Interceptor needed

[Crit21]

CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know which frag it came in on, but I've got red bug all of a sudden! I inspect every 2-3 weeks with a magnifying glass and haven't seen it til tonight. I was able to detect these without the magnifying glass.

Does anyone have enough Interceptor for a 125?

[COreefer]

I may have a tablet or two...

[Crit21]

This sucks. I never thought I'd be unfortunate enough to import it.

[Crit21]

On further inspection, it looks like it's isolared to 3 colonies. I can probably remove them and treat them separately. I don't want to kill off all the inverts in the tank.

[reefkoi]

where did you get the corals from? I guess I need to order some for the upcoming frag order! can you buy interceptor locally?
Chris

[Deuce67]

I got a couple tablets. Dont let red bugs scare you. Not a huge deal really. Ive had them 3 times in the past and wiped them out with interceptor. Dan, I can inspect your tank tommorow and can confirm if they are red bugs.

[Deuce67]

Chris, the only place I can find them was online. Ill try to remember where I got it from .

[Deuce67]

Okay, I remember now. Its Petmeds.com. It will ask you for a prescription but just check out it they will send it anyways. Get the interceptor that is 50-100lbs dogs.

[Deuce67]

You can find the procedure here (http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=45859)

[murfman]

Dan, what colonies are the bugs on? I got the millis from you 3 weeks ago.

[reefkoi]

I have read on Meleves site that they only colonize on smooth skin acro's, is that right? they look like little tiny red fleas. Causing to coral polyps to not want to open. But he said only the smooth skin acros, so wouldnt those corals be the ones you'd need to treat?
I've never exp. it so I am trying to learn.
Chris

[reefkoi]

here is what meleve says
http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

[Crit21]

Russ, I have no doubt they're red bugs. Even though they're the size of a pinhead, I could see they're yellow with a red dot on the rear end. They move around too.

Murf, I'm still looking with a magnifying glass, but so far, I don't see a sign of them on any of the millis.

[Crit21]

Well, I'm not panicking yet. I figure there's time to assess the situation and figure out how to get it done with minimal collateral damage.

[CastleRock]

I have extra tabs of Interceptor if needed as well
Just ask :)
Really the best way is to remove ALL your sps and treat them all in a QT tank
If you have them on a few they will spread pretty fast
But on the bright side you dont have AFW's
I would take the red bugs any day over those!

Doug

[Crit21]

I'm still evaluating, but it looks like they're isolated to four acros. Two are deep water and on the same rock with other SPS and a blasto colony. The other 2 are on another rock, and I think I can get them off the rock. That means I can probably treat them all in a bucket and reduce the quantity of interceptor needed.

It's worth one try to see if I can control them in isolation vs. killing half of my crustaceans.

[Crit21]

Update: Well, the treatment in the bucket last week got most of the RB, but apparently not all of them. On Sunday I found two RBs on one acro, but I figure there have to be others, so I decided to treat the full system before bed Sunday night. I added 1/4 of the tablet and waited. Within an hour I saw some dead hermits and no sign of the RB. I checked it in the morning and saw nothing different from the night before. Everything else in the tank was doing just fine. The fish were swimming and eating, the snails were snailing, and all of my SPS, LPS and softies were extended as usual.
I did some research on the Internet and found that no one could give a fact-based reason to remove it after only 6 hours. I did find a few references stating that no one had conducted any tests to determine whether there was a maximum dosage or duration. I've heard that some people use an entire large Interceptor pill and go for the big kill all at once rather than 2 or 3 treatments. I decided to go for a 24-hour treatment with just the initial dosage and see if it had the same effect as a single, large dose.

Well, I got home last night and the water was slightly cloudy, no doubt a bloom caused by the pod and hermit die-off. Interestingly, I noticed that some of the hermits were still active even after 24 hours with Interceptor, even though some had died within the first hour. I'm hoping the 24 hour treatment was enough to kill off all the red bugs in a single treatment. Since it killed those hermits so fast, I figure the RB are probably toast too. I figure if there's no sign of RB in 2 weeks they're probably all gone, but I'll continue to monitor.

I did a 20% water change last night and put a bunch of new carbon in the bag and attached the opening of the bag around the tank return line so the return water flows directly through all of the carbon. I'm going to do another 20% change tonight and replace the carbon again tomorrow. Before I consider adding new pods and hermits, I'll do a third 20% water change.

Other than the crustacean die-off, I haven't seen any negative effects on anything else. My fish SPS, LPS, softies and snails are all doing fine--active, eating, extended, etc. I think water quality is the only real issue now. The bacteria bloom could reduce oxygen levels, so water changes are certainly necessary to keep things from going downhill.

[Crit21]

This is wierd. Even though a number of hermits died the first hour, I found a few live pods in my sump in the filter media last night, as well as a live emerald crab and several live hermits in the tank. With any luck, the RB is all gone though.