Red Acro Bugs
 

Just thought I would remind everyone to quarantine ANY new addition to their tank, as well as visually inspect any corals for pests.
I have recently aquired a healthy population of red acro bugs described in the following thread..

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...threadid=39956

I know of other tanks both on the Island and Mainland that are affected. Some people have reported no problems, although my experience doesn't agree with this. I am seeing damage from these "mites".
Iodine dips seem to kill them, and I'll be running some tests with epsom salts as a dip.
To look at your own acros, you'll probably need a magnifying glass.

As an added bonus to the tank tour, I'll have a frag infested with these for viewing under a dissecting scope. Kinda neat watching them eat my corals!! :roll:

Brad, that totally sucks :(

However, I'd really like to see these things up close so this will be a great addition to the tour. I'll have my magnifying glass out tonight to inspect my corals as well. I didn't realize they were so small. I was thinking sort of flatworm size.

Thanks for the link.

Christy :)

Christy, they are very tiny. I didn't even know I had them until someone with much better eyes told me!!

Yes, I visually inspected my corals the other day after talking to you and thought I was safe as I didn't see any. Nuts to that. I think I may borrow a dissecting scope from work tonight.

Christy :)

Christy, if you have decent eyesight, you should be able to see them. They move fairly quickly, so look for little dots moving around.

Here is the best pic I could get. I have seen no negative effects from the bugs thus far..

http://members.shaw.ca/limestone2/bugs01.jpg

Do they only go after Acro?

Thanks for the heads up, I've never seen them before NOR heard of them before.

Yes, they only live on acropora.

Great, thanks for that, if I ever get some Acro I will take a magnifying glass (Not for the invoice) lol sorry folks....