Acropora Eating Flatworm ID

[gmerek2]

Pretty neat and disgusting pic I saw on the internet. AEFW eggs, there is a flatworm visible on the acro. Bite marks. Looks like they tried to stay hidden on the underside of the acro. Pretty classic symptoms. Trailmarks is another way to help spot them but I don’t see them on this one.

 

 

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[YHSublime]

*Shudder*

[Origami]

Sorry. In your tank? Or was this caught incoming? 

 

Wait, this is just something you saw on the internet. My bad.

[Origami]

Bob Billings was a WAMAS member years ago. His screen name was Lanman. Bob passed in 2013 from brain cancer. Before his decline, he was an active and vital member of the community.

 

I raise this in this thread because Bob contributed to our collective understanding about AEFW back in 2009. Some may want to read this thread for that story and for a glimpse into what we, even as hobbyists, can do when engaging with researchers. After Bob's passing, I moved all of the pictures that he used off Photobucket and put them in my WAMAS gallery where we had control. Given where Photobucket has gone since then, I'm glad that I did.

 

 

[bues0022]

That thread is simply amazing! He completely sidestepped the panic mode and went straight to curious researcher. Threads like this are invaluable with understanding for the rest of us to most directly treat the issues - and one cannot treat without knowledge, documentation, and experimentation to know what works and why. Very good thinking to archive the images before his passing. It is too bad his enthusiasm for the hobby and thirst for knowledge is no longer with us.

[gmerek2]

Here is the flatworm if y’all couldn’t spot it. I’ll look at the thread after I cut a few frags and maintenance tank.


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[Origami]

Yep, they're hard to see. Some pests are harder to eradicate or control than others. AEFW is one of the worst and among the most painful to recover from. (That's why the "*Shudder*" from YHSublime.) That's why you want to 1) trust nobody; 2) inspect frags for unusual marks, pests and eggs; 3) dip frags; 4) inspect the dip for dislodged pests; 5) QT new arrivals. Anything less is Russian Roulette. 

 

This thread is a good reminder. Thanks for posting it.

 

 

[wangspeed]

Sadly I have first hand experience a few times with AEFW. Luckily our understanding is much better now, and so is treatment. Dipping with Melafix is nearly instant death to AEFW, as long as they aren’t in eggs. Also, there’s in tank treatment now, Purge. I actually bought a bunch thinking I would need it, but ended up eliminating them with constant dips into Melafix.

Good luck. They’re a pain. Although honestly, there are worse things to have, even as an acro collector.

Here’s my last AEFW battle on a Battle Corals Rainbows in Spain. Not directly from BC. I’m not sure who gave me the AEFW.



I dipped and cut it all the way back to just this in August



In December it looks like:


It’s the many branched, short frag that the regal’s mouth is pointing at.

[Origami]

Warren, thanks for the pics and the progress on that BC RIS frag. The bite marks picture is classic. Great to know about Melafix being an effective dip.

[wangspeed]

I about broke a local reefer’s heart today when I informed him he has AEFW. He had no idea. I wish him the best of luck. This is a frag still bagged.

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Thanks for the pictures to remind our members who are collecting acropora of what they look like guys, warren your pic is a really nice shot and defiantly should help some people.  The pic at the top looks like a large worm just moved over to a stressed colony and either cleared a spot to lay some eggs or layer them on a spot of stn.  But sometimes the coral can be so unhealthy like in that pic that the bite marks are kind of hidden, when they are on a healthy coral the bitemarks are easier to see.  After you dip a coral the bite marks become much easier to see for some reason.

This is a good reminder for everyone to check their tanks for pests, especially if your actively selling or trading.  I have got infected corals from a whole range of areas and by far the one I see most is hobbiests who don't even know they have them who are selling, or know and don't care.  Me and warren bought from a guy on reef2reef who is one of the go to guys for people collecting acropora.  People think wild and mariculture is where most of the pests come from but in my experience its mostly hobbyists and vendors who spread them, knowingly or not.  Pests do come in on wild corals sometimes but the only thing I see very often is hairy crabs that will irritate the coral and eat it if its hungry.

The best dips for aefw are melafix and revive, this way you can see in the dip afterwards too, and see if there was anything that came off.  Bayer is not that great imo because your blind at what was on the coral and there are many cases I have seen with pests getting through, especially monti nudis and even flatworms if not dipped right.  Plus its so nasty your often paying more attention to getting the stuff back in your tank or on yourself than looking for pests.

If anyone has aefw or redbugs or anything like that just ask for help, I am always willing especially if your close.  But the main thing is to not freak out, it happens.  IME there are so many people scared of them that they loose a lot of the fun in the hobby, and they also bring out a stigma type vibe to the topic which I hate.  Its all part of the hobby and learning how to deal with them should be standard practice for any acropora keeper, your not a bad person or a bad reefer if the made it into your tank.  It is possible to clean your tank so you can trade and sell stuff later on.  They are not going to wipe out your tank in a week or month or anything, but they are horribly annoying especially in a tank with acropora that are unhealthy to begin with.  The key is to keep your corals healthy and baste them every day to keep the population down and eggs from being laid until you can figure out what you want to do to get rid of them.  Setting up a quick QT tank is always asking for coral death imo, and dipping from the tank if its an option is the easiest and least stressful on the corals because they go right back in the same spot.  Also a lot of people preach that a QT is the only sure way to get rid of them but thats not true at all.  Dipping from the display will work just as good if done right so don't ever let someone make you set up a junky QT tank thats just going to further stress your corals.

 

[wangspeed]

Here is the enemy. Starting a Melafix dip. 3 fly off in a hurry, but still alive. This is a pic of 2 of them.



After the Melafix kicks in, they float around at the slightest current and shrivel up.



For Melafix dipping:

Pond strength: 5-10 ml/gallon

Regular freshwater version: 50 ml/gallon

I think marine is somewhere between, but research it if that’s what you use!

[Lowefx]

Just for the future, I need to get some to have on hand. Where do you get melafix from?

 

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[YHSublime]

Yep, they're hard to see. Some pests are harder to eradicate or control than others. AEFW is one of the worst and among the most painful to recover from. (That's why the "*Shudder*" from YHSublime.) That's why you want to 1) trust nobody; 2) inspect frags for unusual marks, pests and eggs; 3) dip frags; 4) inspect the dip for dislodged pests; 5) QT new arrivals. Anything less is Russian Roulette. 
 
This thread is a good reminder. Thanks for posting it.
 
 

Reefers, tattoo this.

The responsibility is on both sides. When you reef with someone, you reef with every person they have ever reefed with. Use those 1-4 steps to protect yourself. And take it in stride! Thanks for the awareness, and documentation all!



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[Origami]

3 hours ago, wangspeed said:

For Melafix dipping:
Pond strength: 5-10 ml/gallon
Regular freshwater version: 50 ml/gallon
I think marine is somewhere between, but research it if that’s what you use!

 

Here's something that I found on Bay Area Reefers website which may be useful for folks who wish to dip their frags in Melafix solution:

 

"As far as I know, it's safe for all corals. I've dipped all corals in it and they've survived but I can only fully recommend for SPS. There's three kinds of Melafix. The ONLY difference is the concentration of the medication (which is Tea Tree Oil).

 

Melafix @1%, Melafix Marine @1.25%, and Melafix Pond @5%.

 

The mix I use is as follows:

- Marine (1.25%) 50 mL/Gallon

- Regular (1%) 62.5 mL/Gallon

- Pond (5%) 12.5 mL/Gallon

 

The dip is safe for 6 minutes, but if you wander around and come back 15 minutes later your coral will not be happy. Just be mindful of the time, make sure to have some flow in the dip (turkey baster or tiny powerhead) and rinse the coral well in clean SW before putting in tank."