Pipefish RedBug efficacy

[JJohn]

Okay, I know that the accepted treatment for RedBugs is the "I bomb" but, I just had to try to get some data on possible natural controls first. My first test was with the Dragon Face Pipefish or DFPF's as I called them.

In my specific reef, with the individual DFPF that I have, and the RB's that I somehow acquired, the DFPF is not effective. YMMV, all fish are individuals, there are many species of DFPF's, there may be more than one species of RB's, and my tank conditions are different than any other tank's. The data is shown below. I made nightly counts of the RB's on my most infested small colony. The numbers fluctuated but, in this short test, I cannot say the pipefish was doing any good. See the data below. LiveAquaria really shouldn't advertise that the DFPF is an RB eater. That said, I am still thrilled with these little fish and very glad I bought one. See below image.

I will now try a second test as I put a masked acro-crab in the colony and will again take some data for a couple of weeks. I am not optimistic but, I am willing to do these tests as all my corals still look great with good color and PE. If anything starts to look at all stressed, I will dose the display tank after trying to remove as many as possible of my 6 acrocrabs and several shrimps. It is because of these acro-crabs that I don't want to treat the tank.

Let me know if anyone is interested in the upcoming acro-crab/RB test data.

John


http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n299/JJohn_photos/RBData110306.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n299/JJohn_photos/DFPF3S.jpg

[kirstenk]

Good Study, keep us posted.

I tried a DFPF and had no luck either. He would look directly at a RB and not go for it. He died in my tank of starvation. He should have tried the bugs........... :(

I have friends who live with RBs and they say the populations rise and fall.

If you ever decide to treat the crabs can be removed if you can get the coral out of the tank. I was able to hand catch my shrimp during the treatment (as the interceptor effected them) and remove to another tank. They survived.

[Sparkss]

We also tried the DFPF, a pair of them, and they did little to nothing for the RBs. We had the pipefish for amost 2 years, and they just passed a couple of weeks ago, one about a week before the other. I tend to think that they didn't starve, as I often saw them eating (something), so I wonder if that is just their lifespan ? Either way, they were ineffectual against the RBs, but the "I bomb" definitely did the trick :)

[JJohn]

I don't think my pipefish will starve. I have more pods than any tank I have seen. This tank has been running continuously for over ten years and has a great variety and quantity of pods. My pipefish is eating constantly. Maybe the other micro-fauna in my reef tastes better than RB's. My pod population is the other thing that will be lost (temporarily?) when I treat the tank. Then I will probably have to greatly supplement the pipefish's diet.

It will be interesting to see if the acro-crab makes a difference before I get to that point. My colonies that have acro-crabs don't seem to have any RB's but I know that is probably just a coincidence. RB's have favorite species of acro's that they prefer.

John

[dtm]

my dfpf did eat the red bugs, but I dont think it would have been able to eliminate the problem