How to live with awfw?

[oldnsalty]

I just finished a failed attempt at killing these out with purge. A month later I found worms and some eggs. I have quite a few large colonies of well encrusted corals so I am pretty much stuck with living with them till the next great cure comes around for an in tank treatment. Just looking for advise on how you are able to live with and somewhat control them? I have a yellow coris wrasse and cleaner wrasse in the tank now. I am assuming blowing off the corals is the main defense to slowing them down. My tank is not infested very bad right now. Only found 6 or 8 of them tonight while blowing off the corals. If your living with them what are you doing to keep them under control?

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

The cleaner wrasse won't really have any effect on them, a sixline or melanaurus wrasse would be better choices, i got rock once that was covered in them, added a melanaurus and they got taken care of.

 

[road_runner]

I just finished a failed attempt at killing these out with purge. A month later I found worms and some eggs. I have quite a few large colonies of well encrusted corals so I am pretty much stuck with living with them till the next great cure comes around for an in tank treatment. Just looking for advise on how you are able to live with and somewhat control them? I have a yellow coris wrasse and cleaner wrasse in the tank now. I am assuming blowing off the corals is the main defense to slowing them down. My tank is not infested very bad right now. Only found 6 or 8 of them tonight while blowing off the corals. If your living with them what are you doing to keep them under control?

Sadly these things will not simply coexist with your coral. Their diet is the coral flesh.
If you cannot isolate acros and dip them for treatment at least
- always blow acros using Turkey paster, start soaking flatworm stop as directed in the bottle..you will need to have this as your daily regimen. I use this product for years and still do on daily basis. As long as you do not over dose product will not increase nutrients or do any harm.

 

[oldnsalty]

I use to have a melanarus wrasse years ago and all my shrimp came up mia. I got the yellow coris from reading that it wouldnt eat my shrimp and possibly would eat the aefw. I am considering using kz flatworm stop but will get expensive with my system being 350 gallons total. The only option I have that wouldnt be a in tank treatment would be a total tank tear down and lose of years or growth.

 

[road_runner]

I use to have a melanarus wrasse years ago and all my shrimp came up mia. I got the yellow coris from reading that it wouldnt eat my shrimp and possibly would eat the aefw. I am considering using kz flatworm stop but will get expensive with my system being 350 gallons total. The only option I have that wouldnt be a in tank treatment would be a total tank tear down and lose of years or growth.

Flatworm stop is not that expensive you can buy it in large sizes..but yeh I get it.

 

[ckalupa]

Agree also with using the KZ Flatworm Stop. Daily for a couple months then can go to a few times per week.

 

[EmdeReef]

None of the reef safe (or dips) chemicals will affect aefw eggs, so I don’t believe any can solve the problem in 1 treatment even over a month or two. I haven’t used purge but whatever chemical path you choose you’re likely looking at months of repeated treatments, especially if in tank. Last outbreak I had back in 2012 took me almost 2 years to eradicate...

Flatworm stop IME doesn’t kill aefw so you’ll waste money and time. I may be wrong but I haven’t seen a reduction. You can try praziquantel, which is relatively reef safe and cheap. Again a single treatment won’t solve your problem. Prazi is much more effective as a bath than in a tank...

Interceptor and levamisole are another 2 options.

Melanurus and 6line were best IME in my tank with Aefw, although there are no guarantees. Some shrimp may pick on it but as always it’s a gamble.

A cleaner wrasse feeds on dead tissue on fish so won’t touch this stuff.

 

[ckalupa]

350 gal water volume would be 14ml daily dose

 

[Backreefing]

I have been lucky to never run in to them . I read so many posts and threads about meds not killing them. Really manual removing them , and there natural predators are all that seams to remain.
I would get a crew of predators, don’t forget about the springer demsel likes flatworms to .
Good luck to you

 

[road_runner]

350 gal water volume would be 14ml daily dose

Yup. I dose 8ml a day. I buy the largest portion which comes in a bottle. It's not that bad I feel...

 

[ckalupa]

Flatworm Stop does not claim to kill the AEFW rather over time it is supposed to make acros “less palatable to them” and the resulting “lack of food source” should cause them to diminish. But YMMV and each experience can be different.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Fws has been used in a number of tanks successfully with basting to reduce the population and then eventually kill it off once the worms are diminishing and not laying eggs as much.
I have helped two friends treat their tank like this and a year later still no aefw.
Also you can live with these pests, wrasse and basting will keep them in check to where the tank can grow and still be colorful.
Seems like purge isn’t working for a lot of people. That’s sad but fws is an answer no matter how many people tell you it doesn’t work, it will. You have to be very observant and baste the corals enough to make it work though, you do the work to remove the worms off colonies to keep them clean and the product helps the coral fight off their attacks and heal.
I would recommend, if using it to kill off a population, to dip as many affected pieces as you can and remove as many egg masses as well. The point is to reduce their numbers so the corals can recover. A heavy infestation won’t be reduced very quickly with fws. A small infestation will be held in check over time and eventually you will see no eggs, and no bite marks. Keep using it and after a few months of no signs of them you should be able to back off the dosing and basting and see nothing left.

 

[jda]

The KZ Flatworm Stop works. Double dose every day. It is not cheap for a large tank, but get a large bottle or two, dose the 28-30ml (double dose) until it is gone. See how the eggs disappear and the worms do less and less damage. After this, then if it gets too expensive, have some wormwood ready and make your own and see how that goes. If the eggs stay gone and worms eventually die of old age without children, then you are home free.

We had a few locals have tank damage with Purge (one near crash and the others lost a few colonies) and they are on this now... all three are probably done with treatment since they cannot find a worm or egg anywhere, but they are treating for a while longer just to be sure.

You can use CoralRx or Bayer as a dip and save the more expensive FWS. Both work pretty well. I would just use Bayer since it is safe on the deep waters and smoothies.

AEFW have some natural predators and I have seen even peppermint shrimp rip them apart... but none of these can get into the inside of colonies. You gotta treat.

 

[road_runner]

Do not over dose FWS. It will not help and will irritate coral more.
I use this product for years, it work by pushing the coral to generate slimy coat that eventually protect the acro. It will not kill the FW.
Overdosing WILL not help.

 

[jda]

You have no idea what you are talking about with KZ Flatworm Stop. Could you mean Flatworm Exit from Salifert?

Nobody said that it kills the AEFW... it appears to interrupt their life cycle and they grow old and die childless. No failures or crashes that I know of. It is a great remedy for AEFW in tank, but it takes time.

 

[road_runner]

You have no idea what you are talking about with KZ Flatworm Stop. Could you mean Flatworm Exit from Salifert?

Nobody said that it kills the AEFW... it appears to interrupt their life cycle and they grow old and die childless. No failures or crashes that I know of. It is a great remedy for AEFW in tank, but it takes time.

I know what am talking about and as I said I am using this product for years..personally, while you are citing others.

This product will work with it's intended dose. Over dosing will hurt the coral. You clearly do not understand how this product work exactly thats why you recommending people to overdose on their coral.

Whoever read this. DO NOT OVER DOSE FWS, it might hurt not help. It will not give any more advantage than with regular dose.
Over dosing will have negative long term effects on the coral.

Cheers.

 

[jda]

I have a small army of people who say otherwise. @Pedoconfuego and his couple of his friends would say otherwise too. Also, Matt at BoomCorals.

Without even a word of how this will "hurt" a coral, no photos, no background or anything. What exactly do you have? How exactly does it hurt them? How come it has not hurt them in anybody else's tank even at higher doses that I recommend? You sure that something else did not happen in your tank and you blamed this stuff?

 

[road_runner]

I have a small army of people who say otherwise. @Pedoconfuego and his couple of his friends would say otherwise too. Also, Matt at BoomCorals.

Without even a word of how this will "hurt" a coral, no photos, no background or anything. What exactly do you have? How exactly does it hurt them? How come it has not hurt them in anybody else's tank even at higher doses that I recommend? You sure that something else did not happen in your tank and you blamed this stuff?

Well this army of people will not know more than the owner of the company and the guy who invented the product.
My advice is just ask or read to understand "how this product work exactly".this way you will not need to cite people rather speak from experince...if you answer this question you will not recommend people to overdose on their coral when you have nothing to lose while they have everything to lose

Am done with this debate, I came here to help the OP not to debate with you.
You do you my friend.

Cheers

 

[jda]

Good. Who is this guy? I talked with him at a show once, if it is the same guy. Have him/her come in here and tell us what is in it and how they intended it to work. The only compound that we could see was an anti-parasitic and some iodine/iodide. It is true, that I have no idea how an anti-parasitic causes corals to slime up more. A manufacturer is not obligated in any way to let people know what is in their product, nor do they have to tell the truth about it. For all that I know, the single dose is to keep the worms knocked down, but not stop their ability to reproduce, so that you have to buy the product for life instead of using it for 4-6 months - I don't really believe this, just being argumentative, so ignore it.

In the end, there is no proof of ill fate with a double dose? I respect the people at KZ - they have been great to talk to at shows, will get really technical and they don't insult me by lying about what is in their products like other companies do. They seemed to know that this will eventually eradicate the worms if you use it like we did - they did not say it, but I would never expect them to.

Where do you get the idea that I did not add this to my tank? I did not have any AEFW problems, but after 6 months of doing the DOUBLE DOSE, I had no issues... like I never even added it. Boom had no issues with higher doses. Have this owner send me a few bottles and I will do the double dose again for video and post it for everybody to see.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Well this army of people will not know more than the owner of the company and the guy who invented the product.
My advice is just ask or read to understand "how this product work exactly".this way you will not need to cite people rather speak from experince...if you answer this question you will not recommend people to overdose on their coral when you have nothing to lose while they have everything to lose

Am done with this debate, I came here to help the OP not to debate with you.
You do you my friend.

Cheers

Straight from kz... “Dosage: 1 ml per 100 Liter tank water. Dose directly into the tank. For ailing corals dosage can be increased to double or triple.”

No one is debating here. Only trying to help. Fws won’t hurt your coral, if something happened it was from something else, especially if it was coral death.
I believe those of us jda is talking about have proved that overdosing fws is not going to hurt anything in the tank. I was using anywhere from 2 to 3 times the suggested dose. Kz says if needed to do so. Not sure who you talked to or what they told you but this is the one product from them I would not worry about. I actually started at the suggested dose and didn’t see much difference until I switched to higher doses after a month.