Pests

How to eliminate Flatworms (Red Planaria)

melev — Sat, 20 Oct 2018 16:11:44 +0000

How to eliminate Flatworms (Red Planaria) melev Sat, 10/20/2018 - 19:11

Small reddish-rust colored creatures may already be in your tank. Or you may buy a coral and they'll appear as hitchhikers later. They may appear on the glass/acrylic, on the substrate, or on live rock. Due to their extremely thin bodies, they are called flatworms correctly. They appear almost two-dimensional, barely a flap of skin. They can move through the tank, elongating the front part of their body like a sail filling with wind, latch on to the nearby surface and pull the rest of its body forward.

They feed on small foods like rotifers, phytoplankton and such, and will grow out of control unchecked. Creating a mat with their bodies, they can smother corals or parts of the substrate. If they get to the point of overpopulating the tank, there is the possibility that they may die suddenly all at once, and the toxin they release at death can cause further deaths and even wipe out a tank entirely. Some predators exist, but results vary. Six Line Wrasses, Leopard Wrasses, Target Mandarins and even Blue Damsels reportedly eat these flatworms, as does one Nudibranch (Chelidonura varians), but some have opted for a different approach when these methods prove ineffective.

Image #2 (on the right in this article) is of a benign flatworm. These are usually opaque, have this distinct shape and do no harm. Usually a few weeks after you spot these, they will vanish.

Salifert came out with an excellent product years ago called Flatworm eXit, a poison that only affects flatworms and is reef-safe. Let me add the qualifier that if your tank is heavily infested, Flatworm eXit will not be the cause if you lose livestock. The issue is that if many flatworms die at once, their toxins reach lethal levels quickly and this, not the product, can lead to deaths in your tank. Feel free to ask others about their results before using this product. When I used it, the only item in my tank that appeared distressed was my Hawaiian Featherduster. Its crown was shriveled up and wilted and it looked very unhappy during the treatment, but afterwards it opened up completely. SPS, LPS, soft corals and fish were completely unaffected, as were snails, starfish, crabs and pods. My infestation was low because I regularly siphoned out all I could see each week, before I ever dosed my tank.

What I recommend is that you remove as a many as you can before you treat the tank. This is what I used, the Flatworm Vacuum™

I put the bag in my sump, and sucked out all the flatworms I could reach and see. Starting the siphon was easy by putting the end of the rigid tubing in the flow of a powerhead. I siphoned out as many as I could find every day until virtually none were in sight. The less you have, the less toxins will be released when you treat. If you don't use a sump, you can put the bag in a bucket in front of the tank, and after the procedure, you might decide to pour the water back in your tank. If the water looks cloudy or reddish, it would be better to dispose of it and replace lost tank water with new saltwater. Using airline tubing limits how much water is sucked out of the tank, allowing plenty of time to locate the flatworms without draining excessive amounts of tank water.

The day I was ready to treat my tank with Flatworm eXit, I mixed up 20g of new saltwater for a water change for my 55g reef tank. I also hooked up a canister filter filled with GAC (granulated activated carbon), and tested it to make sure it was ready to run.

I dosed the tank with approx 60 drops of the chemical (1 drop per gallon), and the flatworms started to come out into the open, and died. They would die on a string, and similar to webbing, multiples would die on that thread. I used my vacuum system to suck out all that I could see. After the first hour, I added 30 more drops and continued to observe the tank and siphon any dead or dying flatworms. My skimmer was always on, but the bubbles were depressed due the treatment, and it took a couple of hours before it began skimming again.

After 1 hour 20 minutes, I turned on the canister filter filled with fresh carbon to pull out impurities and toxins. The skimmer pulled out some stuff, but nothing like some of the horror stories detailed on the forums I read. I did a 20g water change, and they were gone.

It is recommended to repeat the procedure one week later, but forgot and never did treat the tank again.

About a month later I saw a few in my tank, but none thereafter. I had two Mandarins, a Six Line Wrasse, and a Blue Damsel to work on any possible flatworms if they were to reappear.

Some people take precautions when adding new livestock to their tank, performing a Flatworm eXit dip for 15 minutes prior to adding the coral to their display to prevent spreading these creatures. This is an excellent preventative act that we should all emulate, to prevent the spreading of this pest to others.

A suggestion by Salifert to determine dosage: If you've been unable to kill them with the recommended dosage after two attempts, try this experiment. Take one gallon of tank water, and add a few flatworms to it. Add one drop of F.E., and stir. Wait and watch to see if it affects the flatworms. If not, add another drop, stir, wait and watch. If necessary, add another drop and stir. Wait 15 minutes each time, until you see the flatworms are obviously distressed. At that point, you'll know exactly how many drops per gallon it will take to kill the flatworms in your system. Keep in mind, higher doses of this product in your reef may cause issues with your livestock. The purpose of this experiment is only to find out just how resistant they are.

Note the triple points on the tail end in the picture above; this identifies these flatworms as red planaria

Update - With Aggressive Dosing, Be Prepared To Act:

You need to make a concerted effort to siphon out 75% - 85% of the total infestation before dosing your system. The less worms, the less damage basically. Mix up and age some saltwater for a few days, in preparation for a 25% water change. The goal: to remove the toxins the red planaria release as soon as possible.

When you are about to use Flatworm eXit, all filtration should be off for the time being, but leave all the pumps on. No GFO, no biopellets, no skimming, no carbon. Within 15 minutes you'll see them dying. Siphon out all that you can see with airline tubing; they will be visibly active. You'll see some dangling off a weblike thread, and you may see 5, 6 or 7 of them like kites on a string. Siphon these out as they die. After a total of 15 more minutes, start up the canister filter with carbon (1/2 cup of GAC per 50g), and your skimmer. After an hour, do the water change. You can restart the GFO and biopellets therafter.

It may be necessary to re-treat the system to get the last of them a week later. With the bulk of them gone, the second treatment should be easier by comparison.

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Red Bugs - No More!

melev — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 16:49:33 +0000

Red Bugs - No More! melev Mon, 11/27/2017 - 19:49

Red bugs (Tegastes acroporanus) are small flea-like beasts that can infest smooth-skinned acropora sp. Some reefers have gone out of their way to eliminate them from their reef tank, but that is not the purpose of this article. I've seen them in my tank on occasion, but never worried much about them. Maybe if they did more damage, I'd be more concerned. Still, whatever coral I saw them on, the coral wasn't as happy as it could be, because these guys are like little blood-suckers. You can find video of their voracious nature on Eric Borneman's site.

So let's start off with a few images. These depict an Acropora granulosa from my reef.

Red bugs mainly infest smooth-skinned acropora sp.

That's the best my camera can do.

The Cure

The medicine that kills them is actually dog medication, and you must obtain it from a vet. If you want to treat your entire tank, please take the time to read this full article. For the purpose of this page, I only had to treat a single coral, or maybe I should say I only chose to treat a single coral.

This is my former Pico tank, and I filled it up with 1.5g of reef tank water, and a MicroJet pump for circulation.

The interceptor pill was pulverized with a spoon.

Measuring roughly, one pill appears to equal five heaping (Salifert) spoons. I added one spoonful to cup of tank water, and stirred it well until it was fully dissolved. This was poured into the pico tank, and the coral was then added. I set the timer for 60 minutes, and waited.

Once the time elapsed, I inspected the coral and still saw red bugs. I used a turkey baster to blow off the slime from the coral, and all the redbugs were gone! Surprised, I waited 10 minutes and checked again in case they were hiding in the coral, but they were still gone. Based on a thread I'd read, I decided to rinse the coral next. I pulled it out and placed it on the counter, and poured out the medicated water. Quickly rinsing the tank and pump in the sink, it was refilled with a new gallon of reef tank water. The coral was placed back in the pico tank for another 60 minutes.

All done. Total time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Not a red bug in sight! I put the coral back in my tank, bug-free.

Keep in mind, if you have other corals that are infested, they could re-infest one that has been treated.

How to treat your entire reef with Interceptor

After a few months, I observed red bugs in my 280g reef and decided I needed to do something about it. I talked with a few local hobbyists and felt that I had a safe plan of action.

One (large) tablet of Interceptor should treat 400g of water. I removed all the hermit crabs and shrimp I could find in my reef, putting them in a safe tank separate from my reef. They had circulation, a heater and were topped off daily to maintain salinity while in quarantine for their safety. I had live rock in their tank as well so they had something to pick food from as well as places to hide.

I crushed up one pill until it was dust, and mixed it in a cup of tank water. I stirred it for several minutes until it was fully dissolved. I've read that you can heat up the water in a microwave to speed this process up, but found that unnecessary. I removed the venturi tubing leading to the skimmer's pumps so that no air was being injected into the body of the Euro-Reef 12-2. The medicine should travel through all the water, including in any equipment such as skimmers and calcium reactors. I also turned off the two Phosban Reactors I had running (one with PO4 remover, the other with carbon). At midnight, when all the fish were asleep I poured the medication into an area of high flow, and let it kill the red bugs over the next 12 hours.

The next day at noon, I reinstalled the tubing to the skimmer pumps to resume skimming the water. I started up the Phosban Reactor, and that included running 3 cups of fresh carbon in the second reactor. I couldn't find any red bugs in my tank after this treatment. I repeated this 7 days later, and then again 7 days after that. Three treatments over 3 weeks is considered necessary to remove any possible future generations from emerging from the reef to reinfest the corals.

After the third and final treatment was accomplished and the water was safe for the shrimp and crabs, they were added back to the tank and were fine. The refugium was also treated since it is part of the system, and odds are some pods were lost due to the medication. However, over time and with some fresh macro algae added, their population resumed and I see them running around. My Mandarin is fat and happy, as is my Six Line Wrasse.

This is not a treatment you have to fear. And the more of us that do it, the less likely we will share such pests with one another when trading frags. Always treat new coral arrivals (from hobbyists or your LFS) with an Interceptor bath for at least 6 hours to keep your reef red bug free.

In 2012, Interceptor was pulled from the shelves and has been very hard to come by. I did come across a different medication called Doramectin that may be a suitable alternative, but that remains to be proven by more than a few hobbyists.

2021 Update:
Here are a few recent Reef Diary video entries when I treated my reef for Red Bugs:
Treatment Week 1 (RD: Day 48): https://youtu.be/nP5e4ytpJE0
Follow up the next day: https://youtu.be/NgFbsCg8Cm0
Week 2: (RD: Day 56): https://youtu.be/sq0Eaftnd4E
Week 3: (RD: Day 62): https://youtu.be/EkSnKBiYvWM

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Preventative Dips

melev — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 23:43:56 +0000

Preventative Dips melev Fri, 11/24/2017 - 02:43

Do you practice safe reefkeeping? No matter where you go, no matter how much money is in your bank account, when you see that new coral you just have to have, there’s no chance you’ll let it elude your collection. This time of year, many clubs hold Frag Swaps where coral fragments are sold or traded with other hobbyists. What concerns me is what happens next. In my club, I see pictures posted – within mere hours of the event -- of the new acquisitions in their display tanks. Dipping new corals in iodine for 10 minutes, then placing them in a tank is not what I consider smart nor safe. And forget about trusting the vendor or friendly hobbyists; this isn’t about trust. This is about protecting your investment and keeping your sanity. Some sellers are completely unaware of any possible pests, and others knowingly sell the livestock stating that the buyer should know what to do. Do you know what to look for? Do you simply acclimated it to temperature and drop it in?

Do you see anything wrong in this picture? That prickly thing under the front edge of the Montipora eats this coral.

Practicing safe reefkeeping requires that we continually quarantine all new arrivals to avoid adding pests to our tanks. It’s a necessary step to keeping unwanted critters out of our reefs, because once they are in, it’s a real battle if we hope to eliminate their presence and protect our livestock. In school we learned about safe sex and how to avoid STDs; every person in this hobby needs to do the same to reduce the risks and stem the tide of spreading parasites to other healthy systems. Red Bugs, Acropora-eating Flat Worms (AEFW), Red Planaria, predatory Whelks, Blue Asterinas, voracious Amphipods, and Montipora-eating nudibranchs are some of the well-known vile critters we want to avoid, and we have a variety of products at our disposal. Most of these are available at your local fish store, and one will require a vet’s prescription. If you’ve never quarantined before and your tank appears healthy, consider yourself lucky. It’s only a matter of time before you add that ticking time bomb to your tank that causes serious regret on your part and forces you to make some major changes or watch those losses pile up. Instead, starting today, will you commit to becoming proactive instead of reactive? If your tank has some pests already, that’s something you’ll need to address yourself, but at least you can guarantee that you won’t add any new ones from this point forward. That’s what I told myself many years ago, and it has worked out very well.

All you need is a small aquarium, some saltwater from your tank, a heater, a powerhead, a thermometer, and a little patience. Ideally, it’s best to keep the quarantine tank (QT) running at all times, topping it off for evaporation so any new purchase can easily be placed in for observation and treatment. If you can’t keep it running all the time, can you set it up for 12 hours? Drain out enough water from your display tank for the quarantine system, and replenish that water with new saltwater. Not only are you helping prevent a possible infestation, you’ve just performed a small water change. Congratulations!

Crush up a single tablet of Interceptor and keep it ready in a sealed vial or similar container. This product will kill Red Bugs, tiny fleas that chew on Acropora sp tissue. Using a tiny scoop from a Salifert test kit, add one scoop to your QT and mix it in for the new coral(s) to bathe in for 12 hours. Red Bugs can come in on virtually any coral, so every last one of them should go through this routine. A single tablet treats 400-gallons of water, and with the small scoop you will be able to treat five sessions’ worth.. I’ve never lost any SPS to this dosage, even though my QT holds 12-gallons. During a recent trip to Florida, I came home with about 15 frags that went straight into QT that night, along with Interceptor, and while I slept the medication worked its magic.

People contact me regularly asking how to acquire Interceptor. My vet recommends: Plan to pay for an office visit, and bring a picture of your aquarium for the vet to staple to the patient chart. Purchase a box of tablets, which will treat your entire system and have plenty on hand for every quarantine session for the next couple of years. Don’t try to get the vet to sell you a single pill, and don’t try to obtain it illegally from someone else. This is another example of why this hobby is expensive, but definitely not out of our reach.

The next day, take the coral and place it in smaller container and add a product like Coral Rx or ReVive for 10 minutes, setting a timer to 10 minutes. During that dip, circulate the water with a turkey baster at least two times, blowing off the coral from every angle to make sure any hitchhikers have been blown off. I placed a few corals in the dip at a time, that way I didn’t have to deal with too many at once. When the timer chimes, remove all the corals and rinse them off in saltwater from the QT. The one thing you don’t want to do is remove the corals and place them in your tank immediately one by one, leaving the last coral in that dip solution for 20 – 30 minutes instead of only 10 minutes because you had so many to work with. Working with small batches is best, placing corals in the display while the next group is soaking.

Before placing these newly dipped corals in your tank, inspect them closely under a magnifying glass. Don’ worry, they won’t be hurt by being in air for a few minutes. Do you see any tiny egg clusters? Is anything crawling around the base? Are there any signs of moment of worms or nudibranchs, things you didn’t intentionally want to add to your tank? While the SPS coral is out of water and beginning to dry off a little, do you see shiny patches? Those might be AEFW. I’ve been a reef keeper for more than a decade, and the reason I quarantine every new arrival is because I want to enjoy my livestock rather than worry about their distress. If I lose a frag to QT, so be it. My reef continues to flourish.

The cost of setting up a QT is minimal, and most of us have some used gear on hand that could be used. If you don’t, spend $50 to $100 for a quarantine tank. That investment will pay for itself a hundred times over. Remember, be proactive!

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Whelk versus Nassarius

melev — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 21:00:58 +0000

Whelk versus Nassarius melev Thu, 11/23/2017 - 00:00

What is the difference between a whelk and a Nassarius snail? In the picture below, the creature on the left is a Nassarius snail, the one on the right is a whelk. Whelks get much larger, while Nassarius don't. At least Nassarius vibex, that is. And all the images at the top of this article are Whelks, an unwanted snail in a reef system. Read on...

If you look at the texture of their snouts, there is a specific pattern "tattooed" onto the flesh of the Whelk. Also, the Whelk has a protective shell on its tail that it uses to seal itself in its shell when in danger. This gives it a water tight seal.

Whelks don't travel too quickly, in my experience. By comparison, Nassarius glide across the sand exceedingly fast, moving on a large foot that allows them to move forward effortlessly.

Also, the feeler or eye stalks appear to be longer on the Nassarius snails, when you compare them to the Whelk's extended appendages.

Lastly, the shell. Of all the whelks I've caught, every one of them looked like this one, with the darker coloration with whitish patches. In 48 hours, I caught 71 of them in a 55g reef. Over the next year, I'd caught at least 50 if not more. No special efforts need to be made to breed these, as they seem to do so quite easily on their own. They can be super small (1/8" long) or reasonable large (1" long), depending on age and growth. The ones pictured above are very small.

Nassarius snails, on the other hand, are excellent for DSB (deep sand bed) owners, because they submerge themselves and move through the sand keeping it stirred. Occasionally an observant person will see their little snout poking up like a periscope. When food hits the water, they come out of the sand and seek food hungrily. They will climb the glass at times.

Whelks act like snails, and tend to be on the glass or rockwork. They will move across the sand when necessary, but never submerge themselves beneath the surface of the sand. Their main activity can be observed at night by flashlight, as they are nocturnal creatures. They eat clams, so if you have clams you don't want whelks! They also may eat other snails. Even though they were in my tank for over a year, they never bothered a single item and were part of the clean-up crew. However, one day I added a new clam and overnight they killed and consumed the entire thing in a few hours. I wanted to keep clams too, so they had to go. Here's a slightly blurry picture of one, which still shows enough detail to identify it as a whelk.

Occasionally I'll still find a tiny one in the refugium or sump of the 400g, and once there I'll even find them inside the skimmer or in a pump where they definitely don't belong.

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Quarantine & Dips

melev — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:13:26 +0000

Quarantine & Dips melev Tue, 11/21/2017 - 01:13

You just got that new {insert item here}, is it safe to put it in your tank?

The short answer is no. No matter what new thing you purchase, it may have something on or in it that could become a real problem in your reef. Whenever you acquire a new coral, fish, or invertebrate, the most wise move you can make is to NOT put it in your reef. For someone new to the hobby, this seems like a huge hassle, but to any one of us that have been in the hobby for a while, we know that the risk is simply too great. Why does the seasoned reef keeper know this? Ha! Because we've learned the hard way that anything impulsive usually is folly, and results in hours, weeks, or months of heartache.

Let's focus on corals for the bulk of this article, since that is what tends to bring in the majority of pests. Whether you purchased a coral, or got a frag in trade, it absolutely must be put in quarantine. Over the years, I've encountered a number of hitchhiker pests as new livestock was acquired, and I've read countless discussion threads filled with frustration when those pests were discovered in their reef's corals. Specifically, there is quite a list of bad guys we would do best to avoid:

Flatworms - Red Planaria
Evil crabs - Blue eyed & black tipped claws
Acropora-eating Flatworms (AEFW)
Montipora-eating Nudibranchs
Red Bugs
Zoanthid-eating Spiders
Zoanthid-eating Nudibranchs
Star Polyp-eating Nudibranchs
Manjano Anemonia and/or Aiptasia anemone
Asterina Starfish
Clam and Snail devouring flatworms
Mollusc-eating flatworms
Vermetid Worms
Pyramidellid Snails
Whelks
Sundial Snails
Parasitc Isopods
and more...

That's quite a list, right? Yet each one of those, or a combination thereof, could sneak their way into a reef tank if the owner isn't carefully considering the best course of action to stop them. I've mentioned occasionally how I decline some opportunities because "I don't want to put any disease in my tank." If you aren't being cautious, you are risking your livestock or worse. Far better would be to have a plan of action in place, prior to getting more livestock.

For several years, I've been a big proponent of quarantining all new arrivals. It isn't hard if you have the tank set up and running at all times. Mine is a simple cube with some live rock. It is topped off daily or every other day to maintain salinity, and I have a few snails in the tank to keep it clean. The light it receives (indirectly) is from my
main reef's metal halides. Each time I siphon out water & waste accumulation, it is replaced with saltwater from my reef. I use it primarily for all new coral arrivals, since I get corals often and fish rarely. Even if my reef has some pests currently, I don't want to add more, that is for sure!

Above, a refugium lightbulb is used to light the tank. It will suffice for brief quarantine periods.

Whenever I get a new coral, the bag of water it came in floats for 20 minutes, then the coral is removed and placed in the tank on the rockwork for me to observe it. That same day, I dose the tank with a small amount of Interceptor to kill any red bugs. 12 hours later (or the next day), the coral is ready to be dipped for other possible pests. Because my quarantine tank is stable, there's no hurry to move the coral to my reef, which allows me to study the coral closely and see if there are any visual pests emerging. Also, if the frag has just been clipped from its parent colony that day, I avoid handling it as much as possible. I prefer to let it have a couple of days to heal up before I dip it and glue it to something.

It is believed that Interceptor only lasts about 24 hours once put in suspension, so even after the quarantine tank has been treated with a dose for a new arrival, I don't change the water. I've not seen any issues arise from this method, and as far as I'm concerned, the tank continues to be ready to accept any new corals. I probably change the water in the quarantine tank every couple of months when it needs a good cleaning. The rest of the time it just runs in stand-by mode.

When I'm ready to move the frag (now Red Bug free) to my reef, it is then put in a bowl of tank water with ReVive for five minutes (no more than ten minutes, ever). During the five minutes, I squirt it several times with a turkey baster from every possible angle to blast off any bugs, pods, nudibranchs or flatworms. It is then transferred to a new bowl of tank water to rinse for a few minutes. If you wish, it could next be placed in a bowl of tank water with a couple of drops of Iodine or Tropic Marine Pro Coral Cure (TPMCC) for a few minutes, again using the turkey baster method to flush out any bad guys. Just don't leave it in any dip solution for too long, especially if you are dipping multiple frags. As you work on one frag, the others are still stewing in the dip solution which often is determinental to the health of the coral. This is why I recommend putting the dipped frag in a bowl of tank water, as it gives you more time to work. If the frag needs to be mounted to a small rock, it can now be glued or puttied securely, and then is ready to be placed in your reef.

Tools: bowl, timer, ReVive, tukey baster. Blast the coral several times at differing angles during the dip.

I'm sure some of you wonder about that laundry list of bad guys listed above. Many of them are easy to spot if you take a few minutes and dip new corals:

Zoanthids tend to harbor all kinds of bad guys, and with a careful dip procedure, you can flush out nudibranchs, spiders, Sundial snails, and smaller starfish. Any of these can be removed with tweezers. If you suddenly see any of these in your main tank, use tweezers or forceps to pluck them out of your tank, watching for more on a daily basis until every last one has been extracted. If you see a small cluster of eggs on the side of a zoanthid polyp, scrape those away immediately before nudibranchs hatch into the system. People used to spread flatworms (Red Planaria) from system to system during their frag trading, but for the
most part this nuisance plague was squashed with Salifert's Flatworm eXit treatments.

Montipora sp. can be plagued with montipora-eating nudibranchs.
These are pretty tough to spot, and the coral should be inspected very closely for any. A dip in Potassium permanganate can kill them, but has also been known to kill the coral. Garlic extract may do the job adequately. If you receive a coral with an infestation, it might be best to just toss it rather than take the risk of introducing any nudis into your beautiful tank, as they will devour and devastate healthy corals if given the opportunity. You can often find them on the underside of a plating Montiopora sp. because that is where the eggs are deposited. When the babies hatch, they immediately begin to devour the coral they are affixed to.

Acropora sp. can be plagued with red bugs, acropora-eating flatworms, and evil crabs. The worst of the three are the AEFW because they are virtually invisible. The dip in ReVive (or Fluke tabs, or TMPCC) are what we use to determine if they are even present. The flatworms bite into the coral tissue and leave bite marks that are visible, once you know what to look for. Many reef keepers have lost many corals to this one particular plague, and I'd have to say that those losses could have been prevented had they not been quite so zealous in their efforts. Once they find their tank is stricken with AEFW, the hobbyist immediately goes into panic mode,
then into surgeon-mode. They remove each and every acropora, dip them and move them out of the main tank into a secondary set up that will house the corals for several weeks. The idea is to starve out any stragglers still in the display tank, but with that many stressors (handling, dip, new / different water, different flow, different lighting, different coral neighbors, different temperature swings, different water parameters...) corals go up in smoke and even wipe out other corals in a domino-effect. The best thing for you to do is deal with the infested corals individually, rather than to rip the system down with the lofty goal of erradicating AEFW completely. It just doesn't seem to work. Instead, look for the AEFW-candy in your reef, which tends to be smooth-skinned acropora, and most especially A. valida. That one coral is like a canary in a coal mine, and will be a great indicator if the tank has this pest.

By comparison, a crab is simple to capture. If the new coral is in quarantine, put it up on a small stand or piece of rockwork, and place some meaty food in the far corner of the tank. The crab will hike out of the coral to get the meal. Pull the coral out quickly, then catch that crab at your convenience. Not all crabs are evil, like the commensal crabs that live in Acropora sp. and protect their home. Fuzzy crabs, crabs with blue eyes and black pinchers, and huge crabs with red eyes are the ones we normally encounter and try to keep out of our tanks, since they tend to be predatory to smaller fish and opportunistically may devour other things we care about.

Red bugs are so easy to kill, I don't know why anyone would ever complain about them. New frag arrivals are treated in quarantine; if the entire system is infested, remove all shrimp and crabs prior to using Interceptor to kill red bugs weekly, for three weeks in a row. Done.

Clams may be harmed by mollusc-eating flatworms, pyramidellid snails, and a particularly nasty worm. They may be irritated by Vermetid snails, and even the proximity of zoanthids happy to grow right over its shell. Watch for these pests. Siphon out the flatworms (they are several inches large, and often found hiding in the overflow in your tank); inspect and brush off any pyramidellid snails that are on the clam's shell (these may also be found preying on snails); and watch for a long worm that looks more like a millipede as they eat snails and clams.

Other pests can be small anemones (aiptasia, majano, and tulip) that sting nearby corals. If they arrive on the rock of new livestock, better to scrape them off or kill them instead of giving them the opportunity to get a foothold in your main
reef. Some hobbyists have gone to great lengths to avoid nuisance pests (and algae) by cutting the coral off the rock or frag plug, tossing it out to avoid any chance of some unwanted item getting into their tanks. Whelks look very similar to some Nassarius snails, and can be spotted readily at night with a flashlight. Tweezers or forceps are used to pluck these out as they are discovered. Vermetid snails cast a web out into the water, using it to catch drifting morsels of food. Scraping their calcified tube off the rock may get rid of them, but another method is to apply a blob of Super Glue Gel to the tube to seal off the opening. Lastly, small Asterina starfish can be damaging to some corals (snacking on zoanthids and acropora sp.). While the white ones tend to be fine, the blue ones should be plucked out of your reef.

Obviously, there are many pests to consider and this article can't cover them all. If you quarantine all new arrivals, the risk factor will drop significantly because the dip method works. And when you share your corals with others, if you are aware of any pests in your tank, give them the heads-up. If they don't dip their corals, encourage them to do so. The more we work together to eliminate these pests, the better for everyone involved. Your reef will benefit significantly from your extra effort to keep those pests out of your tank.

Specific articles on my site that provide greater detail:

Red Planaria - what are they and how to get rid of them
Red Bugs - how to treat one coral or a full-blown reef
AEFW - how to spot them, their damage, and what kills them.
Majano anemones - what they look like, and what I did
Whelks - How to recognize them

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Acropora Eating Flat Worms (AEFW)

melev — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 10:47:09 +0000

Acropora Eating Flat Worms (AEFW) melev Fri, 10/13/2017 - 13:47

"Uh-oh, I think I might have AEFW..." I saw this statement several years ago. I wasn't too concerned, and thought it wasn't a big deal. Later, I discovered my favorite SPS coral was fading fast, the color literally leaving the coral more and more daily. Staring at the coral, nothing looked wrong with it other than it being faded. It was polyped out, and seemed to grow at the regular pace. Still, I was concerned.

Looking online for help, I found a simple test: Take the coral, place it in a white bowl and fill it up with water from your reef. Add a few drops of Lugol's Solution, stir and wait about a minute. Next, use a turkey baster to blast the coral with a few jets of water, and see what blows off or out of the coral. If you see flat oval disks coming out of the coral, it is most likely infested with Acropora-eating flatworms (AEFW for short). Their latin name is Amakusaplana acroporae.

AEFW only affect Acropora sp., not any other kind of coral. These are not like Red Planaria, nor like the mollusk-eating kind that we come across from time to time. These are truly invisible.

Here is the coral, happy and healthy.

And what it looked like when I decided action was necessary. Note the oval bite marks.

I conducted the test as outlined above, and this is what I discovered.

This is a large one, approx. 3/8" long.

A few next to a baby serpent starfish.

The tiny ones are circled to help you realize how small they can get.

On the base of the coral, I found these eggs maturing.

For a sense of scale, a penny was placed in the frame.

This one was 3mm long.

The problem I've discovered is you simply can not see them on the coral itself in your tank. At least not in a tank of my size.

The core of this coral is severely affected. Only the perimeter still retains some color. Action is mandatory.

What is the solution?

This is still a work in progress, and many hobbyists are hoping to find a cure. A variety of products have been thrust at these beasts, trying to erradicate them from the tank. Salifert's Flatworm eXit, Fluke, Tropic Marine Pro Coral Cure, Levamisole powder, and Betadine. More products with varied results: Coral Rx, ReVive, and Ultra Pest Control

For the most part, those that have lived through this infestation have set up a separate hospital tank with all the proper gear for flow, lighting, and stability. It is recommended that all Acropora sp. be removed from the reef for six weeks or more, and this includes any encrusting acropora that is still on the rockwork once the corals have been pulled out.

The theory, as it stands now, is that you need to remove the corals that are infested with AEFW. Treating the corals outside of the tank, these flatworms can be killed and removed. Any eggs on the corals or in your reef tank need to hatch before they too can be eliminated. I've been reading and discussing the procedure with others online, to better understand how others have tried and succeeded. If you would like to read the thread, you'll find more images, ideas, and opinions.

The foremost method recommended thus far is to set up a separate tank, and place all Acropora sp. in there. Use water from the reef for the new system, so the corals aren't shocked even further. It's bad enough that they have to be handled and broken off of the rockwork, and placed into a new system with different flow. Once a week, the system should be treated with Levamisole (which is pig de+wormer and available at Tractor & Feed Supply or from a local vet). After a specific period of time, which appears to be 5 to 7 hours, each coral should be carefully blasted off with a small powerhead. I would say a softer powerhead, not one that will rip tissue off the coral. Next, the coral should be inspected very very closely for any eggs. If you see them in the core, they should be scraped off with a dental tool or toothpick, and the coral is ready to be placed into a new setup for the next week. Working carefully, each coral should be handled the same way. Remember, if you have many corals to treat, keep in mind how long each one is in the solution. The first coral into the tank will be in longer than the last one, and while you baste each one clean, others are still waiting. If your goal is to keep them bathing for 5 hours total, and you spent two hours picking the first group clean, the others may end up sitting in solution for 7 hours or more. Try to keep track of time.

By having two separate tanks, it allows the hobbyist to dispose of the medicine-laden water and wipe down the system of any stragglers. There's no point putting "cleansed" corals back into a tank full of AEFW.

In the meantime, any AEFW that may be in the reef tank will have hatched, usually within 15 days of being laid. When they emerge, their first desire is to eat Acropora sp. The idea is if they can't find any acropora to eat within an estimated five days, they'll perish. So keeping your reef acro-free for 6 weeks is the best way to kill off any potential predators.

The corals that are being hospitalized need to be treated weekly. Hopefully after six weeks of killing every generation that crops up, they will all be terminated, and the corals can finally be placed back in the reef.

Are there risks?

Yes. In my experience, any SPS that is moved from one spot to another in my tank react badly. Now imagine moving them from their home to a different tank entirely, adding a foreign substance (medicine), different flow, different proximity to other acropora, and different lighting (now they are all at the same height and distance from the bulb, unlike your tank), plus they are being handled weekly! I couldn't begin to guess the losses you may incur, but leaving the corals untreated means they'll die, and that wave of death can move through your reef like a wildfire as the AEFW population grows exponentially. While I'd prefer to just ignore it and hope it'll go away, I don't believe this is a viable option.

It has been stated that you should expect 20% losses when treating with Levamisole. Reports vary, some experiencing higher losses, others less. Keep in mind that leaving the corals in the tank untreated, you'll end up losing them all. I think it is better to save what you can, doing your best as a reefkeeper. One person suggests that if the coral has too many eggs in the core and you are unable to get them scraped out, just dispose of it entirely.

Once I discovered that my Tyree frag (pictured above) was infested, I opted to try the Betadine treatment. Betadine is available at Walmart, and costs $12. They have a generic version for $5, but it was out of stock. It has the same active ingredient, so if you can get it, it should be fine. Mix up one liter of tank water with 3 ml of Betadine, and place the coral in that solution for 25 minutes. After the timer went off, I blew off the coral with a turkey baster, sending tons of flatworms into suspension and off the coral. I inspected the coral for eggs, and scraped off every last one I could find. Next, the coral was rinsed in some tank water, basted repeatedly to remove any more stragglers, and finally put back in my tank.

The coral's color was completely gone. It turned golden-tan. I believe the Betadine's antiseptic nature kills bacteria, including the symbiotic zooxanthellae within the coral's tissue. Still, that night, I could see the polyps peaking out just a bit. Here are some pictures of the A. valida during the month of August:

8/11/06 - still untreated, but obviously losing color.

8/15/06

8/22/06 - polyps are showing!

8/27/06 - some lavender color showing up at the tips

On 8/29/06, I dipped the A. valida a second time in the Betadine solution just to see if any AEFW existed, and another 50 flatworms blew off - much to my shock! I also pulled out another tri-color acro and a A. secale, and they too were infested with AEFW. My 280g reef has 25 Acropora pieces that will have to be pulled and treated in a separate system. With MACNA a few weeks away, I'm not going to do anything until I get back.

Just before MACNA during the month of September, I treated the coral with Fluke tabs instead of Betadine. The product works at getting the AEFW to let go, which I turkey basted off the coral in the treatment tank. I used two tablets in two gallons of water, and put a powerhead in the solution to keep the product in suspension. It looks like snow in the medicated water, and will settle on the coral. This caused no harm at all. After about 20 minutes in this solution, I blew off the coral again, took it out of the treatment tank and dumped out the water. This was replaced with tank water, and the coral was put in that for another 20 minute bath to remove any toxins and to observe for any stragglers.

The coral was then placed back in the tank, and has done quite well ever since. I stopped treating it because I didn't see any reason to worry. Here is the coral as of 11/22/06

Over the next few years, I had a couple of tanks spring leaks, and the last of this coral is gone. It was one I kept track of, with special interest. About once a year, AEFWs would crop up in my reef, but as soon as I noticed I began my method of blowing off the affected corals with a powerhead. As the flatworms blew off into the water column, the Lyretail Anthias were quick to gobble them up, then wait for the next one to blast loose. We had a good method, working together to reduce their population.

Another viable method is to pump RO water over the corals in question while still secured in the reef tank. The freshwater would immediately affect the AEFW, and they would peel off the coral's branches and float into the current for the fish to devour. We still need a better more permanent solution, but for now we have to keep our eyes open and act when they make their presence known.

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