Another option for red bugs

[iap]

Red bugs are "live bearers". There are no eggs.

Really? I thought they played eggs which was the point to dip 3x because the interceptor would not kill eggs. So you treat to kill the red bugs... then 7 days later treat again to treat the now hatched redbugs..and once again for good measure. So I was wrong to waste the pill on three seperate occasions when just one treatment would suffice?

 

[Whisperer]

Justin, I have been very comfortable with this treatment that I have dipped almost all my corals in it (except the encrusted ones) without a single loss and I just enjoy seeing the red bugs dead that I take pictures after treatment. It is very safe for corals, so far. I would add that prolonged dipping (as in over 30 min) should be avoided because it stressed one coral but did not kill it. My bad, I watched TV and forgot about it.

 

[gon08]

That is not true. It will not kill the adults or cause the dog to bleed out... You can actually use it to treat heartworms, but that something to discuss with a vet.
"Two studies in heartworm-infected dogs were conducted which demonstrated
mild, transient hypersensitivity reactions in treated dogs with high
microfilaremia counts"

Sorry to go off topic

Dogs with a high microfilaria count can go into anaphylactic shock.

 

[Allmost]

I do not want to take away from this thread or hijack it in any way but thought I would share my experience with red bugs.

I had them for months. I found a vet who will sell me Interceptor any time I need it. It is like $10 a pill though. Not cheap but cheap when compared to my $200 coral that is getting eaten.

Anyways I dosed for 4 straight weeks leaving the interceptor in the tank for up to 24 hours. I lost my sexy shrimp, crabs and a TON of pods. My tank still hasn't rebounded and it has been 3 or 4 months since I treated.

Even after 4 weeks of treating with Interceptor I had red bugs on corals. I probably killed 95% of them but there were stragglers and they mounted a come back. I got so sick of them I finally quit dosing and let them do their thing. I was using an entire pill for every dose and it didn't do the job. I only have a 40 gallon tank!

Finally one day I had to move the tank. The water got extremely cold, 65 to 66F. It remained there for probably 4 hours. Since then, I don't have a single red bug in the tank. My corals that had ZERO polyp extension for months, now have color back and full PE.

I found some others on here who stated that when they had a power outage it dropped their tank down in the 60s and they no longer had a red bug problem.

I am not saying that cold temps kill Red Bugs. I have no scientific proof of that but I have the proof that my tank is red bug free since my tanks water dropped down nice and cold for a few hours.

I don't think it is all coincidence.

interesting ! I too had a similar experience !

I took out my Fuge and DSB, and replaced it with LR.

something went wrong in the tank ... I lost my mandarin draggonet, (I guess due to loss of pods ? ) and a dwarf angelfish (swallowtail angelfish) SPS turned brown a bit, I did more water changes and skimmed wet, and now back to normal, but the SPS are coloring up nicer than before! so I started looking for RBs, and have not seen ANY in past month or so ! I have no Idea what happened ...

whisperer, nice experiment, would love to see more on it

 

[Whisperer]

I saw my tennuis and another frag with a few RB. I am very confident with this treatment.
This is what came off the two after 10 minutes of dipping.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

Very nice thread! Great option for dipping new corals. I'll have to try it next time I get a new frag.

Interceptor works great FWIW if you already have red bugs in your system.

 

[Whisperer]

OMG!!! I am so thrilled right now! My pink millipora had been retracted and pale in some portions at the base. I thought "darn red bugs" so I mixed a fresh dip and dunked the milli. I was floored when I saw several flatworms fell off the milli!!!
Pic to follow tomorrow.

 

[Eurobeaner]

I do not want to take away from this thread or hijack it in any way but thought I would share my experience with red bugs.

I had them for months. I found a vet who will sell me Interceptor any time I need it. It is like $10 a pill though. Not cheap but cheap when compared to my $200 coral that is getting eaten.

Anyways I dosed for 4 straight weeks leaving the interceptor in the tank for up to 24 hours. I lost my sexy shrimp, crabs and a TON of pods. My tank still hasn't rebounded and it has been 3 or 4 months since I treated.

Even after 4 weeks of treating with Interceptor I had red bugs on corals. I probably killed 95% of them but there were stragglers and they mounted a come back. I got so sick of them I finally quit dosing and let them do their thing. I was using an entire pill for every dose and it didn't do the job. I only have a 40 gallon tank!

Finally one day I had to move the tank. The water got extremely cold, 65 to 66F. It remained there for probably 4 hours. Since then, I don't have a single red bug in the tank. My corals that had ZERO polyp extension for months, now have color back and full PE.

I found some others on here who stated that when they had a power outage it dropped their tank down in the 60s and they no longer had a red bug problem.

I am not saying that cold temps kill Red Bugs. I have no scientific proof of that but I have the proof that my tank is red bug free since my tanks water dropped down nice and cold for a few hours.

I don't think it is all coincidence.

I also noticed this. I just got a shipment of Sps frags in. It was 6 degrees that day, and shipment was suppose to arrive at 10 am, but I didn't receive until 5pm. The water was rather cold and I instantly popped the bags in the tank. After they warmed up and I was beginning to cut open and put on frag racks, I noticed a few bags had a lot of little red/orange dots in the bottom of the bag. Looked exactly like the little red bugs on another Sps frag I have.

I was honestly contemplating putting the coral in a container and putting it in my fridge for a few hours... Seeing if it will indeed kill them, or it.

 

[Whisperer]

These instantly fell off my pink millipora as soon as it hits the water!

I counted 27 suckers!

 

[mrfish55]

I did a little research regarding killing the little buggers off without killing the coral itself, after discussing the matter with the local vet (and explaining what it was all about) and reviewing the trials using Interceptor, we decided to give Milbemax a try (heart worm med. for kittens) the only difference we could find was that the effective ingredient (Milbemycin Oxime) was a lower dose (4mg as opposed to the 24mg in Interceptor) Milbemax also contains 10mg Praziquantel (primary ingredient in PraziPro (Hikari) fish medication) which works by increasing the permeability of the membranes of the parasite which in turn allows the Milbemycin Oxime to work more effectivly (in theory). I dosed the 30 gal quarantine tank with 1/2 of one pill (pulverized and disolved into tank water) and achieved successful eradication with no I'll effects to any of the corals, been bug free for a year now, all new arrivals get a one hour treatment.

 

[Logzor]

These instantly fell off my pink millipora as soon as it hits the water!

I counted 27 suckers!

Amazing, those suckers are big.

Could you please recap on the exact product you are using, where you got it, the concentration, and dip time. I have been able to piece these together but it would be nice to have it in one place. I assume you have changed thing around a bit since your first post.

Could you please time how long it takes for the AEFW to actually die (not just fall off the coral).

It looks very effective!!!

 

[NyReefNoob]

good idea in the use of it, but if your corals had them on it so does the tank and a short period of time before the coral is infected again, thats why you need to treat the whole tank

 

[battplus]

Interesting experiment, keep us posted on the growth and behavior of these corals that were treated please!

 

[Whisperer]

With repeated dipping, I expect to win this battle. It is very safe for corals so I do not even hesitate to dip as often as I need. There is no effective whole-system treatment for aefw, AFAIK. I tried praziquantel before but it needs a very large dose because it was only effective on dips bit not when I treated the whole system. Besides, it is very expensive. As to red bugs, I am also optimistic that I can eradicate them with regular dipping. My treatment is relatively cheap, extremely cheap.

 

[battplus]

Do you have fish in your system, I noticed another comment about toxic issues to aquatic life. Any detrimental signs to the livestock or changes in behavior?

 

[Whisperer]

I have a paired mandarin, a scopas and powder brown tangs, a pair of true perc, a LMB, a golden headed sleeper goby, 3 chromis, a candy stripe cardinal, a couple of PJ cardinals, a YWG, 2 cleaner shrimp. No illl effect in any of them. I do not rinse The corals after dipping.

 

[James404]

Wow, if this turns out to be a surefire dip for AEFW it would really be great. I literally just did my first dose of interceptor 20 mins ago to combat these red bugs buggers. Wish me luck!

 

[Whisperer]

Not to discourage you, I did interceptor treatments in my whole system last year. I thought I got rid of them. My corals looked fine for a while but the red bugs returned with a vengeance. There are anecdotal reports about RB resistance to interceptor.
I am very sure that it also kills AEFW as you can see in the pic above. This was totally unexpected. I couldn't believe my eyes when they fell off the coral rather quickly without even agitating the water.

 

[Logzor]

Not to discourage you, I did interceptor treatments in my whole system last year. I thought I got rid of them. My corals looked fine for a while but the red bugs returned with a vengeance. There are anecdotal reports about RB resistance to interceptor.
I am very sure that it also kills AEFW as you can see in the pic above. This was totally unexpected. I couldn't believe my eyes when they fell off the coral rather quickly without even agitating the water.

So I can stop spending like $20 per bottle of CoralRx?:lmao:

Even coralrx doesn't knock AEFW off that fast...it takes several minutes and requires water agitation. On top of that, it takes awhile to actually kill them dead.

 

[battplus]

Alright, after reading this thread I decided to try after having redbugs return even after using Interceptor. Just like stated before I also do not condone doing this to your entire tank as it has not been tested to do so, but have grown tired of treating redbugs without success. Obviously they may return again as they are "in" the entire system, but this may be a resistance treatment?

I used a dosage of 2 level cups of tank water along with 0.5 ml of the "dip" or Bayer pesticide. I dipped them for 10 minutes and after did a rinse in 2 level cups of tank water without the treatment not wanting to expose any higher levels to the tank. I noticed immediately that the little red bugs started to fall off right away. No flatworms that I could see, but a few copepods killed immediately as well. As I placed the frag that was treated back into the tank, within 30 minutes the polyps extended again and the coral had minimal slime resistance from stress. I noticed also that the dead redbugs remained even after aggitation, but were soon swept off by the current.

So in closing, the dip treatment did work for approx. $12.00 for 32 ounces of concentrated pesticide.

Does it work for entire tanks? The label says extremely toxic for aquatic life, so I am not wanting to try yet. I am however convinced that this does work and with proper handling will be my new dip treatment for the new additions.

Please do not take this info. and run out and buy it just to treat your $200.00colony that you just got from divers den, I am just experimenting as well and with feedback from Whisperer I'll try to keep this one going to assertain any negative effects of this treatment. Just like Interceptor, someone had to go first and test it!

Whisperer - THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT!