Black bugs

[nichols]

I have black bugs in my tank. Tonight I pulled each and every frag out of my frag tank and looked at them with a magnifying glass under mh light. No Digi and no other Monti caps have them. In fact the only frags that have them are the Grape Idaho. I have six Grape Idaho frags and they all have black bugs on them.
I also have 5 different types of Monti caps various Digi, LPS and SPS frags in this tank. A total of about 40 frags and the only affected frags are the Grapes.
I sold six frags of Grape Idaho to other members of the club in Aug and Sept. I have no idea who I sold them to and did not know they were infected or I wouldn't have sold them. If you bought a Grape frag from me please check them. These things are tiny. Like a 1/4 of a fleck of pepper.
If anybody has suggestions for treating this pest please post here. I don't mind loosing some frags to find a treatment which will kill these things. I don't know where they came from and didn't even know I had then until tonight.

 

[Troubleman]

Seeing interceptor kills red bugs, might kill black ones. It's a good place to start. I have some in 3x dose for 2 gals if you need some.

 

[nichols]

I have 9- 5.75 mg Interceptor tablets which I got for for my dog. ( found out he only likes the soft heart worm pills thank-you.) Any Idea how much to use in a half full 10 tank? Length of time for treatment? Any links?
I would appreciate any help I can get.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Give the Levamisole a try as well, it seems to kill a lot of things when you dip corals in it. Let me know if you need some. You might also try the coral dip from Tropic Marin Tropic Marin’s Pro-Coral Cure, I know some guys swear by it. Expensive stuff I hear though.

Could it be that this bug is specific only to a few species of coral? I know the AEFW only eat Acros (restricted to one genera), the Montipora eating nudis only eat Montipora (and Mitch said Anacropora, nearly restricted to one genera).

 

[wrassefan]

Bill, JMO...(someone check my math) my guess would be a third of the tablet for 10 gal. I used the 23mg pill...reg red bug treatment was 300 gal for the one pill....dip was double strength...so 150 gal for my one pill. Roughly 6gal per mg...so your pill would treat 30gal...half filled...5gal....1/6th of the pill

 

[penguinsix]

Betadine does the trick with these guys, 3ml per liter of water.

 

[wrassefan]

Betadine does the trick with these guys, 3ml per liter of water.

where does one get betadine?

 

[fanaglethebagle]

where does one get betadine?

Your vet I think.

 

[maurod]

Betadine or poviodine is available at any store, (definately drugstores) it's an iodine based dis-infectant.

 

[nichols]

I have 3 treatment tanks running. One with Betadine, one with Levamisole and one with Interceptor. We shall see.
I've checked and rechecked. I don't understand why only the Grape Idaho's are the only infected corals.
I post my results in a few hours.

 

[nichols]

After 5 hours all the black bugs were dead in in the Interceptor and the Betadine tanks. The Levamosole didn't seem to bother then at all.

 

[Troubleman]

Good to know, my dip/ quarantine regime consists of levamasole and interceptor.

thanks

bob

 

[Moe_K]

How are the corals, Bill?

 

[penguinsix]

I have some more images.

Underside with egg mass and black bugs:

Top with black bugs:

 

[stevenp]

Josh,
Have you found them on any other types of corals yet, besides caps?

Steve

 

[penguinsix]

Nope, but I do have half a bottle of betadine on my floor and in my roommates rug... My Acros are all ok, as are my lps and softies.

 

[nichols]

Corals all seem fine. I believe this are monti cap specific. None of my other corals are infected.

 

[smcnally]

Check this out...Someone over at RC is asking about black "Moving spots" on their green monti cap. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8440653#post8440653 I hope you don't mind that I posted your picture.

 

[nichols]

First off thanks Greg for making this a sticky as it may help other people.
As a test I set up 3 separate 5 gal tanks with a powerhead, a heater and an infected frag in each. One tank with 3 ml of Betadine per liter of tank water. One tank with 1/6 of a 5.75 mg Interceptor tablet. And one tank with Levamisole at 1 dropper per liter.
After 3 hours all the black bugs in the Betadine tank were dead.
After 4 hours all the black bugs in the Interceptor tank were dead.
I left all the corals in the tanks for 5 hours. At the end of the 5 hours the black bugs in the Levamisole were still alive.
48 hours later all the frags were doing well no noticeable stress and good polyp extension.
I don't know why but the only infected corals are purple caps. I have checked all my corals and rechecked all my corals. For my own piece of mind however I have pulled all my Monti caps and their In an Interceptor treatment tank as I write this. My plan is to treat them all for 5 hours, Qt them for 2 weeks and treat them again before reintroducing them to my system.
I would like to publicly apologize to anyone who might have gotten the pests from me. Please believe I would never knowingly sell or give away an infected coral.

 

[stevenp]

Bill,
FWIW, I found these on my light blue cap (same one you have) and green w/ purple rim cap as well, so I don't feel they're specific to the idaho grape.

Steve