Another coral pest thread.

[sailfish]

As is evident by the amount of threads on ARC about these I would like to remind people to dip all corals.

The reason I made this post is out of frustration:mad2:and caution. It seems that most of the stores here do not have a good way to deal with pest or even care about them. We as hobbyist are left to protect ourselves and people need to take this seriously.

So in a nut shell please people dip you corals and if a store or person says you don't need to there wrong. They may think they do not have anything but you don't always know.

These are the dips I use other feel free to post what you like for dips.

ReVive for all LPS and zoa's

Tropic marin & or Revive now for sps. I also use intercepter in case of Red bugs. The only thing that will kill red bugs is interceptor for at least 6 to 8 Hrs.

Joe

 

[grouper therapy]

I think Joe's original intent was lost by all of us for this thread. I agree that if we buy a coral or fish from a lfs and that lfs knows of an infestation of some type then we should be made aware of it. But it is still our responsilbilty as a keeper of these animals to educate ourselves about there care and possible pest and to accept that resposilbilty. Thank's Joe for the heads up.

 

[sailfish]

HELLO someone here finally got it.

I started this thread and I can hardly stand to read most of it.

grouper therapy;350183 wrote: I think Joe's original intent was lost by all of us for this thread. I agree that if we buy a coral or fish from a lfs and that lfs knows of an infestation of some type then we should be made aware of it. But it is still our responsilbilty as a keeper of these animals to educate ourselves about there care and possible pest and to accept that resposilbilty. Thank's Joe for the heads up.

 

[mvm]

I have always stressed in my opinions that buyer beware. If a lfs knowingly sells infested corals, shame on them. I think we should start a new thread about how to dip/qt and treat corals.

 

[sailfish]

I use a small clear ice bucket it holds about 2.5 gal of water for treating new sps with intercepter. The clear bucket allow me to see the coral from the side which is an added benefit. If you are going to keep it in there for 6 to 8 hrs I add a small heater and air stone for water movement. I have way overdosed the interceptor with no side effects as well as left them in it for 16 hrs. I fell asleep. LOL

The best thing I have purchased for dipping corals is a cheap turkey baster to blast the coral with. The next one is a magnifying glass with a light surrounding it. I found the magnifying glass at office depot for like $20.

Joe

 

[kelleyga36]

how do you do palys?

 

[grouper therapy]

I have the red bugs in my tank now . Can I treat the entire tank.

 

[cr500_af]

MvM;350188 wrote: I think we should start a new thread about how to dip/qt and treat corals.

I did just that several days ago, asking for info on the whats and hows. Got no responses at all. I'd love to learn the correct setup and techniques.

 

[sailfish]

I like to use a product called Revive by 2 little fishes it works like charm and does not seem to be as caustic to the coral. The down fall is it is alittle cloudy so it can be hard to see what all comes off. I usually pour some out and inspect the bottom of the container if I cant see well.

You can use many other iodine based dips or even RODI by it's self.

If usaing RODI just put the amount you need for the dip in a plastic zip lock and let it float in your sump long enough to be the same temp as the tank then place the coral in it for like 4 to 5 mins. I have dipped zoa's and palys in RODI for as long as 12 min with no problem.

If I had my choice I would use the ReVive though.

Joe

kelleyga36;350197 wrote: how do you do palys?

 

[tokejr]

sailfish;350193 wrote: I use a small clear ice bucket it holds about 2.5 gal of water for treating new sps with intercepter. The clear bucket allow me to see the coral from the side which is an added benefit. If you are going to keep it in there for 6 to 8 hrs I add a small heater and air stone for water movement. I have way overdosed the interceptor with no side effects as well as left them in it for 16 hrs. I fell asleep. LOL

The best thing I have purchased for dipping corals is a cheap turkey baster to blast the coral with. The next one is a magnifying glass with a light surrounding it. I found the magnifying glass at office depot for like $20.

Joe

Is that ALL corals? Soft, LPS, SPS and zoanthid? Are there any that should just be observed and not dipped?

OK, so the coral is in the QT tank, you discover a pest, you dip it, you blast it with the turkey baster and you knock the pest into the QT tank. How do you prevent a reinfestation while in QT? I have a frag QT tank with no fish......how do I get the pest out of the water?

I get out the magnifying glass (I bought mine at Walmart, it was only $7.00) and the coral is clean. Now what? If I put it back in QT, it gets re-infested.

 

[sailfish]

I am going to bed but will get back with you tomorrow. The thread you quoted was for SPS only.

Joe

tokejr;350208 wrote: Is that ALL corals? Soft, LPS, SPS and zoanthid? Are there any that should just be observed and not dipped?

OK, so the coral is in the QT tank, you discover a pest, you dip it, you blast it with the turkey baster and you knock the pest into the QT tank. How do you prevent a reinfestation while in QT? I have a frag QT tank with no fish......how do I get the pest out of the water?

I get out the magnifying glass (I bought mine at Walmart, it was only $7.00) and the coral is clean. Now what? If I put it back in QT, it gets re-infested.

 

[budsreef]

I am closing this thread to move the rants to a new thread. I will open it back up once that is done.

 

[budsreef]

This thread is now open, hopefully for a discussion on treating pests in our tanks.

 

[budsreef]

I'm not sure what the symtoms are for pests on SPS, but I would at least go over them as slowly and carefully as you can with a magnifying glass to look for anything moving around on them.

I dip all corals in Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure for 15 to 30 mins before they go into my frag tank. With a few exceptions, they stay there until I've had a chance to observe them for a while before they go into my 120G.

 

[budsreef]

While it is still in the tank. I also inspect the bottom of the dip and rinse water with a magnifying glass to see what came off of the coral in the dip.

 

[sailfish]

It is not always easy to tell but when the infestation gets really bad corals will show signs.

Red bugs some SPS will retract their polyps but not all them time so if you have polyp extension it does not mean you don't have them. If they are real bad the coral can brown out some.

The only real way to tell is by staring at the coral with a flash light and see very tiny bugs that appear slightly reddish moving around on the coral. The are not easy to spot but once you have seen them you usually can spot them easily. Anther way it to take close up pictures of the sps. In a picture they look mostly yellow with a red dot on their back.

I have had them 3 different times and while it is a pain to treat them it safe
and relatively simple. In the beginning there are not very many and they do little harm to the corals but sooner or later they get to plaque numbers and corals may brown out of in the worst case die.

The treatment is well documented but all my links are on my other computer so do a search and find it for yourself. I always do at least 2 treatments but some say you can get by with one.

If you take all your crabs and shimp out all that you will lose is copepods which will come back with in a month. Sometimes most don't even die.

We can cover flat worms later as I have had to help a few locals with them in the past 3 weeks.

Joe

ares;350321 wrote: what are the symptoms of pests? I have some corals that just arent looking super healthy to me... polyps on SPS looking like black holes in some spots, I just presumed it was what it was, but want to be sure its not a sign of something worse...

 

[tokejr]

OK, so let's see if I have this right:

You get a new coral and acclimate it according to the directions from the LFS, right? Acclimation is always first?

You dip it in the appropriate agent for the appropriate coral. Could someone list a medicine cabinet we should have on hand for corals, please?

You put it in your coral QT tank and observe. For how long?

So, you do all that and even with the dip, the coral is infected with a pest. AND you've infected your coral QT. What now?

Because none of these instructions are on any websites. The only thing you see on a seller website is acclimation instructions.

Do you QT corals for as long as you QT fish?

What should a coral QT tank consist of?

I've got a 10 gallon tank with a HOB filter and a heater set up for coral QT. Do I need anything else except light? And should the light match my DT so that the corals acclimate to that light or should it be less intense lighting because of all the stress the coral is experiencing?

 

[tokejr]

Look harder and NEVER look on a website of someone trying to sell something for accurate information. Why not google acclimation and when you do I have a feeling you will find a vast amount of information. Its out there, you might have to do some work to find it though!

Yes, there is a LOT out there on acclimation. But, as you suggest, there are multiple trains of thought on the issue.

I added these questions to this thread because I thought these items were being overlooked for the newbie.

As for a selling website giving out inaccurate information, I have to disagree. There are some, but there is also just as much on many reef discussion boards. This is a hobby that is based on anecdotal information a lot of times - especially with new corals.

When doing research on a subject you don't understand, always look for multiple sources - and compare the AGE of the source. Changes happen pretty quickly in reefkeeping.

 

[dough]

sailfish;350382 wrote: The only real way to tell is by staring at the coral with a flash light and see very tiny bugs that appear slightly reddish moving around on the coral.

You know I just busted on RC one time for saying that same thing. So your wrong! :tongue:

 

[tokejr]

dawgdude;350494 wrote: I dont know of any of the pests that have a true life cycle in the water column such as ich but I did watch a nudi get blown off one monti and attach to a rock across the tank. Ive been doing alot of reading on pests recently since I am setting up a new system so ill let you know if I run across any. I wouldnt plumb any system with my QT unless it ran through a 40w UV at um.....I dont know 150 gph? I would want to make sure anything passing through got completely nuked, including full grown nudis and red bugs. I also need to look hard into UVs and what dwell time kills which size organism.

But doesn't UV nuke your pod population as well? So, if you're using UV on a reef tank with a fish dependent on pods (like a mandarin dragonette) you should move that fish to a tank with a pod population if you're using UV.

In addition, if you're feeding corals with the live DT plankton, a UV is killing off that product as well.