Another option for red bugs

[ReefBeforeGirls]

Quick question about purchasing new frags.

I used to dip new frags in TMPCC and Interceptor. Would it suffice to only do a preventative dip in a Bayer-solution?

 

[cediss]

I've read the whole thread. Terrific information. However, it is very difficult to know which product folks are referencing from post to post except for those kind enough to consistently even redundantly identify it.It would be very helpful if folks would note whether Home pest killer or Complete insect killer or something else is being applied. Searching back through multiple posts to find a clue is tedious . It's hard to relate value to particular anecdotal accounts without knowing precisely what is being dosed.

I completely agree with this observation. Thank you to those who previously and recently have included which product, the dose to marine water ratio, and the results.

 

[divewsharks]

tonight i found AEFW on my Milli Madness. Found them by accident, was moving the coral as it just really hasn't been doing well since I reintroduced it back into my tank in January. It would show signs of getting better then relapse.

I flipped the coral over and this is what I saw:

egg masses.
I immediately knew what it was. After 10+ years growing corals, I feared that eventually I was going to get bitten.

I grabbed the Bayer Complete Insect Killer. Measured out 2.5ml into 2 cups of tank water.
Within 30 seconds (no agitation) I had flatworms falling off the coral.

I dipped the coral for 5min, then examined it; then swirled it for a while.

There were actually more than this in the bottom of the dish, most very small, but 3 were very large.

This is actually a shot of a large flatworm still on the coral, I never saw it the first few look-overs.

I scraped the eggs, and superglued the exposed location where the masses were.

I've been experimenting with different doses, up to 10ml in 2 cups of tank water, one of my deepwater (not sure the species) did not like it at all -- still alive and growing/recovering, but it initially killed the tips.

2.5ml in 2 cups seems to work well.

 

[Whisperer]

Good stuff

 

[egunman]

Whisperer,
Its been over a year since you first tried this treatment. Do you still have red bugs in your tank or are they all gone. Have you noticed any long term issues with the corals that have been treated, slowed growth or death?

 

[Whisperer]

Wow, I can't believe it's been 14 months since I started this post. I have no more red bugs nor flatworms. It took several dips for some corals because of reinfestation/egg hatching. I still have most of the corals that were dipped although I lost a couple from a tragic malfunction of one ballast that left one side of the tank dim for about 3-4 weeks. I decided to do a DIY LED fixture and took me that long. The many corals that survived turned brown but have colored up even better with LED. But I digressed, I have. It lost a coral from the dip. It is very safe for corals, use it with confidence as long as you follow my recommendation. Thanks for asking and happy reefing.

 

[peequin]

Just wanted to share my experience with this method for red bugs... I had previously tried to get my hands on Interceptor (out of stock everywhere) and had tried Coral Rx Oneshot dip (no effect on red bugs whatsoever).

I had a bunch of ORA frags infected with tiny red bugs. I could see them crawling all over my frags, having a great ole' time...zipping around fast on the skin of my acropora with all their friends.

I prepared 1ml of the Bayer Advanced Home Pest with Germ Killer per 2 cups of tank water. I watched in great joy yesterday seeing these little creatures die in less than a minute in the dip. Before the dip, could see them moving around on the coral. Once dipped, they slowed down almost instantaneously. A bunch jumped off the coral, trying to find a place to hide. No such luck for them, the grim reaper was in town and red bugs didn't stand a chance.

After 5 minutes I pulled out the frags. I could see dozens of dead red bugs in the dip. I placed the frags back in the tank. Some of the red bugs were still on the coral...but after observing them for a few hours, none of them moved. The bugs were completely dead. I just checked this morning and those bugs must have fallen off overnight. I dont' see any more red bugs anywhere.

All of my frags (ORA Tri-Color Validia, ORA Red Planet, ORA Green Velvet) made it through fine.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread...it works like gangbusters~!!!

 

[fishguy597]

I made it up to page 10 and read no negitive effects on coral. Has anyone tried it with a hawkins ? I know with coral rx it kills the hawkins.

 

[ousnakebyte]

I made it up to page 10 and read no negitive effects on coral. Has anyone tried it with a hawkins ? I know with coral rx it kills the hawkins.

Keep reading then. A. hyacinthus - or at least my variant of this species - does NOT take well to this treatment. Instead, I use Ivermectin for red bugs and flatworms for this species.

I have dipped A. echinata, and it made it through this treatment fine.

Cheers
Mike

 

[divewsharks]

I dipped a hawkins frag last week, I use 2.5ml : 2 cups of tank water and it made it thru no problems.

 

[Whisperer]

Well, I bought a brown colony of staghorn from LA a month or two ago and it was growing and coloring up nicely. Over the last week or so, the edge at the base started losing tissue and kept growing upward. Took a pic and zoomed it at the bald area with brown stuff. Saw clumps after clumps of AEFW eggs!!!
Dipped and swirled in Bayer, large FW fell off probably 3 and few small ones. Scraped off the eggs and placed it back in the tank. Hope it makes it. I did a longer dip because I was scraping the eggs and making sure I did not miss anything. The slime produced by the coral was copious.

 

[fishguy597]

So I have read the whole thread and a few parts a few time s and have some questions. First I have read to use the "bayer complete insect killer" & that the "home pest with germ killer" will work as well. More people are leaning towards the" complete" as opposed to the "home pest". Is the "home pest" the weaker of the two? I bought the home pest should i ditch it and search for the complete? Befor I bought it I checked with post#155 because thats what was available. Then post #258 ousnakebit is using the home pest and his pics show results.

I Know people have to have some good sized colonies that have encrusted to the rockwork. How many people are pulling the rock out to dip the colony? In the begining people were saying to not dip the rocks, why not? If you dip a colony with coral rx it kills pods and amphoids. Or if you rinse with tank water you should be ok ? I dipped a couple rocks cuz I dont want to loose my colonies. Im not to worried about an ammonia spike since I have plenty of water and rock to bring it back. But I have to say I was concerned when my wrass started picking at the rock to "eat the pie". But so far he's been just dandy.

I had pretty much the same result as everyone else. Nice poloyp ext & color. I checked the corals befor the dip to see how infested they were. I checked after the dip and rinse/soak and couldnt find any. I was nervous about attempting this so I started out with .5 ml/cup. I only dipped a hand full of corals to test. I couldnt see exactly what was killed due to the detris that came from the rock. Whats the consenence for how long to wait in between dips?
thanks

 

[wongster]

I'm guessing that dipping the rocks is not advised as carbonate rock probably has a higher binding capacity than the corals which have a flesh coating. Also there is a greater surface area in porous rock to bind to. Probably the risk of some remaining and leaching off even after rinsing is higher, so you could end up with a slow build up over time of toxins in the tank if you dip a lot. Just hazarding a guess.

 

[fishguy597]

So I have read the whole thread and a few parts a few time s and have some questions. First I have read to use the "bayer complete insect killer" & that the "home pest with germ killer" will work as well. More people are leaning towards the" complete" as opposed to the "home pest". Is the "home pest" the weaker of the two? I bought the home pest should i ditch it and search for the complete? Befor I bought it I checked with post#155 because thats what was available. Then post #258 ousnakebit is using the home pest and his pics show results.

I Know people have to have some good sized colonies that have encrusted to the rockwork. How many people are pulling the rock out to dip the colony? In the begining people were saying to not dip the rocks, why not? If you dip a colony with coral rx it kills pods and amphoids. Or if you rinse with tank water you should be ok ? I dipped a couple rocks cuz I dont want to loose my colonies. Im not to worried about an ammonia spike since I have plenty of water and rock to bring it back. But I have to say I was concerned when my wrass started picking at the rock to "eat the pie". But so far he's been just dandy.

I had pretty much the same result as everyone else. Nice poloyp ext & color. I checked the corals befor the dip to see how infested they were. I checked after the dip and rinse/soak and couldnt find any. I was nervous about attempting this so I started out with .5 ml/cup. I only dipped a hand full of corals to test. I couldnt see exactly what was killed due to the detris that came from the rock. Whats the consenence for how long to wait in between dips?
thanks

Bump....

 

[ousnakebyte]

So I have read the whole thread and a few parts a few time s and have some questions. First I have read to use the "bayer complete insect killer" & that the "home pest with germ killer" will work as well. More people are leaning towards the" complete" as opposed to the "home pest". Is the "home pest" the weaker of the two? I bought the home pest should i ditch it and search for the complete? Befor I bought it I checked with post#155 because thats what was available. Then post #258 ousnakebit is using the home pest and his pics show results.

I've used both, however, I have used the "home pest with germ killer" more. If you have the home pest with germ killer, don't throw it away. It works PERFECTLY fine. 4 mls per liter for 15 minutes, used with an air stone or other water movement.

To help clear confusion, I have been using this one:

I Know people have to have some good sized colonies that have encrusted to the rockwork. How many people are pulling the rock out to dip the colony? In the begining people were saying to not dip the rocks, why not? If you dip a colony with coral rx it kills pods and amphoids. Or if you rinse with tank water you should be ok ? I dipped a couple rocks cuz I dont want to loose my colonies. Im not to worried about an ammonia spike since I have plenty of water and rock to bring it back. But I have to say I was concerned when my wrass started picking at the rock to "eat the pie". But so far he's been just dandy.

This stuff is VERY toxic - tons of collateral damage, and I don't trust being able to get it completely rinsed off the rocks. You saw what happened to my banded coral shrimps.

I just figure the less that is dipped in this the better. Why nuke every good invertebrate on your rocks if you don't have to? For the corals that had heavily encrusted a large base rock, I (with a heavy heart) clipped off as much as I could and drizzled kalk paste over the remaining encrusting live tissue. Where kalk wouldn't stay, I covered the live coral tissue with epoxy, leaving my tank completely acropora-free for a little more than two months.

I had pretty much the same result as everyone else. Nice poloyp ext & color. I checked the corals befor the dip to see how infested they were. I checked after the dip and rinse/soak and couldnt find any. I was nervous about attempting this so I started out with .5 ml/cup. I only dipped a hand full of corals to test. I couldnt see exactly what was killed due to the detris that came from the rock. Whats the consenence for how long to wait in between dips?
thanks

4 milliliters per liter is what I've been using. And again, A. hyancithus is the only acropora I've had react negatively to this dip. All others have been fine.

I dipped every acropora in this once a week for two months - AND KEPT THEM IN A QT TANK. I left the display acropora-free for a little over two months.

After the the first few weeks, I never saw any AEFW fall off, but I didn't trust that I was not seeing small juveniles, so I continued to dip. I have only just now - for about 2.5 weeks - put four acropora colonies back in the display. However, weekly, I pull them out and dip them - 4 mls/Liter for 15 minutes - and then place them back in the display. I have not seen any AEFW fall off, but I will continue this for another two weeks before I move more colonies back into the display.

In addition - when I move colonies from QT back into the display, I will run them through this dip, just to be sure. AND, finally, I will run every new acquisition through this from now on as a prophylactic. If I want to keep the acro crabs, then they will need to be carefully coaxed out before treatment.

Cheers
Mike

 

[fishguy597]

Thanks Mike for the info that's exactly the info I was looking for.

 

[ousnakebyte]

And don't forget - I also rinse the corals in a container of tank water before putting them back in the tank (QT or display).

Cheers
Mike

 

[divewsharks]

just to be clear, this is the version that I use:

I use 2.5ml per 2 cups of tank water. I have one deepwater (not sure the species) that doesn't like it; everything else is good to go. kills RB's and AEFW. AEFW fall off with no agitation.
I have dipped a couple small rocks that the Mari's were attached too, no issues as of yet. I rinse it in fresh tank water before putting in DT.

I dip everything as a preventative. And use it to treat when I see something.

hth

 

[ReefBeforeGirls]

just to be clear, this is the version that I use:

I use 2.5ml per 2 cups of tank water. I have one deepwater (not sure the species) that doesn't like it; everything else is good to go. kills RB's and AEFW. AEFW fall off with no agitation.
I have dipped a couple small rocks that the Mari's were attached too, no issues as of yet. I rinse it in fresh tank water before putting in DT.

I dip everything as a preventative. And use it to treat when I see something.

hth

Thanks for the summary! Started to get back into the SPS game and was about to read this whole thread for dose and product.

 

[tom212hk]

red bugs

red bugs

I'm struggling with red bugs and having a hard time getting interceptors. Anyone have interceptors and willing share?? please email me, thanks