My own experience with AEFW or acro eating flatworm

[ScottB]

Did you try the lanthanum chloride method?

I do use LCl with some regularity, say every 4-6 weeks or any time my PO4 starts hitting .15+

I dose enough to knock t back to .08 or so which seems to be a happy and safe place for my reef.

I cannot say it does much with my AEFW. The only sure-fire method is dipping in potassium chloride weekly for 8 weeks. Boring, tedious, time consuming but it works.

 

[Snyder1456]

I do use LCl with some regularity, say every 4-6 weeks or any time my PO4 starts hitting .15+

I dose enough to knock t back to .08 or so which seems to be a happy and safe place for my reef.

I cannot say it does much with my AEFW. The only sure-fire method is dipping in potassium chloride weekly for 8 weeks. Boring, tedious, time consuming but it works.

Any updates? Dealing with them now. Dosing flatworm stop and lowered my temp to 75°
Still trying to get wrasses in there as I QT fish and have had bad luck. Hopefully the six line and yellow coris I have in qt now pull through...

 

[ScottB]

Any updates? Dealing with them now. Dosing flatworm stop and lowered my temp to 75°
Still trying to get wrasses in there as I QT fish and have had bad luck. Hopefully the six line and yellow coris I have in qt now pull through...

Sorry to hear. I was lucky none made it to my display. I had trouble keeping wrasses in my frag system. To big to cover and they are notorious jumpers from shallow systems.

I just did weekly dips in KCl and fragged up any colonies that had heavy infestation. The eggs are very small and hidden in crevasses. Afraid I must advise you to chop, rack and dip every week to be CERTAIN.

 

[Snyder1456]

Sorry to hear. I was lucky none made it to my display. I had trouble keeping wrasses in my frag system. To big to cover and they are notorious jumpers from shallow systems.

I just did weekly dips in KCl and fragged up any colonies that had heavy infestation. The eggs are very small and hidden in crevasses. Afraid I must advise you to chop, rack and dip every week to be CERTAIN.

Thanks for your response. I'm hoping what I'm doing now and adding wrasses will at least slow down the infestation or buy me a little time so I can set up another system to do just that... Frag, dip etc. I'm working so much fir the next 6-12 months I don't think I have it in me right now. My heart sank to my stomach when I first noticed them... live and learn, I guess. 5 years in and I've had pretty good success so far. But I didn't quarantine corals.

Thanks again and happy reefing

 

[ScottB]

Thanks for your response. I'm hoping what I'm doing now and adding wrasses will at least slow down the infestation or buy me a little time so I can set up another system to do just that... Frag, dip etc. I'm working so much fir the next 6-12 months I don't think I have it in me right now. My heart sank to my stomach when I first noticed them... live and learn, I guess. 5 years in and I've had pretty good success so far. But I didn't quarantine corals.

Thanks again and happy reefing

I hear you. While there is good paying work to be had, firewall it.

I don't quarantine fish but I do QT corals. The wrasses will help and Coris are favorites. You can try basting the corals with squirts of RODI. My fish would line up and wait when they saw the baster.

Once you get through it, build a method for dipping acropora in KCl (potassium chloride). It is the ultimate aefw killer. They die in seconds, not tens of minutes. Almost as gentle as Bayer but much easier/safer to use. Cut and dispose of ANYTHING that is not live flesh.