Help! AEFW outbreak

[MTsquared]

So it appears as though I am having a pretty serious outbreak of AEFW. I don’t have a QT tank and most of the impacted colonies are attached to the LR and well established.
At first it seemed confined to my tri color valida and bonsai. The valida was a large colony and I didn’t want to lose it so I did some damage control by breaking it off the LR and giving it a serious dip. Seems to be doing better but now it looks like the AEFW has spread to other medium size colonies that I don’t want to lose including a WD and a beautiful pink table (don’t know the name).
Think I may have picked it up on some frags from another reefer even though I dipped as I didn’t have any issues prior to introducing some of those frags. I have a melanarus wrasse however I’m not sure the bugs are large enough for him to see or if he is getting them the eggs continue to hatch in my tank. Short of breaking off the impacted colonies and dipping them continuously are there any other ways to combat this? I was thinking of adding a 6 line wrasse or coris. My preference would be natural methodology and not chemicals however I don’t want to lose some of these bigger colonies. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

So it appears as though I am having a pretty serious outbreak of AEFW. I don’t have a QT tank and most of the impacted colonies are attached to the LR and well established.
At first it seemed confined to my tri color valida and bonsai. The valida was a large colony and I didn’t want to lose it so I did some damage control by breaking it off the LR and giving it a serious dip. Seems to be doing better but now it looks like the AEFW has spread to other medium size colonies that I don’t want to lose including a WD and a beautiful pink table (don’t know the name).
Think I may have picked it up on some frags from another reefer even though I dipped as I didn’t have any issues prior to introducing some of those frags. I have a melanarus wrasse however I’m not sure the bugs are large enough for him to see or if he is getting them the eggs continue to hatch in my tank. Short of breaking off the impacted colonies and dipping them continuously are there any other ways to combat this? I was thinking of adding a 6 line wrasse or coris. My preference would be natural methodology and not chemicals however I don’t want to lose some of these bigger colonies. Thanks in advance for your help.

i hate Euphyilla eating flatworms. They were flatworm exit resistent although i could pull individual frags out, dip them and get many off..they still persisted. It wasnt until I added a 6 line and a melraneous wrasse did i finally get them under control.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

i hate Euphyilla eating flatworms. They were flatworm exit resistent although i could pull individual frags out, dip them and get many off..they still persisted. It wasnt until I added a 6 line and a melraneous wrasse did i finally get them under control.

He has Acro Eating FW not Euphyllia Eating FW. The only in tank treatment I've ever heard of that had any success was this:

 

[MTsquared]

He has Acro Eating FW not Euphyllia Eating FW. The only in tank treatment I've ever heard of that had any success was this:

Very interesting, haven't seen that before. Now to find potassium chloride.

 

[MTsquared]

What coral dip if any will help eradicate these pests on new frags prior to introducing them to the system?

 

[ScottB]

What coral dip if any will help eradicate these pests on new frags prior to introducing them to the system?

Potassium chloride will melt every single flatworm in minutes. Most of us get the worms via the EGGS which are unaffected by any dips that the coral could survive. Cut and toss the plug/rock and anything that is not live coral flesh.

 

[ScottB]

Very interesting, haven't seen that before. Now to find potassium chloride.

It is a readily available & cheap salt substitute product. 1 tbls per gallon tank water. No rinse necessary.

 

[Spare time]

If you are going to use potassium chloride, be sure to get a potassium test kit (I like the salifert one)

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

If you are going to use potassium chloride, be sure to get a potassium test kit (I like the salifert one)

Why would they need a potassium test for a dip?

 

[Spare time]

Why would they need a potassium test for a dip?

Oh my bad I was thinking they were going to raise potassium in the tank lol

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have beaten them using dips (melafix and revive were my go to dips because they were nice and clear) which was hard the first time around. Every 6-7 days for 6+ weeks depending on infestation. I learned the hard way by stretching a week out with no dips for 11 days in the middle of my treatments and I had to start over. I think I dipped for 10 weeks straight to beat them because of that mistake.
I have had amazing results using kz flatworm stop as well. Double dose while basting the corals off as often as possible to keep the worms from getting comfortable, also the fish end up picking up on the baster and will start eating the worms that fly loose. After 6 months of this I didn’t see a worm or egg again.

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

Lanthanum chloride at 1ml per 100ml of tank water is supposed to kill flatworms; just need to be prepared to deal with the Alk dip that will follow, water change and carbon will also be needed for flatworm die-off

 

[FishPureLuck]

I've always kept Chrysiptera springeri "Springer's Damsels" in my 300 gallon SPS and never saw any flat worms. I never dipped coral either "15-20 years ago". I have two in my new 80 gallon SPS tank, and while I do dip and quarantine everything that goes in, I still have these guys and a few different wrasses to eat anything that may survive. Might want to give them a try, they are small, cheap and peaceful.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I think people often overlook that a turkey baster is a very good tool even if you don’t have aefw. Just stimulating the corals with bursts of flow is helpful if nothing else ime. Detritus or any other very small debris that could cause a coral issues, is blown off the coral and it’s base when you use a baster. I always kept one right by the tank and made it a habit of checking corals with one as often as possible even when I knew I had no pests. People that never use them would probably be amazed at what flys out of their rock and possibly corals as well.
I have seen and heard from people who, with the right amount/type of fish rid their tank of aefw with just daily coral basting because the fish were so good at eating the loose worms. Also seen people pull a certain fish species to find that they had aefw for a long time but just didn’t know because the fish held the population down so well.