AEFW question

[KK's Reef]

I recently discovered aefw in my system. I've bought a handful of frags from different vendors over the last couple of months, so it could have come from anyone.

The two acro frags that were affected were both microlados. I noticed that they had severely lost color and were severely pale (not bleached and no STN/RTN) over the course of several weeks. I shined a blue light flashlight on them to get a better look and discovered that the entire frag was covered in bite marks. It looked like tiny white circles or pot marks. There were only patches of healthy flesh left. I also noticed that a few of the patches of flesh had moved. So upon another closer look, I discovered that they were the worms themselves. They had this line down the middle of their body which is what the Google pics of aefw looked like. I suctioned a couple of them off with a feeder, but decided to just take the frags out since they weren't going to survive anyway.

So the question is, do aefw eat only a specific type of acropora? Does the type I have in my tank only eat microlados? I inspected the other frags (mostly tenuis) and didn't see any bite marks. I have a Walt Disney that is taking off and noticed a couple of larger pale patches on it (larger than bite marks), but doesn't look bite marks. Should I take a wait and see approach, or get a head start in treatment, like dosing KZ Flatwork Stop? What about a treatment session of potassium chloride? - I don't know enough about it yet, but have heard it's super effective.

 

[ReefingDreams]

I recently discovered aefw in my system. I've bought a handful of frags from different vendors over the last couple of months, so it could have come from anyone.

The two acro frags that were affected were both microlados. I noticed that they had severely lost color and were severely pale (not bleached and no STN/RTN) over the course of several weeks. I shined a blue light flashlight on them to get a better look and discovered that the entire frag was covered in bite marks. It looked like tiny white circles or pot marks. There were only patches of healthy flesh left. I also noticed that a few of the patches of flesh had moved. So upon another closer look, I discovered that they were the worms themselves. They had this line down the middle of their body which is what the Google pics of aefw looked like. I suctioned a couple of them off with a feeder, but decided to just take the frags out since they weren't going to survive anyway.

So the question is, do aefw eat only a specific type of acropora? Does the type I have in my tank only eat microlados? I inspected the other frags (mostly tenuis) and didn't see any bite marks. I have a Walt Disney that is taking off and noticed a couple of larger pale patches on it (larger than bite marks), but doesn't look bite marks. Should I take a wait and see approach, or get a head start in treatment, like dosing KZ Flatwork Stop? What about a treatment session of potassium chloride? - I don't know enough about it yet, but have heard it's super effective.

AEFW tend to show preference toward certain species of acropora, but they are opportunistic. If you don't already have a pest eating wrasse, and your tank can sustain one, I'd recommend it. If you go the potassium chloride dip, you're signing yourself up to dip each acro outside of the tank weekly for about 8 weeks. It might be worth it to do the Flatworm Stop + Coral Booster combo to try to get ahead of it. Pricey, but so is a WD that is finally taking off. Not a bulletproof solution, but combined with a pest eating wrasse and possibly dips, you can beat them.

In planning for the future, I always recommend cutting off any dead sections of acros and removing the base/plug. You'll lose a bit of fleah and may have a brief period of slow growth, but you greatly reduce your chances of getting AEFW and other egg-laying pests. Typically pests don't lay eggs on living flesh.

 

[coralbeauties]

flatworm stop is worthless for aefw. You need to get a handle on them now. If possible you should remove all your acros from your display tank into a frag tank of some sort. Do weekly dips on the removed acros for about 5-6 weeks along with leaving the display tank acro free taking all the food source for any of the worms or hatched worms that might be left in the tank. They can be beat but your in for a fight.
Jeff

 

[DanyL]

flatworm stop is worthless for aefw. You need to get a handle on them now. If possible you should remove all your acros from your display tank into a frag tank of some sort. Do weekly dips on the removed acros for about 5-6 weeks along with leaving the display tank acro free taking all the food source for any of the worms or hatched worms that might be left in the tank. They can be beat but your in for a fight.
Jeff

I second this and will add a close inspection of all acros for eggs under magnifying glass.

It is far better to take a punch and go through an unnecessary treatment now than to possibly loose the battle later.

I’m also attaching a thesis on an affective, and less harsh alternative to AEFW treatment.

I personally use high concentration of Praziquantel as a dip during Acropora quarantine before introducing them into my system, and found it to be affective in practice.

https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/68053/1/JCU_68053_Barton_2020_thesis.pdf

 

[billyocean]

There's some talk about fenbendazole working as well but not sure.

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

I beat AEFW by doing the drain tank down / spray corals with potassium chloride / refill tank method… did it 4 times in total

 

[matt_work27]

Turkey basting your corals every day can be helpful in killing off adults that are still in tank, wrasses will eat the AEFW when you blast it off the coral. Getting rid of all the adults doesn't fix the problem entirely because there are probably still eggs in your tank, but at least you are giving your acros a chance to possibly heal before the next batch of eggs hatches.

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

They do seem to have a preference for certain acro's over others. In my tank they never touch certain acro's even when the rest were all dead. They seemed to go mad for Torts but never touched bali green slimer for example.

 

[Z Burn's Reefing]

The "wait and see" approach is the only thing I would not recommend. If you take action and stay on top of things, you'll be fine and successful. I can't reiterate this enough...don't let this keep you up at night, but the key is to do some type of action. AEFW only really cause issues when their population explodes, or if your corals are already not healthy...a flashlight and 5-10 minute inspection of the tank at night will be your friend. You'll be able to train your eye to identify bite marks quickly and can keep on top of these issues.

You can deal with them in a few ways.

1. Repeated dips for complete eradication
2. Weekly basting + flatworm stop + wrasse (all fish eventually will eat them in the end if you baste and the FW stop isn't required, but does seem to help improve overall coral health when infected)
3. The potassium chloride spray approach - this is pretty new and seems to have worked for some...

You can also do a combination of approaches. Such as pull badly infected colonies and dip to get a head start, then manage populations through basting + fish + fw stop. I have even heard of a few stories where the hobbyist caught them real early and was able to eradicate with frequent basting and doubling the dose of FW stop (took months of consistency though and emphasis needs to be place on catching them early).

I have seen countless success stories using options #1 and #2 in my 15 years in the hobby. Many of the old Tanks of the Month back in the Reef Central days were infected and managed AEFW through basting/maxi-jet pump. As shown in this thread, option #3 seems to be potentially viable as well based on those with first hand experience with that approach. I think you'll need to decide which is the best path for you. There are many factors to consider. For example, do you plan on selling frags in the future? Option 2 could be a little bit of an ethical challenge if you do (i.e., knowingly selling infected frags..or maybe some hobbyists don't care and expect that we all need to dip regardless - lots of opinions on this one). Or, do you have a lot of larger colonies already encrusted onto the rock work? Option 1 may result in more overall coral stress/loss in that situation. Or...do you have a very large tank? FW stop may be too expensive to dose long term...etc...there are many scenarios to think about.

Good luck!

 

[Z Burn's Reefing]

There's some talk about fenbendazole working as well but not sure.

Agreed...another approach to research...there are a few youtube videos/podcasts out there where Ryan from Chummingham's reef talks about this approach and the success...

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

The problem with fenbendazole is it's not reef safe. You'll kill all your other inverts and probably the corals.

 

[Danny McElroy]

The problem with fenbendazole is it's not reef safe. You'll kill all your other inverts and probably the corals.

"Probably kill all the corals" appears to not be true according to the Mike Paletta Reef Builders article from 2023, the only corals that it will kill are the softies, but all the LPS and SPS should be fine. Based on this article, the biggest down side appears to be that Fenbendazole absorbs into the rock and sand and leaches out over the next 6-9 months so inverts and soft corals cannot be kept in that tank until about a year after the treatment.