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More AEFW than I ever thought possible

Thales

Thales

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So, a big coral was looking bad. Being as it was easily removable, I dipped it. The entire bottom of the large deli container became covered in AEFW. Really. Camera is fritzy so no pics. I dipped two more colonies and found the same thing. After freaking out and yelling at Gresham on the phone when he called about something else (oy) I calmed down and read Sanjays thread about living with them, and decided I felt the same way. Its just impractical for me to tear down the reef and dip everything. :D So I am going to try to stay ahead of them, blowing them off corals for fish to eat. Almost all the corals look just fine, so it really may be possible to live with them. We'll see how it goes!

I am also going to try animals I think might much on them - arrow crabs come to mind. Any other ideas?

I am happy to keep fragging stuff, but make damn sure you QT anything you get from me.

Thanks for reading! I think its important to post about issues like this and not just about good things. :D It also makes me wonder how many AEFW are in peoples tanks unbeknownst to to the reefers.
 
OMG sorry to hear about that. Im still freaking out about finding one. I havent found any since, but I think im gonna do a diligent inspection again today.

Hope things work out for you..
 
As I last recall it was Gresham who said aefw are more than likely in all our tanks, it's just a matter of when the population explodes and goes out of control is when "hell breaks loose"

I periodically dip stuff just for the hell of it just to check.

Good luck Rich!
 
I think they are pretty ubiquitous in all our tanks. They must have been in my tank for a long time to reach such a massive population.

After having been through this once before, and through monti nudis, and given how most of the corals don't seem worse for the wear, I don't think I'll be panicking anytime soon. :D
 
Rich don't worry, they are not the death sentence we thought they were a couple of years ago.

I had them 2 years ago and tore down my tank, and in the process lost far more colonies to the redo than I would have to the worms.

The turkey baster will just be another maintenance chore to do. I know several people who have employed this method in large tanks, and you would NEVER know they had aefw's in their tanks.

You will want some wrasses to eat the worms as they blow off the colonies. The fish will get used to the turkey baster and follow it around waiting for the worm treats. They eat them up like candy.
 
Melanurus are a popular choice, and the yellow or green coris are both popular.

The two you have should do the job, along with the other fish. It seems like the wrasses are always the ones getting to the worms the fastest.

this was my thread when I found the worms
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/coral-farming/14743-acro-eating-flat-worms-s.html

and this is when I lost my mind and tore down the tank :(
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/15192-bigger-changes-now-w-pics.html

I wish the turkey baster method was known then. Kedd also tore down his amazing SPS tank at the same time.
 
Pink skunk clown and lubboks wrasse just ate some of em. :D

Do you need a place to stay while you are out here?


Yeah, its too bad about the baster back then - remember the fear was that they would get spread to all your other corals.
 
good news on the fish eating them. blowing the suckers off is the way to go. they don't stand a chance when they are free swimming. which is kind of telling by the great camouflage they have.

thanks, I'll pm you about a place to stay.
 
Rich your attitude is soooo enviable in this situation, good luck, I believe it's a valuable lesson for everyone. I'd be at fight club 3 days a week instead of one (did I say fight club?) if I were in your shoes.
 
Figured I'd chime in hear as I'm one of the NYC crew living with AEFW and seem to be credited locally with the RTBM (Randy Turkey Baster Method), though I'm sure I'm not the first.

The worms blow off the corals quite easily with blasts from a baster and I find they are able to withstand a constant stream from a powerhead with out releasing nearly as easily. When I first discovered the problem I went thorough my system colony by colony daily and would find a surprising number of worms. It was clear certain colonies were far more affected than others. After about 2 weeks of this I noticed a marked decrease in the number of worms I found and have been able to maintain this reduced level with twice weekly "treatments". I've been doing this for nearly 6 months now and haven't lost a single colony. Most of the worms seem confined to 2-3 colonies (mostly millies) and don't seem to spread too easily.

Regarding fish species, I have found that almost all my fish will eat them with gusto once they are water borne-- Anthias, Halichoeres wrasses, chromis , even tangs follow the baster around waiting for treats. The best was a flame hawk that was smart enough to wait on the undersides of the corals and scoff up any worms that went downward. Sadly he jumped a little while back.

My general thoughts based on my experience and from discussions with Sanjay and others is that most if not all systems have some of these worms and that systems with small frags are more prone to wipeouts as large colonies seem to handle the infestations pretty well. We are also very likely dealing with more than one type of AEFW and some may be more damaging than others. The turkey baster method will never be a true cure, but if you just consider it as part of your regular maintenance regime it seems to be perfectly reasonable way of living with these unfortunate pests. Ripping apart my reef and losing a large number of colonies to treatment regimes didn't seem wise to me at the time and I'm happy I didn't go this route.

BTW, I'm not sending any Acros in the Manhattan Reefs swap box so no worries there.:)

Randy
 
Thanks for the post Randy.

I think we are going to start seeing more and more people living with them because 'eradicating' them from a system is such a daunting/destructive task and the 'eradication' doesn't seem to always take. :D
 
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