquacultured or wild caught?

See my rant and rave from the importance of epidemiology in infections disease from the RC post. I will not repeat it here.

:roll:
Click to expand...
 
I've had stuff coming in from 4 different sources in the past month, so I really don't have a source to point to. Unfortunately.
 
No, I bought a bottle at Walmart. And they have a generic bottle for $5. The official bottle was $12. At CVS, the same bottle was $18. :shock:
 
I treated the Tyree frag with the 25 minute bath in Betadine, as suggested above.

I did blow off some larger flatworms, but after the coral was removed and the water settled, I didn't find any of them. I wonder if they dissolved entirely.

Here are some eggs I scraped off the coral before putting it back in my tank.
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Travis and others on RC with AEFW, have taken ALL of their Acros OOTT for treatment. Did you consider or try this? Are you just going to wait to see what happens and if another colony starts to look sick treat it.

The gestation period is thought to be around 1 month. So if you have any lingering eggs around, you will likely find that another coral will become sick in September. I would keep a close eye on your Milli's. If you get through this with only MAYBE losing that Valida, you are in GREAT shape.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Ryan
 
Here is the Tyree frag picture I promised. It looks nothing like it did, but it seems to still be alive.

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