Help...red Bugs!!!!!!!

[chew*]

The fuge can't be taken off line for this to save my pods for my 2 fish? Aren't the rb just on the acros?

No they can and do get in the water column......for complete erradication the whole system has to get treated.......Unless you can seperate your fuge from the main system for a month.........

 

[TomD]

This is all very confusing right now because this happens at a turning point in my life. If I get into law school I will be very busy while working full time, as Andy O knows. I was considering downgrading but realized I would not be happy with that and probably would not be much less work.

So "possibly," I may just take this oppurtunity to take out and treat/sell all acro colonies and turn my tank all LPS/Softie/Clam.

It would be less work and worry and I love LPS. Less dosing, the whole 9 yards.

I don't know, just a thought in my mind right now.

 

[TomD]

Do RB affect caps at all?

 

[dz6t]

Bottom line - All incoming corals should be treated as if they were infested with everything, without exception. I know my system to be pest free, but I encourage anyone purchasing from me to treat anyway, it is just plain good and conscientious reefing practice.

Dave, I never say people should not treat incoming coral. I totally agree that all incoming coral should be treated.

Also, insist on getting flesh cut small frags will reduce the risk of getting bugs. Also it give you a chance to watch them grow. Big colonies have bigger risks of carrying pests especially those encrusted on rocks.

As far as treatment, red bug it is not a big deal. As long as the colonies are healthy, just leave them as it is.

Tom, Because you are so busy, it make no sense to do a full tank treatment. One thing you can do is to take the purple tips arco out and dip them. Then put them back in and let them attract more red bugs and dip the coral again. It will reduce the amount of red bugs. If the coral die, I will give you more frag of it for free.

 

[TomD]

Dave, I never say people should not treat incoming coral. I totally agree that all incoming coral should be treated.

Also, insist on getting flesh cut small frags will reduce the risk of getting bugs. Also it give you a chance to watch them grow. Big colonies have bigger risks of carrying pests especially those encrusted on rocks.

As far as treatment, red bug it is not a big deal. As long as the colonies are healthy, just leave them as it is.

Tom, Because you are so busy, it make no sense to do a full tank treatment. One thing you can do is to take the purple tips arco out and dip them. Then put them back in and let them attract more red bugs and dip the coral again. It will reduce the amount of red bugs. If the coral die, I will give you more frag of it for free.

Thanks Dong, something to think about.

 

[dz6t]

I heard that some mandarin or scooter blenny eat red bug but not very sure about it.

 

[KyleinCT]

I had the bugs in my 210 last summer. You must do the three treatments....I also extended the exposure time to double the time. I saw no negative impact, in fact much better PE, not immediate, but after a month or so...my tank is already reloaded with pods...I was worried about my 30g seahorse...(one big horse) would starve as he constantly hunts, but he is fine (eats frozen mysis too)....I did lose a big emerald (real big) and an extra large cleaner shrimp after the first dose. I had a fire shrimp that I couldn't catch, her survived the first dose after several hours, came out and looked drunk, caught him and threw in my second tank and he's fine today.

No algae blooms at all....well maybe a little red cyano, not sure if that was due to it or something else. I had fished out all my hermits..stars and snails =no impact.

I have my secondary display and a frag tank that I got lazy with, and doink, now I have red bugs in that. My plan is to seal off the display and frag, throw the sps in the frag treat with interceptor, and let the display go fallow for a month. This 75 is full of blue hermits that I brought back from florida, as well as peppermints, the fire shrimp, coral banded, etc. Get back to me in a month and I'll let you know how that went.

I read post after post, after post about interceptor, I have not had problems with reduced bio capacity in my 210, but then again, I have it as well as a 150 sump pretty loaded with rock.

 

[KyleinCT]

Forgot to mention, I can ship you a big bag of cheato loaded with critters to get you restarted with critters...perhaps if several of us did that, the mixed bag could get you going again fine for the mandarin.....and yes, the cheato would be from the "clean" system.

 

[this is me]

Tom, Because you are so busy, it make no sense to do a full tank treatment. One thing you can do is to take the purple tips arco out and dip them. Then put them back in and let them attract more red bugs and dip the coral again. It will reduce the amount of red bugs. If the coral die, I will give you more frag of it for free.

I disagree with this statement strongly. Why do dip after dip and knowing you still going to have red bugs in your tank.
Either do a full treatment or don't do it at all!

 

[NateHanson]

The fuge can't be taken off line for this to save my pods for my 2 fish? Aren't the rb just on the acros?

Yes, it must stay separate for 2 to 3 weeks though, to ensure that any bugs in there starve.

Also, insist on getting flesh cut small frags will reduce the risk of getting bugs. Also it give you a chance to watch them grow. Big colonies have bigger risks of carrying pests especially those encrusted on rocks.

Even fresh cut frags can carry redbugs, and should be treated with interceptor.

As far as treatment, red bug it is not a big deal. As long as the colonies are healthy, just leave them as it is.

Well, many people have observed that redbugs retard growth, reduce color, and can make corals more susceptible to tissue loss. So I guess "healthy" is subjective. I agree that treatment is not a big deal. It's easy. But if you decide not to treat, your corals will not be as healthy as if you did treat. And please do not trade corals with anyone if you decide not to treat for the bugs.

Tom, Because you are so busy, it make no sense to do a full tank treatment. One thing you can do is to take the purple tips arco out and dip them. Then put them back in and let them attract more red bugs and dip the coral again. It will reduce the amount of red bugs. If the coral die, I will give you more frag of it for free.

I'm would not say that's any easier than treating with interceptor, and it's certainly not going to kill more than a small fraction of the bugs in the tank. And as soon as you stop regular dips, the population will just come back to where it was, so that effort is wasted. Treating the tank is simply not that big of a hassle. It's easy to get worked up about finding a pest like this in your tank. I know I have in the past. But in reality treating for redbugs is fairly simple and safe. It'll take a couple hours total for the 3 treatments, and you'll be done with it, and you'll wonder why you got so worked up about it in the first place.

I heard that some mandarin or scooter blenny eat red bug but not very sure about it.

I think there was a file fish and/or a pipe fish that some people suggested might be interested in eating the bugs, but all accounts I read about said that in practical terms this method was useless. A timid fish will never significantly reduce the bug population, and certainly it could not ever erradicate the bugs, to make trading possible.

 

[dz6t]

This way at least Tom has some nice looking SPS coral to look at with out puting in a lot of effort to do a full tank treatment.

If the reef tank is an entertainment device, what matters is to have something beautiful to look at. This way also prevent messing up a beautiful tank. Red bugs don't kill but irritating to coral (more to the reefer).

 

[dz6t]

Even fresh cut frags can carry redbugs, and should be treated with interceptor.

.

This is interesting, why people always assuming that I am against treating incoming coral? What I was saying is that a flesh cut frag has smaller chance to carry pest than a encrusted colony. OK, I have to put the disclaimer in: No matter what, treat you incoming coral.

 

[this is me]

A full treatment takes up at most a full day. At most. You can drop the interceptor before going to bed and then wake up in the morning(6-8hrs) to do the 40-50% waterchange. Go to work or whatever you have to do and return home in the evening to do another 20% waterchange.
Then wait another week to do another treatment to make sure that you have eradicated the pests.
You can wait on the treatment. The red bugs will not kill your corals overnight!

Tom.
How big is the tank?

 

[dz6t]

I think his tank is a 90 gallon.

 

[TomD]

Nick don't get mad at me 90 gallon/30 gal. sump

When I was referring time, I was pondering ending all SPS and going with softie/lps.

For now, it is either treat all the way, or do not.

I am going to hook up with Buddie on Saturday and he is going to help me out. Then I will decide which route to take.

Nate, I like the idea of taking the sump/fuge offline but dont like the idea that that will also take my fuge/skimmer/phosphate reactor and all else off line probably creating major algae blooms.

 

[NateHanson]

Yes, I think you would definitely need to at least plumb your skimmer into the display tank for the treatment.

 

[this is me]

Nick don't get mad at me 90 gallon/30 gal. sump

When I was referring time, I was pondering ending all SPS and going with softie/lps.

For now, it is either treat all the way, or do not.

I am going to hook up with Buddie on Saturday and he is going to help me out. Then I will decide which route to take.

Nate, I like the idea of taking the sump/fuge offline but dont like the idea that that will also take my fuge/skimmer/phosphate reactor and all else off line probably creating major algae blooms.

Lol Tom,
I'm not mad at you or anybody. Like everyone else in this thread, I'm just trying to help you through the RB problem. It's a very common problem and has a very easy cure compare to other stuff we have to deal with in our tank.
Really though, you shouldn't be too stressed out about it. Once you've done it once, you realize how not a deal of a problem red bugs are.

 

[Jennifer]

I am still very new to sps and should and will be more careful in the future.
After reading all of the posts I decided to look at my acros a little closer.

Sure enough I have RB all over my blue acro stag that I got from the BRS Auction. No name dropping here I have no clue where or who this coral came from. I have just ordered interceptor from petmeds.com Thank you to Rambomessiah for just posting that thread.

The blue acro was the first acro in my tank. I have a flour green acro (I think a green slimer), another green acro, a blueberry milli, and many dif monti digitatas.
Which ones are considered smooth skin and which ones will be at risk for red bugs?
No red bugs can be seen on any of my other corals right now.
Sorry not trying to highjack but any help would be appreciated.

 

[TomD]

You are welcome to post in the thread. If I were you, I would treat all SPS, at least that is what I am going to do. Not sure about digis.

 

[Peter Fernandes]

Thank Jimmyj7090 I'm pretty sure it was him in a previous thread that I got the info from. I'm just glad I got some and to spread the word.

It's real easy not to treat incoming and I've been doing it alot lately.

Threads like this make me realize how easy it would be to let hitchhicker like this in and worse.FWIW I say NUKE it Tom. Good luck!

Peter