Acro Eating Flatworms

After treating for red bugs I decided to check a pale frag that hasn't done well since I put it in the tank a couple of months ago. After pulling it out and inspecting it closely I saw a couple of brown blotches on the coral. I got the camera and macro lens out and started snapping some pictures. Sure enough the brown patches were AEFW eggs.







Although I couldn't see any of the worms on the coral I dipped in Revive and a couple came off.


I'm not sure if all of those blotches are AEFWs but the one on the left is for sure.



This coral has been tossed along with two millepora frags that weren't doing well. I never found eggs on the milleporas but I didn't want to take any chances.

Unfortunately there is no in take treatment for these. The way to get rid of them is to pull the corals out and dip every week for 6 weeks to flush the worms off. The dips will not kill the eggs so repeated dipping is a requirement. Some of my corals are encrusted on my rock so there is no way to remove the frags.

Since I don't see any bite marks or eggs on any other corals I'm not going to pull them for now. Instead I have ordered an Adorned Wrasse, halichoeres cosmetus, which is supposed to hunt AEFWs. I'll inspect regularly and hope for the best.