My turn... (Red Bugs)

S

Serk

Two of my favorite frags I've had for AGES and have just barely grown at all...

Tonight I threw the macro lenses on the camera, and took some extreme closeups... Yep... What I was afraid of...

Luckily, these two are my ONLY "smooth" Acropora's. I've checked my other SPS, and haven't seen anymore of the critters, but looks like it's time for my to find some Interceptor and do the deed...

-Many expletives deleted-

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Trade you some Interceptor for that Wireless Webcam service :) Have plenty.

PM me if interested!
 
You've got a deal! Been meaning to head up to your place anyway, just... Ya' know... Hectic time of the year!

I figure, the frags have hung on this long as they have, they can wait 'till I can get to your place, and have time to do the treatment properly anyway...

NOT looking forward to wiping out my massive 'pod population, not to mention my shrimp and crabs that I know I won't be able to get outta my system...

:cry:

Thanks!
 
Oh, and sorry to flood my own thread, but does anyone know off the top of their heads if there's a safe fallow time? Do they ONLY attack "smooth skinned" Acroporas? If I were to remove these two frags (Which have encrusted onto the rock, but oh well) completely from the system, and treat them in a separate hospital tank, is there a reasonable amount of time that the bugs would die off in my main tank? Or do I just hafta bite the bullet and treat the whole system, as I suspect?

(Yeah, I'm searching and reading on it as well right now, but would prefer some first hand experience too...)
 
try this post:
http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=19936&highlight=

Keith mentions some post on RC. Hopefully he can jump in with specifics.

Brian, I will PM you with my address and cell. Thanks!

Cliff
 
Sorry to see this. I guess it will eventually hit us all.

Marc only treats the affected colony and take his chances with the rest. I'm sure he'll chime in.

Most people, including myself, treat the whole tank and take our chances with the inverts. I lost 1/2 of the snails, 1 cleaner shrimp I couldn't catch, all the pods, but they rebounded.
 
Wow that sucks. If they are on one colony they are already on others that they will affect. You need to do a in tank treatment or you will continue to risk the health of your Acros. Marc still has them BTW and I would not recommend that you treat one colony at a time out of the tank. Follow Dustin Dortins recomendations that are posted in the links on the Quintessential red bugs treatment if you need more info.

You will notice a HUGE difference in the color and polyp extension once you actually treat. Good Luck!
 
I feel you pain and am treating my tank just as soon as I can find the other dose of Interceptor I was given last time around. I've moved since then so I may never find the thing. Last time I treated, I caught all the snails and crabs that I could and dropped them into another tank and treated my system. All of my shrimp survived but it did nuke most of the pods.

For what it's worth, I think I picked up my recent infestation with a couple of frags I bought at an LFS. I happened by there the other day and took a close look in their tank and guess what I saw? My fault..I haven't added an SPS to my tank since I treated the last time around and wham!

:sad:
 
I really don't see any real signs of them in my tank other than the A. granulosa. Wierd.

Sorry you found them in your tank, they are a pest.
 
Well, I've decided to try an experiment, as it's gonna be a while until I'm able to get my hands on some Interceptor anyway...

From my reading, it's believed that these guys have a very fast life-cycle, and will die in a manner of days if they don't have a host.

I've only got 4 smallish frags of smooth skinned Acroporas. So I REALLY don't wanna nuke all my crustacean life for just these 4 frags, but I also don't wanna have these guys hanging out in my tank long term...

Basically... The plan is, every day I'll get the magnifying glass out and check the frags out... Then, proceed to blast them all with multiple full strength close range blasts from my Handy-Dandy Turkey Baster, then look at the frags again with the magnifying glass...

Yesterday, I checked one frag, and it was covered with the things. I blasted it with the turkey baster, and when I checked last night I saw one still on it.

Today, I checked again, and saw 2... Blasted again and saw none...

The theory is, every day MOST of 'em get blasted into the nether regions of my reef and starve, SOME will find their way back, only to be blasted off the next day, with the number reaching it back getting lower every day, until finally it's zero (At which point I keep blasting and observing daily anyway)

Anyway, it prolly won't work and I'll hafta do an Interceptor treatment on the whole tank anyway, but figured it's worth a shot at least!
 
If they only munch on smooth skinned acropora, and you only have 4 frags.. why not loan them to someone who's getting ready to treat for redbugs.

Or when you do get some interceptor, set up a qt tank and treat them there for a couple of weeks while the main tank lies fallow of their food.
 
I AM NOT DECLARING VICTORY. THIS IS JUST AN OPTIMISTIC UPDATE

Well, it's been 18 or so hours since I last blasted the frags with the turkey baster... I just went over and gave 'em a good look with the magnifying glass...

Couldn't find a single one of the SOB's. Not one...

I went ahead and blasted 'em with the baster again, and will continue to do daily blastings and observations and see what happens...
 
Hrmm...maybe I'll break out the turkey baster! I really want to do an interceptor treatment, but I don't think my manderins will appreciate me nuking all of their food in the process. :?
 
Okay, once again, I am NOT claiming success (Not yet, at least! :wink: ) Sorry to keep repeating that point, but I wanna make sure I'm not misunderestimated, this is only an experiment... I'm not advocating some New Way for treating Red Bugs, just an idea I had, and since I've got such a small amount of Acropora, much less smooth skinned Acroporas, figured it couldn't do any harm to give it a shot....

Anyway, here's the same coral that's pictured above from tonight before it's daily "Baster Bath"...

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I'll keep updating this, if anyone else wants to give this a shot, as I said, I can't think of a danger of trying it (As long as you don't blast the corals so hard you start ripping flesh off the skeleton, of course). Obviously, if you've got a tank full of Acropora, this definitely wouldn't be practical...
 
No fear Brian, I wouldn't think you are advocating a new treatment! I do have a tank fairly full of acropora so I'm torn. Maybe I'll test drive Melev's Famous Mandarin Diner for a week or so to see if they will eat when the pods die. :sad:
 
Well I can now also be added to the club. :sad:

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I am torn on the Interceptor treatment and actually thinking about the Dragonface Pipefish. The large pod population loss has me most concerned. In addition, I can not find a way, or have not, to measure the medication. For you guys that have done the treatment, how did you measure the drugs out.
 
each tablet is 23mg, so when splitting it apart just made a good estimate of how many fragments of the pill it will take per dose. Especially if treating outside the tank, too much won't matter.
 
Actually each tablet is almost a gram. However there are 23mg of the active ingredient that we want to kill the bugs. At least that is what Dustin at ORA says.

For my main system I need .375g or 375mg. The threads seem to be pretty insistent on the medication being measure properly. I don't know about you but the cheapest milligram scale I found was about $300.

Sorry if this is a hijack.
 
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