Red Bugs - Need a Little Help...and a Light

[cybermeez]

I guess it was bound to happen eventually....Red Bugs. At fishy breakfast yesterday morning I noticed my nice purple tri-color wasn't looking right. Upon closer inspection I could see it was swarming with Red Bugs, as were 2 other acros in close proximity. I could even see the little red bastards floating in the water column. :anger2:

When I left for work in the morning my frags and other acros I keep at the other end of the tank were unaffected. By the time I got home from work there wasn't an acro in the tank that wasn't infested. My 2 Acropora milliporas are so fuzzy I couldn?t see through the polyps to tell if they were victims, but since they are an acro species I would assume so.

I've had the reef running for a few years and began keeping acros about a year and a half ago. I'm not sure how they got in my tank since I'm obsessive about dipping all corals before they go into the reef. Maybe they came in on some LR or newly acquired inverts? Either way I'm now the proud owner of a thriving colony of Red Bugs and I don't want to be.

I've read about the Interceptor treatment protocol (on Eric Borneman's site) and am going to get out the Dremmel and try it. Anybody know if you can be electrocuted by a battery powered Dremmel while usinig it in/around the tank?

Also, I need some help from this generous community that is Manhattan Reefs. I need to borrow a light fixture that I can use temporarily with the 10 gallon treatment tank. The only light I have is the big MH combo over the main tank. Does any one have a spare light with enough watts I could borrow that would just keep my acros alive for a week while they are being treated? :help:

Robin

 

[pecan2phat]

Robin,
Can't you treat the whole tank with interceptor for 3 treatments? Do you have hermits, crabs and shrimps that you can't get out or are not willing to lose?

 

[prattreef]

I don't know what Boreneman recommends, but you need to treat the whole system... 2 or 3 times. There is no other way. Fragging out affected colonies will not work as clearly it has spread throughout your system. The good news is that the treatment is easy and completely harmless unless you are an arthropod. Most shrimps like cleaners etc. usually survive too. I and others have dosed in higher than recommended dosages for longer periods of time without problems.

Randy

 

[cybermeez]

Robin,

Can't you treat the whole tank with interceptor for 3 treatments? Do you have hermits, crabs and shrimps that you can't get out or are not willing to lose?

Yeah, I don't want to lose my cleaner inverts. More importantly, I have a mandarin that won't eat commercial or frozen foods. I don't want to wipe out all the good pods that are his food source.

According to Borneman's site Red Bugs are specific to acros and will not colonize other species of corals. So, removal and treatment outside the main tank should work.

 

[prattreef]

I don't know how many acros you have, but you need to get every bit of every one out and keep them out for several weeks. If the mandarin is your concern, I'd net him out with a few pieces of live rock and hold him in QT. It might also offer you an opportunity to train him to eat frozen fare.

 

[ming]

Yeah, I don't want to lose my cleaner inverts. More importantly, I have a mandarin that won't eat commercial or frozen foods. I don't want to wipe out all the good pods that are his food source.

According to Borneman's site Red Bugs are specific to acros and will not colonize other species of corals. So, removal and treatment outside the main tank should work.

In theory, it would work, but you're forgetting how they get from acro to acro. They either crawl on the live rock or suspend in the water column so you're definately not going to get them all unless you dose it in the main tank. Then the ones you missed will multiply and the cycle continues.
And keep in mind, the interceptor treatment does not kill the eggs.

You might think of keeping your whole tank acro-less to starve out the red bugs, but nobody really knows the life cycle of them.
Also, are you really going to scrape off every bit of acro which encrusted your live rock?

You'd be better off setting the 10 gallon as a quarantine for your shrimps/crabs while you dose your main tank

 

[cybermeez]

I don't know how many acros you have, but you need to get every bit of every one out and keep them out for several weeks.

Hence the Dremmel.

Most of the acros are still manageably small and only a couple have bases encrused on the rock. Is the lifecycle of Red Bugs with out a host acro more than previously though (i.e. longer than a week)?

 

[prattreef]

I think the answer is that no one really knows for sure.

 

[noodleman]

i removed all my acros from my main tank for 2 weeks to treat for red bugs a while ago...they havent returned yet

 

[cybermeez]

Anybody got a spare light they can lend me for a bit.......anybody?


:bump:

 

[jhale]

I understand your concern for the mandarin. i went through the same thing a few month ago. my mandarin eats pellets so it was ok, but I was still worried about his pods coming back. I removed all the cheato from my fuge and kept it out of the tank for two months. it let the red bugs die, but kept the pods alive. I treated the tank three times, I think it's the only way to make sure all the bugs are dead. what happens if you miss one little piece in the rocks? all your work is for nothing. sorry I don't have an extra MH