red bug treatment

[Burningbaal]

So, I got red bugs(flame)...a couple ways they may have came, but my very first acro (a stag) has them...bummer.

 

First off, they're not red, they're yellow (apparently some strains are more red?). so it seems that the most effective treatment protocol is interceptor (a dog heartworm preventative made by Novartis). It's only available by prescription, so that makes it a pain. Apparently if you can get the 'large dog' tablets (for 50-100 pound dogs), you use 0.025 grams of the tablet for every 10 gallons of water. at this point, it seems like we don't know much, except it affects crustaceans (hermits and shrimp may be harmed or even killed by this and you'll almost certainly dessimate your pod population). the recommendation is to run all the pumps (including for reactors/skimmer/UV/ozone/etc) for a few minutes after adding treatment, but without the uv/ozone/airflow of skimmer on. that way all the water is exposed to treatment. so you're supposed to treat for 6 hours, then do a 25% water change and add tons of carbon, then another 25% water change at 24 hours. then you're supposed to repeat this...even 3-4 times.

 

 

I have a bunch of hermits, a cleaner shrimp that I like and a lot of water to treat, so I'm doing it as a 'dip', here's my plan.

I have the top of a 2-liter bottle cut off, filled it most of the way with tank water, set it on a rock and leaned it against the overflow box. I want it in the tank so the temp is stable, but also to let it have the light today.

 

to be double-sure, I put a clip over the edge of the overflow (and 2-liter) to hold it in place:

 

I added what was probably about 20 gallons of treatment to this ~1.5 liters, but reports are that it's pretty safe on the coral, so I'm not too worried. The interceptor doesn't dissolve real well, so I used a scraper paddle thing (for cleaning coraline) to stir the water and get the powder dissolved.

 

I also did a treatment (probably 5-10 gallons of treatment in 1.5liters) last night for about 30 minutes (before I learned the 6 hour thing). I used a turkey baster to blow off all the bugs I could see, so today's is 'just to be sure'. I'll leave it until about 8 or 8:30 tonight, probably blow it with the turkey baster, and back onto the frag rack. I plan to repeat next weekend and (of course) any time I see them again.

[reefnjunkie]

I assume you saw this?

 

http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

 

I thought 1 tab did like 400+ gallons-I had them too at one point-they came in on a frag from Westside ((laugh) I can say that now since Tims shop is gone-(whistle), but hey I took him a frag with flat worms so we were even, he just caught the FW before he put the coral in his tank)

 

(backtotopic)

 

I treated my tank and decide in the event I ever get them again I wont treat the tank, it was not worth killing off all the pods, most my hermits lived as well as both my fire shrimp-sad part is that unless you dip acros in Interceptor 1st before the piece goes in your tank, if the acro has them you will get them.

 

As much as I dip everything (now) before it goes in my tank, nothing will kill the red bugs but interceptor.

 

As much as people trade/sell/donate frags here-its "reefer beware"

 

Good luck with your treatment

[J-Dog]

Try searching on RC for the Bayer Insect stuff that is supposed to kill redbugs

[Burningbaal]

I did see melevs reef and know about the bayers possibility, but was given some interceptor so that's what I'm doing. I doubt I'll do an interceptor dip on every new coral, but probably on new acros

 

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[Electrokate]

I took a frag with bugs on purpose to test the ivermectin option. Well... man is that stuff toxic to fish. It made all the bristleworms I did not know I had hang out of their burrows stunned but they did not fully die in 8 hours. I put the corals back in the quarantine tank which had wrasses in it. Guess what? Wrasses ate the doped up bristleworms and passed out for 3 days, one died. All 4 wrasses were literally in a coma, you could pick them up thinking they were dead and then their gills would move a few times once a minute, they did not have the energy to even sleep in the sand but laid on top instead.

 

So. With caution if you saw that article on using ivermectin you can use it, works on red bugs and worms, but you can't put the corals back in the tank with the fish. They need a tank with skimmer to draw off the dead bristleworm waste and probably a 2nd treatment a week later. On the plus side the frags do so much better when they don't have their new growth eaten each night by the @#)$(* worms.

 

am scared of the bug spray.

[kriz2fer]

If the frag has redbugs you really can't just dip and be done, if the frag has been in the tank for a while. The redbugs lay eggs and its all over, you will have to treat the whole system at least 3 times to make sure the eggs that are hatching dont stay alive. Its a pain but the treatment I did didn't kill any crabs or inverts.