NepTuNe-UsD Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 Last weekend I purchased an acro frag at an LFS in OC and just today realized that it was infested with the infamous red bugs. The frag had been in my tank for approximately 24 hours before I yanked it out and isolated it from my main tank. Thus far it seems no other SPS corals are infected with them. My question is, has anyone had any true success using Interceptor against the bugs? Also, Since the frag was in my tank for 24 hours is it possible and indeed likely that my tank is now affected by the red bugs? Are there any other options? And most importantly, Ive heard about some people with infestation of the red bugs without much negative impact on their SPS colonies. Just how bad are these little guys? Im beginning to think reef aquarists have entomophobia. First it was bristle worms,then flatworms, and now red bugs Any input would be appreciated... Link to comment
jedininja Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 I have not heard of anybody with red bug infestations that does not see a negative impact. Red bugs feed on and breed on SPS which severley stresses them out. Most will begin to STn given enough time. Many species of flatworms are also a real problem. With your situation, i dont htink you will be in too much danger. What I would do is dip the SPS with a SW iodine dip or if you have seachem's reef dip. Most of the bugs will come off that way. Then place the sps back into QT for a few more days and dip again to kill all of the newly hatched bugs. Your other SPS might be safe, but to be on the safe side, since this is in a nano, you can individually dip each ss colony/frag you have. Link to comment
onthefly Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 That sucks!!! I wasn't big on QT, until I got hit with the RB's. I treated my tank 1 time at 5x the "dustin protocol" dose. Never had them again! Also, they can swim good, so I'd assume the tank is infested. For reference, I went over to a local reefers house who was selling frags. He cut off a huge piece of this "brown/light blue tip" Stag SPS ($5, couldn't pass it up). Now he had the thing under 2x 400W radiums and did a CR and kalk, so I assumeed the color was "true". I got home and took a close look, it was covered in them!!!! I did my usual 20x, 2hr, interceptor bath....within 3 weeks the whole frag is bright sky blue! They can, when in numbers, really stress the coral. The protocol is not that hard if you make water ahead of time and get your crabs (if you have them) out. Just for reference, check with impur. He had some bad experiences after interceptor treating. Whether they were directly related or coincidence is your call. Link to comment
Cesar Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 Let me ask you something NepTune. When you noticed the Red Bugs, where they actually ON your acro's? The reason im asking is because I had acro's in my tank and then all of a sudden they died. I thought I had seen Red Bugs on the glass but never on my actual coral. So i wonder if it was Red Bugs that killed my acro. Link to comment
NepTuNe-UsD Posted September 24, 2005 Author Share Posted September 24, 2005 Originally posted by Cesar Let me ask you something NepTune. When you noticed the Red Bugs, where they actually ON your acro's? The reason im asking is because I had acro's in my tank and then all of a sudden they died. I thought I had seen Red Bugs on the glass but never on my actual coral. So i wonder if it was Red Bugs that killed my acro. Yes if it is true red bugs then they will be directly ON your acros. You can see them moving around pretty rapidly throughout the acro and are almost impossible to physically remove. Even after you treat your tank with Interceptor they may still be a few dead bugs attached to your acros. If you want to be positively sure though you may want to use jewelers lenses or a magnifying glass and inspect your colonies. This is what you should see if they are infested (notice the red/yellow "mites" on the frag).. Link to comment
bobioden Posted September 24, 2005 Share Posted September 24, 2005 I am on my second series of treatments. The first series I thought I got them all, but were still there. It is amazing how tiny they are. It wasn't until I had zoomed in on a pic of my Blue Tort that I saw them. If that frag was in your tank, your tank has the bugs. Bob Link to comment
Caesar777 Posted September 24, 2005 Share Posted September 24, 2005 They are ty-neh! But yes, it's more than just a fear of bugs--they really do severely stress SPS, which are sensitive enough as it is. I think ANY critter with bugs all over it would be stressed, and not just from an anthropomorphic ("ew, icky bugs!") point of view. Link to comment
onthefly Posted September 24, 2005 Share Posted September 24, 2005 Gawd Nep.......That pic makes me shiver:( Interceptor....will take care of them and that frag will look insane:) Link to comment
ReefWreak Posted September 25, 2005 Share Posted September 25, 2005 Now I've got a question. I don't have Acros, or any SPS, or LPS for that matter, but last night I came home at 4am, after the lights (except moon lights) had been out for a good 6 or so hours, and when I came in, with the lights still out, I looked into my tank, and saw what looked like 2000 little reddish animals swimming around. they looked a lot like seamonkies (brine shrimp), and I had never seen them before. I'm guessing that they are 'pods, but I want to make sure, since I plan on upgrading the lighting and adding some hard corals and stuff. Any Ideas? Link to comment
Caesar777 Posted September 26, 2005 Share Posted September 26, 2005 Sure they were red? Most likely pods--look up copepods, amphipods, isopods, etc., as well as mysid shrimp. Link to comment
jedininja Posted September 27, 2005 Share Posted September 27, 2005 If you dont have any SPS right now, it is extremely unlikely that you have that many red bugs or even any at all. Link to comment
NepTuNe-UsD Posted September 28, 2005 Author Share Posted September 28, 2005 Originally posted by onthefly Gawd Nep.......That pic makes me shiver:( Interceptor....will take care of them and that frag will look insane:) Yeh... makes me feel like takin' a shower haha. Luckily I got some interceptor from a friend and Ill see how it works out. Link to comment
mattie Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 red bugs are a pain in the ass. i have had them a few times... the interceptor works if you can get it. they only mess with sps. WARNING the interceptor will kill crabs, and shrimp so take precations if you want to keep those things alive. after my last bought with RB's i am not looking for any more new varieties of sps corals. if you do not treat the red bugs so corals will be okay but others will recede and slowly die. so RB's are a pain and no fun, I am so sorry cause i feel your pain. Good luck. the dip does work for getting new frags most of the time. but if you put that frag in your tank for 24hrs best to start planning for red bug war... Link to comment
NepTuNe-UsD Posted October 10, 2005 Author Share Posted October 10, 2005 Sure they were red? Most likely pods--look up copepods, amphipods, isopods, etc., as well as mysid shrimp. Ive been in this hobby for a few years now... If you dont have any SPS right now, it is extremely unlikely that you have that many red bugs or even any at all. So how then do you conclude that red bugs are introduced into a system? My guess is that most red bugs are introduced into a system through an infested colony or even an infested frag at one point. Are you saying that its unlikely that one of the first frags I introduced happened to be infested? Link to comment
Caesar777 Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Well, how long has it been since you had sps in there? Anything will starve to death without its food after a reasonable amount of time.... Link to comment
NepTuNe-UsD Posted October 10, 2005 Author Share Posted October 10, 2005 Well, how long has it been since you had sps in there? Anything will starve to death without its food after a reasonable amount of time.... I guess what my original post was trying to say is that I (unknowingly) bought a frag that was infested with red bugs and introduced it into my tank for about 24 hours until I noticed the parasites at which point I removed it from the system. My original question was whether or not I should dose interceptor in case any of the red bugs from the newly introduced frag came off into my tank while the frag was still in there. As an update I should say that although I did see one single red bug in my tank a few days after the infested frag was taken out, I didnt dose with interceptor, and 2 weeks later I have not seen a single red bug on any of my acropora.... But now I have a flatworm problem... Link to comment
Caesar777 Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 I meant ReefWreak in the "sure they were red?" comment...Just for the record. On whether or not you should dose...Not sure. Not a big sps person. Link to comment
ReefWreak Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 To Caesar777: I don't know if they were red or brown, or even a tan color, but I'm almost positive that they were not of a green or blue based color. They looked like baby brine shrimp though, so I'm not worried. And I don't have any SPS, although my LFS guy is giving me some of his SPS digis and stuff to try out in the stock 24g NC Wish me luck. (BTW if they do not do well, I will return them to him immediatly as to not kill the beautiful corals, and he is not charging me for them either.) Link to comment
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