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Does anyone have any pics of their corals with red bugs on them? I want to see them from a members tanks.
PIcs of Redbugs?
- Thread starter oceanreefer124
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Ok so I've been having a polyp extention problem ( the coral kind ) and have been talking to a bunch of people. I even posted on here thinking my water parameters were off. Finally someone last night said, "Look for red bugs." So when my lights went off, I grabbed my trusty flashlight and sure enough. I have red bugs. I only see them on the live rock at the base of one of my corals and no where else. Whats the treatment for these things. My friend said use dogs heartworm med, but it will kill all of your crabs. Any other suggestions?
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If they are not on the actual acros, they probably are not LRB. LRB are TINY. About 1/2 the size of the head of a pin. They have a red/brown color and just like the picture, they are darker on one end. Also, they only host on Acros.
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These little things are completely red. I even took a couple of pics on my Nikon d40x and zoomed in on them. They are just a little red thing.
Those have been on that frag for at least 5 months and it has done nothing but grow. I am leary to leave them in, but treatment with so many inverts in my tank seems risky as well. I may just dip and pray since most of my acros can be removed easily.
They are a pest and do irritate corals. There is no doubt about that. The issues though range from just poor polyp extension and slightly retarded groeth to poor coloration and severly retarded growth! People don't mind them because it's extremely rare they actually kill corals but not good to have either way.
Here is a pick of some in my tank almost a year ago.
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Here is a pick of some in my tank almost a year ago.
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If they are not on the actual coral then they are not red bugs... most likely
.There are pods that look just like red bugs except they are slightly larger and live on the live rock. I've seen them in my refugium at night and I have no acros there at all.
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If you can be sure you can get every bit of acro out (no encrusting, etc), then I woudl absolutely treat in a hospital tank. From what I recall, red bugs have a very short life cycle without an acro host (weeks, if not less). If you have a hospital tank that can house then for a reasonably brief period, it should be easy.
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I know many people that have dosed their tanks and have had no measurable losses of beneficial inverts. Perhaps its a function of size, but the redbugs seem to be more susceptible to "that which will not be named" more so than the larger inverts including pods, mysids, shrimp, and crabs.
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Shrimp are not safe, I lost 2 cleaners when I treated. I also lost all crabs and pods. I took my fuge off line for the 2 week process (3 treatments) so my pods recovered quickly. That was over a year ago and I have not seen them since.
I would have to loose my shrimp since I have 5 and goliath my giant emerald that is about the size of a 50 cent piece would suck as well. I haven't descided what to do yet. Red bugs, zoa eatting nudis, ick, brown slime... trying to take it all in stride as these things happen but it surely does suck.
