Red Acro Bug Info
 

I need to know a few more things about these guys to make a verdict. Recently i obtained a new acro from my LFS and it made it through quarantine without me seeing anything wrong with it. It is currently in my display tank and i have been noticing a few little orange things moving on it. At first i thought it was just debris waving in the current, but now i believe i might have a real problem. I have many other uninfected acros in the tank. Here are the things i would like to know:

1) How fast do these guys move? Or are they supposed to be stationary?? The things in my tank seem to do circles around the acro.

2) I have blown these orange specks off of it (when i thought they were debris) during a water change. I have read that they are really hard to blow off but these seem fairly easy.

3) I have a mandarin. Will they eat them since they are a form of pod?

4) Does an iodine dip kill them?

5) How expensive is interceptor? ( i am a poor college student :( )

6) There aren't very many bugs that i can see (if they are bugs). If i take out the infected piece and treat it, will that be enough or do you guys think that i should dose the whole system? It would get rid of all the food i have for the mandarin.

Thank you very much for your opinions and advice in advance! I have only noticed these things on that one acro.

FYI: I am currently away from home (6 hours away) on christmas break from college so i cannot go and take any pictures of it. I have a fish sitter and i don't think that they would be able to figure out what i am talking about.......haha. This is the only thing i can think of and now it is really bothering me. :eek2:

They are most likely red bugs. These do move around the coral, and are teeny little red specs. The mandarin won't eat them. But blowing them off probably wasn't such a good idea. Because now they could be floating around the tank attaching themselves to other corals. (i hope this hasn't happened) If you do blow them off, then there might still be some eggs left. So watch it for a while. I had three of them on my tri-color, and I gently brushed them off with an old toothbrush, and I haven't seen them for months now. The interceptor is actually a treatment for dogs that you can get at a vet. You can treat just that piece, but if you do see these on other acros, nuke the whole system, and make sure you do water changes after. You might have to do two of three treatments. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but good luck with the tank.

thanks reefwizz....i figured it was them....yeah and blowing them off was a really bad idea.....

hmmm that is a good point tho....if i brush them off that one acro when i get back then hopefully that can solve the problem. There weren't very many on the acro yet so i hope they don't multiply fast...haha....Do you know how much interceptor costs at a vet??

interceptor works the best as a whole tank treatment

iodine dip works well as a preventative. coral revive i think is iodine based and it works for other things as well. also it will not cause your coral stress which usually happens with iodine dip.

i once put two corals in my tank with redbugs and did not notice them till later that day. i took them out and rinsed them with iodine. never seen redbugs in the tank again. this was close to a year ago. i made sure to not pass the infected coral trough the high flow from the pumps though to not blow any off. :D oops

i would take out the infected corals, give them a good iodine dip. make sure you follow directions so you don't stress them too much. wait and wait. if you infected the entire tank you will know in a few months, maybe sooner. then you can get some interceptor if you have to. good luck. redbugs are not that big of a deal.

it costs about 10 bucks per large pill for me. if you have a 30gal that should be way more then you need for 3 treatments.

I have a question... I just noticed what appears to be the dreaded red bugs on only one of my corals tonight and was thinking I was gonna have to nuke the whole system.

So, from what a couple of you are saying is it possible then to just remove the ONE infected coral and treat it individually? I like this much better than doing the whole system if I can avoid it.

I don't think I'd have a hard time getting the interceptor as I have two American Bull Dogs! Just not too hip on having to do the whole system if I can avoid it.

Let me know please?????

Thanks

I have a question... I just noticed what appears to be the dreaded red bugs on only one of my corals tonight and was thinking I was gonna have to nuke the whole system.

So, from what a couple of you are saying is it possible then to just remove the ONE infected coral and treat it individually? I like this much better than doing the whole system if I can avoid it.

I don't think I'd have a hard time getting the interceptor as I have two American Bull Dogs! Just not to hip on having to do the whole system if I can avoid it.

Let me know please?????

Thanks

i think that i am going to target that one piece and if that doesn't work down the road i will nuke the tank....unfortunately i have blown off a few with a turkey baster so we will have to see what comes up

nuking the tank is my last option and i hope i won't have to do it...

is this coral revive made by two little fishes??

here is the link to it

Thanks!!

i just got done fighting the bugs in my 90g. If i had it to do all over again, I would do the whole system instead of stressting the corals out with the move to a medic tank, and then back to the display.

I set up a 20g tall, with plenty of flow and light. I used half of a pill with each dose, and I dosed twice with in a 3 or 4 day period. My results were that I got rid of all bugs, and lost 2 of my big acros that I have never seen before in a tank. I was worried about my CUC getting nuked with the treatment, but I had to snails that were on a rock in the medic tank, and they made it through just fine.

My advice, leave the corals in the system, and just treat the whole system.

yup thats the one. TMPCC (tropic marine pro coral cure) worked also. but it stressed out a lot of my sps and they browned out. took them at least a month or so to start getting the color back. i also managed to kill a few sps with TMPCC since there is no real directions on the bottle.

whatever you do, DO NOT use TMPCC or revice on the entire tank. trust me, i heard it being done. its just a dip. dip for a few minutes and swoosh the coral around to help loosen any red bugs that might be holding on for dear life.

interceptor wont hurt snails. it will hurt anything crustacean which includes crabs and shrimps. yes, sometimes its best to treat the whole tank, but its such a PITA to remove dozens and dozens of crabs, hermits and shrimps if you want to save them. i had shrimp and crabs that survived, but most were not so lucky.

In my case, i wanted to save my shrimp and crabs to. I just restocked the CUC as it was. Looking back on it though, I can buy a crap load of CUC for the price of the 3 or 4 corals I lost due to stress.

lol......wow thats all i can say about that ;)

thanks alot fireworm and madadi for your information....if worse comes to worse i think i will take all my acros out (they are all glued to a couple pieces of rock) and get my 10 gallon up and running. It would be alot better for my mandarin and my refugium. We'll just have to see how it goes.


i would like to know if there is anyone else that got rid of red bugs without using interceptor and how they did it...

anyone??

i would like to know if there is anyone else that got rid of red bugs without using interceptor and how they did it... [/B][/QUOTE]

+1???

interceptor is the cure. everything else just prolongs the problem. i've nuked my tank a few times over the years. crabs are cheap. now if i can just remember to dip every coral that comes into my tank.