Parasitic Tegastidae copepods "Black Bugs"

[Razor Ramon]

Wow that’s crappy. Those black bugs are tough MFs. I’ve dealt with the bigger ones that like monties and acros they are about twice the size of red bugs as well as ones I call clear bugs wich are smaller than red bugs . I used interceptor as well first time used regular dose . Killed all red bugs never to see again but the black and clear came back after about half a year . Then I did a second dose of interceptor but very strong for the size of my tank for 3 weeks . It’s strange because inseptor is for worms and crustations. But doesn’t seem to kill all of them, certain ones are tough. I still have feather dusters ,tube worms, bristle worms , and all kinds of pods ,but it did kill all red bugs and shrimp pods . Something else I found is they like certain corals and will not infest another right beside it . So if you can remove and dip weekly the little MF WILL DIE! Dipping the coral weekly and using a turkey baster and blasting them off works the best for me . When dipping I only use minimal time just enough to knock them off then use a magnifying glass with a light to look and scrape any eggs off .
Thanks again for the heads up we need look very close at our wet pets for pests and quarantine .

[Frogger]

Interceptor treatments have only reduced the numbers but have not eliminated them. I increased the dosage to double yesterday and they are still active today. Will likely triple dosage next week if no improvement. Sometimes it takes a while for the interceptor to kill them. I will leave it in the water column for a couple days before turning on skimmer and adding activated carbon.

Apparently you can go up to quadruple dosage and not adversely affect the corals and fish.

Will keep you posted. I will try to get a picture.

[Frogger]

black bugs 3 by Glenn Murray

Two of the bugs on acro circled. Taken with macro Olympus T5 zoomed in all the way cropped and enlarged. These guys are small

Will get better picture when I get my microscope out.

[Frogger]

copepod 1 by Glenn Murray,

This is a side view at 800 times magnification. The front end is the wider section at the bottom. For scale I believe the round ball like structures at the top are zooxanthellae cells.

[Frogger]

copepod3 by Glenn Murray

This is a view of 4 of them seen at 60 time magnification on the dissecting scope. They seem to hang out on the polyps and inside the corallites. There is hundreds of these guys on a small 2" frag.

[Frogger]

copepod 2 by Glenn Murray

The red dot is the front of this guy. This is a top down view at 800 times magnification.

[Frogger]

To date I have used 2 treatments of interceptor at 100%. I did the 3rd treatment at 160%. I just treated today, 4th treatment at 240% of the recommended dosage. From what I can see I can go up to 400%.

So far the treatments only seemed to reduce the population of these copepods. It has slightly affected the amphipod population and does not appear to have had a major impact on my snails. Fish and corals show no sign of stress.

Will keep you posted. Like I said before I have received acro cuttings from many different reefers locally. I noticed it on the last couple of frags I bought which have been treated with bayer and are in the frag tank. Those frags have not set foot in my display tank.

The little buggers that I have in the display tank I must have gotten earlier. Every cutting I have has been dipped in Coral RX. Coral RX does not in phase these guys. They are just a tiny little dot with a hand lens and are really not visible. I did not start finding these guys until I was looking at them under the microscope.