red bugs
 

I was examining my sps today and I think I have red bugs. Does anyone have experience with treating these? I think intercepter is needed but I don't have any and I'm not sure how to get some. If anyone can help me I would be very appreciative.

I did the Interceptor whole tank treatment based on the reefs.org post being three whole take treatments one week apart. Worked well for me, finished it last Nov and no sign of them since.

I took out my cleaner shrimp and hermits for the duration and place in a QT. Was able to see a few pods after the treatment but then never had a whole lot since adding the 6 line.

I did start getting a cyano outbreak toward the end of Dec that I can't figure out. Tank had been up for ~10 month, feeding the same, testing 0 NO3, etc, thankfully it's just about over now since adding macro. I'm not sure if related but have read a post somewhere where another reefer had a cyano outbreak after Interceptor.

There is another protcol where you just dip the corals http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html . I found it after starting the whole tank method so didn't try.

As for Interceptor I was able to get the last fr Lando (thanks again) but would suggest asking a vet. Don't know your water volume but do have 1/2 tablet left if you want.

Whole tank treatment is a worst case situation. If you are able to remove your acros to a hospital tank it is the better option. I was able to treat mine that way since I caught the bugs while still in QT. If they are in your tank now, and you are able to completely remove the acros with out destroying them and everything else, then do so. If that is not practical, then use the whole tank treatment.

Another advantage of using a hospital tank to treat is that you can use a higher dosage and do only a single treatment. And since the tank is smaller, you don't need as much of the drug to treat it, even at a higher dosage. I was able to purchase a single tablet of the smallest dosage from a vet making it fairly inexpensive. I used 1/4 of the tablet for the treatment, which left me with three doses for treating later acros I bought. If you go for the whole tank option, you will need to use larger dosages and multiple treatments. Since the medication is not cheap, it will add to your costs.

if I do the hospital tank thing don't the bugs stay in the main tank only to reinfect when I return them to the main? I am aslo wondering how quickly I will need to act.

i started my treatment today in a 20 gallon hospital tank. i noticed the bugs several weeks ago. i think it takes some time to for the little guys do kill the acros but the sooner you start treatment the better for the corals.if you need some interceptor pm me and i'll give you the info where i got mine.

Eric Borneman did a study on red bugs and found out that without acropora to host them they can't survive more then five days, so if you kept the acros in the hospital tank for a week, the display tank should be clear :biggrin:

I had a really bad red bug infestation that killed half my acro's in a matter of days....depends on how bad the infestation is...

Also if you need some interceptor I have 3 or 4 boxes ( each box has 6 tablets at 23mg per tablet) of the stuff I am sure I can get some for you!

I have only seen the bugs on 2 of my acros. I also have two millis and various monti caps. Are all of them affected and in need of treatment. I would like to hear others experiences with these as I would like to know who has treated in tank and out as well.

I believe they only affect Acropora...but I am not sure....I would treat all your Acros even if yo don't see the bugs on them!!!

In my opinion and experience, Interceptor is relatively safe and easy to use. You can go out of your way and pull out the colonies and treat them seperatly but..but to me this seems less effective because red bugs can still be alive on your substrate or floating in your water column wich can then lead to reinfestation.

I have ~100 net gal of water and I treated the tank with 1 crushed pill...and only did an 8% water change. I lost maybe couple of snails..but everything else survived and my acros were healthy again.

If you decide to treat your tank..make sure you buy extra pills for Acro quarintine dips for future use. Before I introduce a frag, I always take a salifert size amount of interceptor and treat the frag in a Super Big Gulp container for 3hrs prior to introducing into my display..always do this because red bugs is really rampant in this hobby.

I hope this helps.