gaberosenfield
Guest
I just had my first experience with Acropora eating flatworms (AEFW) this evening. They came in on frags from Diablo Corals. I don't mean to bash Diablo at all. In fact, I will call them tomorrow to tell them they have these in their tanks, just in case they don't already know. It seems that pretty much everyone who keeps Acros eventually runs into these little SOBs.
In case you don't know what they are, here is a Reefkeeping magazine article on AEFWs: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/mc/index.php.
Two of the three Acro frags I picked up last weekend from Diablo seemed to be doing poorly. Then I noticed these bite marks, characteristic of AEFW:
These little white disks of missing tissue are all you're likely to see on an Acro infested by AEFWs. The flatworms are so well camouflaged against the background of the corals skin that they are nearly invisible. However, noticing that these bite marks were spreading, I dipped the two affected frags in tank water + Gram's Iodine solution (essentially identical to Lugol's solution) for 5 minutes. Guess what fell off?
The culprit! This was the largest of the AEFWs; it's about 8 mm long. The others were as small as 2 mm long.
The biggest problem with AEFWs is that even after you remove them with a dip, like I did, they aren't gone. By the time you find them on your corals, they have almost certainly laid egg masses right at the base of the living tissue of their coral host/food, or on exposed skeleton spots on the coral. The eggs are almost impossible to kill via chemical means without also killing the coral but, if you look very carefully, you can find them and scrape them off with a razor blade. I looked and at first I couldn't find any on my frags, but then I noticed tiny little patches of sub-millimeter diameter reddish-brown eggs. These things are HARD to see. I scraped several egg masses off my frags. Here is a pic of the same large AEFW from the previous picture with two egg masses near it:
The AEFW is in the middle and the egg masses are on the left and right of it. All three of them are EXACTLY the same color as a browned out coral. Hopefully I have rid myself of these pests, but I'll be keeping a close eye on these frags for the next few weeks to see if more bites start appearing.
One more important thing to note: because I strictly quarantine ALL new arrivals to my tank, including fish, corals, macroalgae, and even rock, this will not affect the corals in my tank. In case anyone out there isn't running a QT, here is just another plug for setting one up and using it religiously! A 10 gallon QT saved the corals in my main system from this evil pest! At worst, I only stand to lose 3 frags. Without QT, I could've lost all my Acros! Admittedly, that wouldn't be a ton of them at the moment, but the point remains!
Have a good week everyone, and watch out for AEFWs from any source, but especially from Diablo at the moment.
Best,
Gabe
In case you don't know what they are, here is a Reefkeeping magazine article on AEFWs: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/mc/index.php.
Two of the three Acro frags I picked up last weekend from Diablo seemed to be doing poorly. Then I noticed these bite marks, characteristic of AEFW:
These little white disks of missing tissue are all you're likely to see on an Acro infested by AEFWs. The flatworms are so well camouflaged against the background of the corals skin that they are nearly invisible. However, noticing that these bite marks were spreading, I dipped the two affected frags in tank water + Gram's Iodine solution (essentially identical to Lugol's solution) for 5 minutes. Guess what fell off?
The culprit! This was the largest of the AEFWs; it's about 8 mm long. The others were as small as 2 mm long.
The biggest problem with AEFWs is that even after you remove them with a dip, like I did, they aren't gone. By the time you find them on your corals, they have almost certainly laid egg masses right at the base of the living tissue of their coral host/food, or on exposed skeleton spots on the coral. The eggs are almost impossible to kill via chemical means without also killing the coral but, if you look very carefully, you can find them and scrape them off with a razor blade. I looked and at first I couldn't find any on my frags, but then I noticed tiny little patches of sub-millimeter diameter reddish-brown eggs. These things are HARD to see. I scraped several egg masses off my frags. Here is a pic of the same large AEFW from the previous picture with two egg masses near it:
The AEFW is in the middle and the egg masses are on the left and right of it. All three of them are EXACTLY the same color as a browned out coral. Hopefully I have rid myself of these pests, but I'll be keeping a close eye on these frags for the next few weeks to see if more bites start appearing.
One more important thing to note: because I strictly quarantine ALL new arrivals to my tank, including fish, corals, macroalgae, and even rock, this will not affect the corals in my tank. In case anyone out there isn't running a QT, here is just another plug for setting one up and using it religiously! A 10 gallon QT saved the corals in my main system from this evil pest! At worst, I only stand to lose 3 frags. Without QT, I could've lost all my Acros! Admittedly, that wouldn't be a ton of them at the moment, but the point remains!
Have a good week everyone, and watch out for AEFWs from any source, but especially from Diablo at the moment.
Best,
Gabe
