My Battle Against Acropora-Eating Flatworms

[nickkohrn]

As of today, I have not seen any signs of flatworms, but I am continuing daily double-doses of FlatwormStop. I recently received a 1,000mL bottle of FlatwormStop, which I will open when I am finished with the current bottle of 500mL. Between both bottles, I should have enough to dose through the end of July, which equates to a seven-month treatment.

I did lose a Hawkin's echinata due to an outbreak of Ostreopsis (dinoflagellates), but they should be on the retreat soon as I added a 57-watt Aqua Ultraviolet UV sterilizer yesterday. Even with the added stress of the dinoflagellates, my corals are continuing to regain their colorations and are encrusting surprisingly quickly.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Awesome! Very glad to see your having success. I almost picked up a bottle just as a preventative measure but want to try the wormwood first to see if it acts the same.

 

[nickkohrn]

I continue to observe a lack of signs of AEFW. I am getting close to finishing up the 500mL bottle of FlatwormStop, so the remaining 1L bottle should take me through the end of July. At that time, after seven months of dosing double-doses of FlatwormStop, if I continue to observe the absence of bite marks, I will claim victory.

This isn't the first time, and it won't be the last time, but I want to thank everyone that has helped me understand the process for treating my system for AEFW. I was overwhelmed with the idea of weekly dips because of the inconvenience and added stress on the corals. If this treatment provides me with the same results that @Pedoconfuego and @jda achieved, then I will shout to everyone that FlatwormStop is such an easy, non-invasive, treatment.

 

[jda]

I am glad. The patient zero tank and many of the locals are still flatworm free. I get some thanks after successful treatments in PM, but good to see posts for all to see.

 

[TheHarold]

I’m envious of your success @nickkohrn !

An update from me: been dosing double recommended dose of flatworm stop for what, 2 months now?
Still nothing. Colonies continue to become infested and die. It’s heartbreaking.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

With that many egg masses I believe your treatment may take much longer than most. That’s a horrible amount of eggs. And honestly not many bite marks for the amount of eggs. Most tanks the underside of that coral would be gone and growing algae by now.
Are you basting the corals every few days? I always try to recommend taking all the corals out and scraping off all the eggs you can find before you start any treatment.

 

[TheHarold]

With that many egg masses I believe your treatment may take much longer than most. That’s a horrible amount of eggs. And honestly not many bite marks for the amount of eggs. Most tanks the underside of that coral would be gone and growing algae by now.
Are you basting the corals every few days? I always try to recommend taking all the corals out and scraping off all the eggs you can find before you start any treatment.

The eggs come and go. Yeah I am basting, have crazy flow, and at one point had very few

 

[Graffiti Spot]

it’s only been two months and that’s when I saw things change so maybe your almost there

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Are you basting with a turkey baster or using a powerhead?

 

[TheHarold]

it’s only been two months and that’s when I saw things change so maybe your almost there

I started in early November- 1 month of the normal dose, then 2 months with the double dose. Still nothing- no fewer flatworms. Yeah I am basting, scraping, tossing colonies, everything. Might end up just ditching all SPS- its been heartbreaking.

 

[nickkohrn]

I started in early November- 1 month of the normal dose, then 2 months with the double dose. Still nothing- no fewer flatworms. Yeah I am basting, scraping, tossing colonies, everything. Might end up just ditching all SPS- its been heartbreaking.

Ugh. That photo makes my stomach turn. That would be enough to make me tear that tank down and start over.

 

[SeaDweller]

I’m envious of your success @nickkohrn !

An update from me: been dosing double recommended dose of flatworm stop for what, 2 months now?
Still nothing. Colonies continue to become infested and die. It’s heartbreaking.

what do you suspect it came in on? did you pinpoint which acro it was?

 

[TheHarold]

Ugh. That photo makes my stomach turn. That would be enough to make me tear that tank down and start over.

Yup, its tempting at this point. Especially since they now are going after my huge Millipora. Problem is the tank has tons of healthy anemones, LPS, etc, that I (obviously) cant just bleach to start over. Even pulling acropora, flatworms can still probably survive for years on encrustment leftovers and coralline.

Ill be sending a sample to UWC, and potentially trying it again. Not too much hope at this point. Given 80% of my acros either died or are actively dying, even a solution is kind of too late.

 

[TheHarold]

what do you suspect it came in on? did you pinpoint which acro it was?

Pretty confident where they came in on. Ordered some fancy stuff from well known vendor, some frags had encrustment so I couldn't remove plug totally. Did use my normal bayer dip, but that doesnt get eggs. A few days later I noticed bite marks on those frags, dipped them, saw flatworms, and tossed them. Too late- in display.

 

[nickkohrn]

Well, I hit my breaking point. I grew far too sick of watching corals perish, one by one, so I emptied my system of corals.

My frags were small, and the damage from the flatworms was taking its toll on them. I have been losing my joy for the hobby with each battle brought on by new pests. I will be continuing to set up my frag system and eventually place an order from Adam at Battlecorals as I am going to limit myself to purchasing corals from a single vendor.

I appreciate the help that everyone has offered, and I am looking forward to sharing photos of my corals and system under better circumstances.

 

[d3vhound]

Sorry it had to come to that. I would lose my mind if I lost thousands in coral. Thanks for documenting and sharing your experiences though. Helps newer people like me learn. I plan on only buying from 2 vendors. Never local. Tidal gardens and WWC have QT processes that are up to my standards so it's worth the price.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I’m envious of your success @nickkohrn !

An update from me: been dosing double recommended dose of flatworm stop for what, 2 months now?
Still nothing. Colonies continue to become infested and die. It’s heartbreaking.

You have the most stubborn case of AEFW I have ever seen. Purge didn't help, FWS isn't helping... are you basting corals? I found that when my infestation was bad I could at least baste nightly and nothing would die and managed. Purge was good at killing my existing population and allowing corals to recover but it never killed eggs and they would be back after a few months. FWS also worked for me in finally getting rid of them but it took 6 months, not 2. I didn't declare victory until month 6.5.

Give it time and blow off corals frequently.

 

[nickkohrn]

Sorry it had to come to that. I would lose my mind if I lost thousands in coral. Thanks for documenting and sharing your experiences though. Helps newer people like me learn. I plan on only buying from 2 vendors. Never local. Tidal gardens and WWC have QT processes that are up to my standards so it's worth the price.

Sadly, as much as I respect those vendors, one had Montipora-eating nudibranchs on a Montipora frag, which was visible during a live sale. A frag that I purchased from the other came with colonial hydroids that spread throughout my system. The loss of $2.5K+ in corals was a difficult blow, but I have a better plan for moving forward because of it.

I didn’t mention those experiences to shed poor light on the vendors. Rather, I simply wanted to express that it’s easy to miss pests and end up with them wreaking havoc on livestock. Be diligent and don’t impulse-buy.

I live ~2 hours from Tidal Gardens, and I have always enjoyed my visits there.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

You have the most stubborn case of AEFW I have ever seen. Purge didn't help, FWS isn't helping... are you basting corals? I found that when my infestation was bad I could at least baste nightly and nothing would die and managed. Purge was good at killing my existing population and allowing corals to recover but it never killed eggs and they would be back after a few months. FWS also worked for me in finally getting rid of them but it took 6 months, not 2. I didn't declare victory until month 6.5.

Give it time and blow off corals frequently.

Yea it sucks when you have frags. If you don’t baste every day or two with frags then a worm or two can do some damage, but it’s much easier to just dip your corals and be rid of them then too. Basting alone can keep a tank looking clean and healthy that has aefw. Anyone doing a wormwood or fws treatment I would encourage you to baste as much as possible. This also puts your eyes on the tank in a real personal way and much easier to spot issues with certain pieces.

 

[oldnsalty]

Well, I hit my breaking point. I grew far too sick of watching corals perish, one by one, so I emptied my system of corals.

My frags were small, and the damage from the flatworms was taking its toll on them. I have been losing my joy for the hobby with each battle brought on by new pests. I will be continuing to set up my frag system and eventually place an order from Adam at Battlecorals as I am going to limit myself to purchasing corals from a single vendor.

I appreciate the help that everyone has offered, and I am looking forward to sharing photos of my corals and system under better circumstances.

After over 7 months of treatment with wormwood I too have emptied my display tank and moved everything into my frag tank. After finding 2 smaller worms on my homewrecker after 5 months of single dose and 2 1/2 months of double dose I was fed up. I will be doing weekly dipping for 6 weeks. Will be using coral rx. My situation isnt near as bad as yours, I have been able to save all of my corals. I cut off what corals I could and am dipping rock and all on the ones that are well encrusted. I think the wormwood puts a hurting on the number of worms but doesnt wipe them all out. Basting helps but I think there will be worms that are in areas of the coral that cant be reached.
Best of luck with your start over.