I have red bugs......

[this is me]

Yup, it happens....
Checked out some of my sps and saw a bunch of red mites running around! I saw nothing on the monti cap, efflo, millepora(kinda hard to tell cuz of the hairy polyps). But all of my acros have red bugs. I dont know how long it has been or how I got it but thats not the point. The point is I have it in my system and I need some help on the treatments. I dont have alot of crabs or shrimp but I will be asking someone closer to my location to hold one cleaner shrimp for me. I have an acros crab but I dont think I can get it out of the colony, its a bushy colony. So I guess I'm gonna have to treat the tank with it as a casualty. I'm sure pretty much all of my pods are gonna be gone...
I have a whole bunch of stromata snail(?), the kind that doesnt have a hard shell to it. I'm worry about them because I think they do 90% of the cleanning as oppose to my astrea snail that doesnt do much. But the interceptor only affect crabs and shrimps rite?

After spending alot of time reading these threads on the treatment
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=324266&highlight=red+bugs
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=43945
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=45859
I decided to treat the tank as soon as i get the interceptor.
I dont have a dog or know anyone who has a dog so I'm asking members, who treated their tank before, have any left over. Or they can get it for me. I also need a scale that can measure in mg.

 

[this is me]

And i'm asking for those who has done it before on any advice, tips, recommendations, comments, ect.

 

[NateHanson]

That's a bummer Mihn, but not hard to treat. I'd set up a small tank or tub with a heater and pick out as many crabs and shrimp as you can. They'll live in that tub without filtration for a couple weeks. Then you can treat your tank, and after 2 weeks, any bugs that hitchhiked with the crabs will be dead, and you can safely return the crabs and shrimp to your tank.

I wouldn't ask a friend to hold your shrimp unless it's a tank that has absolutely no scrap of acropora, even encrusted on the rock, and then I'd still wait 2 weeks before accepting it back into your tank.

Nate

 

[this is me]

Yeah, I was thinking about that too and this is the part I dont get. After treating your tank, there's a chance that the bug will be re-introduced when you put back your shrimps and crabs. So if you treat the tank wiith them in it, 99.9% chance that they'll be dead.
I might take the chance and leave everything in there. I dont want to infect any other member's tank and I dont want to see these red bugs agian.
My predicted casualty will be one cleaner shrimp, one acros crab, and a millions of pods.I can always replace these.
And of course another couple millions of those red bastards which I dont want to see ever agian!
So how do I get the interceptor?

 

[~Flighty~]

It is more like 50% mortality for crabs and stuff in my experience. but they do seem to get brain damage or something because the ones that made it never acted normal after.

I have gotten it from my vet here and he seemed interested in reef diseases. I think you can order it online pretty easilly too.

 

[NateHanson]

Mihn, it's fairly well accepted that the bugs can't live for more than 2 weeks without acro flesh to feed on and complete their life cycle. So there's virtually no chance of reinfection if you move your crabs and shrimp to a temporary tank while you treat the tank.

 

[scavdog]

I have some interceptor tabs lying around if you need them. No worries about the snails, this stuff only seems to nuke crustaceans.

Plan on 3 treatments of the drug and you should be fine.

On a positive note, red bugs seem to pale in comparison to the acro flatworms and monti nudbranchs.

 

[Corwyn]

FYI, I had them as well. I only had 5 acros in the tank so I decided to treat the corals and not the tank. I lost 1 of the acros (probably due to stress and aclimation since it wasn't reall happy in the first place.) but after a single treatment and keeping the acros out of the tank for about 24 hours I have not had a return (that I can see)
of the bugs in 2 weeks.

C

 

[this is me]

I'm treating the whole tank. Its less work for me and have a more sucess rate. It would be hard for me to take the individual colony that I think is infected out of the tank.

Scavdog, clean up your PM box. Trying to send you a pm about the interceptor.
And yes, these pest are nothing compare to FW

 

[NateHanson]

FYI, I had them as well. I only had 5 acros in the tank so I decided to treat the corals and not the tank. . . . after a single treatment and keeping the acros out of the tank for about 24 hours I have not had a return (that I can see) of the bugs in 2 weeks.

You have to be very careful with this approach. I know it can be successful (it worked for me) but you need to be sure that you can completely remove all acro flesh from the tank, and you need to keep the tank acro free for 2 weeks. Otherwise the bugs will hang out in the tank while you treat the acros elsewhere, and then re-infest your colonies when you reintroduce them less than a week or two after the treatment.

Nate

 

[Greg Hiller]

I'll be happy to weigh it out for you if you like. Just let me know EXACTLY how much you want in each dose.

 

[JustDavidP]

My .02 worth...

I treated my 75G twice with the recommended dose and after still seeing the little buggers, I treated the third time with 1 and 1/2 the dose. I spent two weeks harvesting all crustaceans from the system. Some I just could not get. In the end, I lost just one porcelain crab, one hermit crab and one pepermint shrimp. Both of my skunk cleaners lived, as did my candy cane pistol shrimp and a half dozen hermit crabs. A few months later, my system is chuck full of isopods, copepods, and anthropods again. What had me even more psyched is that I had a BOOMING population of mysid, which I thought I'd lost, but they are back and even stronger.

Best of luck Mihn.

Dave

 

[nunofs]

Mihn, I see that you already had a few offers, but if you need someone closer, I can spare a tab of interceptor (but don't have any way of weighing the dosage accurately).

FWIW, I've been using Interceptor baths on all incoming corals, kind of eyeballing the dosage (always on the higher side, possibly 2 or 3 times the recommended dosage for whole-tank treatments)... any acro crabs and pods that come with the corals always die.

Btw, I don't know if anyone ever noticed this when treating a tank, but the container I use for the Interceptor baths stinks... the tabs are "beef flavored" to make them more appealing to dogs, and leave a very strong bovine smell no matter how many times I wash and rinse the container.

Nuno

 

[this is me]

as of 1:30pm the drug is in the tank.
Its gonna be a fun day.
Here a pic of the little red mites, I'll take more pics of it as the day progress.

 

[NateHanson]

Oh yeah. You've got 'em alright. They love that Larry Jackson don't they?

 

[this is me]

update

its been more than 1.5 hour and all the red bugs seem to be inactive(not moving) and I see some hanging on the slime. I'll it another 2 hours or so, then I'll blast them with the turkey baster to see if they're come off or not. Its kind of funny how all the fishes seem to be more active, both of my maroon never comes out of their home but they seem to be swimming everywhere in the tank. They dont dont sick or swim irregularly. They look happy(to me). My cleaner shrimp is doing nothing like it usually does. And my acros crab is nowhere to be found.
check it out

 

[this is me]

6 hours later

Here an update. All of the red mites seem to be gone. As of this moment, I dont know where the cleaner shrimp is.
Will do a 40% water change shortly and run carbon. So far, I'm very happy with the outcome. What you think? you can actually see the difference in polyps extension before and after the treatment!