Red Bug Question w/*pic*

[Brisc0]

I have a 125G display with no mature acro colonies. The majority of my acros are 1 - 3 inch frags I have three that are 3 - 5 inches. My point is that all of my colonies are very small. Today I was shooting pics with my new Macro lens and noticed that this teal acro frag had quite a few red/brown spots on it. I quickly identified them as RBs and did a close inspection of all my other frags.

I found that most of the frags had at least one or two bugs on them, nothing as heavy as this one little teal frag. Most of the posts that I read are people who are jumping right into interceptor treatments, my questions are
1.) I really need to worry about them at this point, maybe try a dragonface pipefish or some natural method
2.) Do I go ahead and treat
3.) since all my acros are small, could I just remove them to a QT for treatment and let the bugs in the system die from lack of a host?

I am trying to take this in stride and choose the best course of action for my system and not get worked into a RB frenzy, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=193503

[ycnibrc]

I personally don't like to put anything in my main tank so if you can treat them outside then do it. I believe they will die after 7 to 10 days without host but you still need to check for eggs since they can hatch later. I heard that some wrasse will control it naturally like possum,yellow corris,small six line<very mean>.

Good luck
Anthony

[poknsnok]

I agree... if you can remove all acro's to a treatment tank thats better. but if you are like me and have larger acros encrusted on large rocks that cant easily be torn down you may have to treat the whole tank. I did and it worked great til I reintroduced them after 6 months. I had no visible ill effects. as pests go, you can live with them but your acros will be much happier without them

[Sparkss]

removal is best, but you will need to keep them out for some time to cause the ones left in the main tank to starve. I forgot how many days it is for LRBs (but sadly I still remember how long it is for AEFWs :()

[hobogato]

if you treat outside of the tank, make sure there is no trace of acro in the tank for at least a couple of weeks (if i remember correctly). any little piece of acro still in the tank can host them and cause them to reinfest as soon as you put your treated acros back in.

like you, i wanted to try all natural means possible before treating the first time i ended up with them. i tried the dragonface pipefish, i have a yellow coris and a sixline in my tank, and none of those worked.

i had to treat my whole tank, for lack of space to quaranteen all of my acros, and it was not bad at all.

[Brisc0]

Thanks for the input so far everyone. Did your LRBs spread really fast or did most of you buy a coral that was heavily infested and not realize it? I am trying to figure out how fast I can expect the bugs to spread until I treat them.

[hobogato]

mine did not spread fast at first. they came in on a frag i bought that i put in the tank without dipping. about 10 minutes after putting it in i noticed them and pulled the frag out to dip it. about a month later, i notice some of my shorter polyped SPS werent extending their polyps as much, and on closer inspection found that they were infested. this is a pic of the coral that had the worst infestation just before i treated. most of my acros showed no signs at all.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/bugs1-1.jpg

[BoxsterDude]

There here to stay, I've been watching my tank for more that 4yrs now.
I've treated a few times but I'm still not convinced that they will treminate a healty colony. Just IMO.

[hobogato]

i agree, but i did notice less polyp extension and faded colors on the colonies that were infested. after treatment - within a month, vast improvement.

[Brisc0]

Okay, today was my D-day (dose day) I did 3/4 of a pill in my system. Most everything that was going to die did so in the first two hours. I lost every crab in the system. The acro crab flash fried within minutes, a few hermits that took about 2.5 hours to kill, and then a sally lightfoot that is on his way out after the full 6. I think I lost one scarlet and one pepermint shrimp, but im not going to count them out yet.

Only time will tell if I actually beat the LRBs but coming from someone who was on the fence hardcore, I definately am glad that I went ahead.

Hobogato you were absolutely right, there was nothing to it. Thanks for the time and motivation everyone.

[seesick]

A red bug outbreak. sounds like hobogato gave you some good advice. It's hard to take that first step.