More Acro Flatworms!!

[One Eye]

Cindy, that's exactly what I want to do. I took some branches from a bali acro I have and added them to the infected tank. When I see eggs on a branch I'll put it in the new tank.

 

[denvig]

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Other suggestions are very welcome.

It would be good to know how long it takes the fry to develop enough to reproduce.

 

[NateHanson]

I'm glad you guys are doing so much work on this. Mark, you should post your link here. It's a very good website with the information and pictures you've gathered.

I too got at least a few of these worms from James tank-break-down. So far I don't think I got any heavy infestation, but definitely got a few adults (which Mark discovered, and removed from my frags while I was away for the past week).

Since I haven't had any recession or egg-laying activity yet, I'm hoping my population is sufficiently small that I can prevent an infestation by flushing and basting everything every couple days for a couple weeks (outside of the tank whenever possible). I'll keep you guys posted to let you know how this works, and whether I manage to dodge the bullet. This is very discouraging indeed. A very very different problem from the red-bugs.

 

[denvig]

Sorry to hear that Nate. It?s very difficult to see the eggs without removal of the colony. You need to look down in every crevice to find them. Some times they only seem to be a slight discoloration and without a magnifying glass almost impossible to detect. I would say if you saw more than one then eggs are not that far behind. Good luck, I hope you beat them.

 

[NateHanson]

Fortunately I didn't get any colonies. So it's pretty easy to inspect the frags I got.

I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping to keep the few adults that I probably still have in the tank disrupted enough for the next few weeks that they can't get around to laying lots of eggs, and I'll be watching for and scraping eggs if they do appear. Sounds like that's the approach others have taken with occasional success for very early interventions.

I think I'll also get a mandarin (I had heniochus angels, but they keep crapping out on me, and i'm not ready to sacrifice another pair. ) Do the targets seem to work better than the Green Mandarins?

 

[denvig]

I have heard that the spotted Mandarins are better but can?t confirm that. I do know that all Chucks fish eat them as long as they are in the water column, tangs, angles, anthias, Wrasse, butterflies, all of them. But only the Copperband and his Gold Flake seem to hunt for them. (after some training)

 

[One Eye]

Nate, I knew you had picked up some stuff. I'm glad you saw the thread. I've been finding the best way to see them is by taking macro shots with the flash on. I leave the coral out to dry for about 10-15 minutes (at min.) and then take the closest shots I can. The flash makes them stand out, even against the same colored flesh. Also, the young are very small and I haven't been able to see them at all with a mag. glass. They do show up with the macro trick. They don't really move around when out of water, I've found that holding the coral just below the surface of the water and taking pics, with flash again,you'll be able to see the very small young FWs moving across the coral.
The mandarin I put in the frag tank with the FWs is a spotted, Synchiopus picturatus page 339 of Scott Michaels book (just to remove any confusion)