Red Bugs >:(

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dawgface

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After reading a few threads about members with Red Bugs I decided to take a closer look at some of my acros and as luck would have it I believe somehow I contracted it! SOB! Crappy part is I dip and inspect everything.... Usually! There was two times in the last 3 months that I didn't due to a work disaster that I had to immediately focus on. Thank god I haven't sold any sps to anyone during this time. It's awful enough its going on in my tank, I would feel absolutely terrible if I caused this in someone else's tank. Having said that, for those of you I have bought frags from recently, you may want to check as I got it from one of you.
Moving forward, can anyone put some links up to exact disingenuous instructions and recommendations?
 
Tqpolo, all the frags I received from you are clean and healthy bud.

It also seems as it was more recent as only a couple frags have them and as far as I can see its very minimal on each.
 
I have a great link that gave me a good guide line for treatment, and now I be BUG FREE!

I'll send ya a pm with the link
 
http://www.reefs.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=439155">http://www.reefs.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=439155</a>


We'll make this public so that others with the issue can do something about it. Knowledge is power
 
FYI, most dips don't get red bugs. And if you do get the bug, you don't get the eggs. The only true preventative, is to set up a qt tank, and do at least two treatments of interceptor before the coral touches your main tank. I am about to go clean Out an old 15g tank I have and set up a coral qt tank. Until it actually happened to me, I would say that I was less than cautious. Now I will not put an sps in my tank unless I know the person well and have spent time staring into their tank examining each sps they own, and even then it will get a "melafix+reef dip" dip.
 
DawgFace;715345 wrote: After reading a few threads about members with Red Bugs I decided to take a closer look at some of my acros and as luck would have it I believe somehow I contracted it! SOB! Crappy part is I dip and inspect everything.... Usually! There was two times in the last 3 months that I didn't due to a work disaster that I had to immediately focus on. Thank god I haven't sold any sps to anyone during this time. It's awful enough its going on in my tank, I would feel absolutely terrible if I caused this in someone else's tank. Having said that, for those of you I have bought frags from recently, you may want to check as I got it from one of you.
Moving forward, can anyone put some links up to exact disingenuous instructions and recommendations?
Click to expand...

sorry to hear that....
 
Everything I read indicated that Redbugs are livebreeders. A minimum of two treatments with Interceptor in a week are indicated for the eradication. One COULD be enough, but two just to be safe. Some people do three.
 
I did not lose any crab or shrimp when I treated several years ago. Since they are livebearers, many will argue that one treatment is enough. That's what I did. They actually are one of the easier pests to treat, imo. I'd rather have them than nudis, or any coral pest for that matter. Good luck.
 
I had mentioned this at one time in the past, but while undesireable, and certainly worthy of treatment, I dont see redbugs as any immediate danger. I have yet to hear of any credible account of redbugs causing any ill health to a coral. All accounts Ive heard have been anecdotal "they will irritate and parasitize polyps on SPS", but never any accounts of impeded growth or death, ETC.

IMO, dont rush to treat until/unless you can safely do so for your other inhabitants. FYI- an interesting side effect I saw was a massive effect on polycheate worms too.
 
I did nOt know that they were live bearers. That's good to know. I was talking to someone who had them for two years before he treated. The corals survived, but never grew, and never extended their polyps.

The treatment was easy and pretty painless. I'm sure when I had them, they bothered me more than the coral, but I did notice a difference from before I treated and after.

I DiD loose the few bristle worms that I had, but my tube worms seemed unaffected.
 
I had them for at least a year. I did not lose any corals to the but I did not get very good growth or polyp extension. After treatment, things did improve.

I lost all the crabs, shrimp, pods I could not get out when I treated.
 
Does Red bug treatments hurt fish? I ask because I plan on using my old BioCube as a QT and if I could get away with treating new corals in it as well that would be great.
 
I had them for a while in my old 58g. They didnt really do anything until they became so numerous the SPS would keep the polyps in.

After that I did a interceptor treatment. Killed off all my pods but otherwise no ill effects. Never saw a red bug again. Might still have some left somewhere. But you can actually just go to the vet and tell them what you want it for and they will let ya buy it.
 
LiveRock27;715552 wrote: Does Red bug treatments hurt fish? I ask because I plan on using my old BioCube as a QT and if I could get away with treating new corals in it as well that would be great.
Click to expand...

I have never heard of any ill effects to fish.
 
I did loose two fish coincidentally during treatment: two helfrici firefish. I had them for 6months before. Dunno what was the cause. I don't blame the interceptor
 
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