RED BUGS... guess its my turn...could use a bit of help

[oosurfin]

well i found red bugs yesterday and today the infestation is already worse. pulling out all my sps isnt really an option so im going to treat my whole tank with interceptor. i have a 135g w/ a 30g sump-a-fuge that runs at ~1/3 full. so my guess is i have somewhere around 150g of water. this is what i get for not QTing i know. i will try a few local vets and then move to make a purchase at 1800petmeds.com for interceptor.

there is plenty of reading here on RC about red bugs but i have found some confilicting information on what i should be pulling out of my trying to save. crabs and shrimp seem to be a resounding yes as far as moving them out is concerned.

do i need to remove?

1) snails
2) clams
3) cucumbers
4) starfish
5) anemones

i think i have a pretty good idea of how treatment should go. tell me how this sounds

1) remove shrimps/crabs/etc to a qt area for the 3 weeks of treatment.

2) grind up the interceptor into a powder and dose 25mg per 10g of water (if the big pill treats 380g of water ~1/2 a pill would be a slightly higher than recomended dose. this shouldnt cause any ill effects from what i have read)

3) let interceptor circulate in tank for 6 hours. it seems i should let my skimmer run but not bubble so water in the skimmer is treated as well as calcium reactor. can i do a longer dosing period, say 9 hours instead of only 6 hours?

4) 25% water change after aloted time period of 6 hours

5) run carbon ill probably run ~1-1.5 lbs

6) wait 1 week repeat steps 1-5

7) wait 1 week repeat steps 1-5

8) reintroduce crabs/shrimps/etc. how long after the 3rd treatment should i wait to reintroduce them?

i think that pretty much covers everything i can think of but i am looking for conformation on proper proceedure or things i need to change and answers to the questions above. thanks in advance for the help

justin

[raskal311]

I had red bugs about 8-9 months ago. Did only two threatments about a week apart. Did 2x dosage for 18 hours then water change and carbon. Other then a few acro crab and snails I didn't have any side effects from the Interceptor.

[duec22]

I just did my first treatment on my 29gal over the weekend, and will do the second this Friday. I did a 1.5X dosage, other than that I just followed the same basic plan you outlined. I removed all the blueleg hemits I could find and will leave them in Q for at least two weeks. I also read reports of people loseing their chromis...I had gotten 3 the day befor I treated and could not get them back out. They never showed any signs of stress from the treatment. I did notice at about the 3 hr mark the chromis and my sixline were going nuts eating all the redbugs that were comeing off the acros. I wonder if that could be a problem if they eat too many.

[oosurfin]

little bump and a side note i forgot to mention.

i placed and order with aquaticisland.com for ~300 clean up critters(150 nass. vibex, 100 ceriths and 25 hermits) it hasnt arived yet so im assuming i should just put them in a qt while i treat and feed them. im a little confused about how snails fair with interceptor.

[fishdoc11]

Interceptor only kills arthropods(crabs, shrimp etc... ) and nematodes(parasitic worms that live inside you:)...or your dog, and they live other places of course but there probably aren't any desirable ones in your tank). Everything else is safe. Your plan seems :thumbsup: to me.
The anxiety will dissipate after the first treatment;)
hth, Chris

PS: I would wait at least a week after the last treatment to put shrimp and crabs back in.

[steve the plumb]

I used it and treated a second time after 4 days.I lost all blue legged crabs but my shrimps lived.I killed the red bastards with the first dose but I wanted to make sure they all died so I did a second dose.

[sidog1]

my snails were fine. i have strombus, trochus and turbos. the reg leg hermits didnt make it though. i totally forgot about them. i used half a pill for about 50 gallons of total volume and the snails still made it.

[oosurfin]

thank you everyone for your in put. i havent been able to go out to the vets quite yet and aquire some of this and it seems that while its important to take care of it asap it isnt like RTN -- you have 4.2 seconds to frag before all is lost.

[duec22]

Just don't let it go too long. I notice them on a Saturday and could only find a couple here and there, by the next weekend my Stever Elias frag was covered and looking bad.

[oosurfin]

i should have them by the end of the week or if not ill just order on line

[fishdoc11]

Your right...there is no hurry:)

[oosurfin]

i just want to double check that cucumbers wont be affected by interceptor because i dont want a chuke nuke on my hands :)

[fishdoc11]

Shouldn't effect your cuke. Cucumbers are Echinoderms...same as starfish, serpent stars etc......

[oosurfin]

excellent ty everyone!