Are red bugs really that bad?

I would get rid of them.

Like Joe says, you can grow and colour up SPS with Redbugs in your system...BUT I say get rid of them for a few reasons. I had Redbugs in my system around a couple of years ago. They were in my system for at least 8 months. I did notice their population go crazy and then reduce...not sure why.

During the time they were in my system some SPS wouldnt colour up:
SSC and some smooth skinned. The SSC was nicely coloured up before the RB's. Tenuis and Selago etc lost their green base and became brown.

Other SPS lost PE:
SSC and Granulosa and a few others lost PE.

Millepora etc were not affected as far as I could tell. These were still nicely coloured and had great PE.

After I treated for RB's I remember how the granulosa quickly regained PE and the SSC regained PE and colour. Actually, the SSC looked pretty unhealthy...within a week of treatment the SSC looked so much better!

I used to think they are not so bad before. I remember a thread from around 12 years back reefers were arguing over whether RB's are really bad or not. Back then and upto the point before I treated my tank, I thought they arent so bad...and they arent...but they do impact some SPS more than others.

However I would treat my tank right away now if I found my corals were infected with RB's.

All my SPS get a 10 hour triple dose of Interceptor and QT before going in my system now.

For sure ones corals can survive just fine with RB's in the system, but IME not all will be at their best. i didnt lose anything, but have heard of others losing some acros to RB's due to over infestation.

The other thing to realise is that you cannot swap/sell frags...even selling a zoa on a frag plug can potentially infect someone else's system. Not saying you personally, but just pointing out the potential impact.

Appreciate the advice. Yes I agree on infecting others systems. I knowingly would never purposely sell corals that had issues. I know it happens and perhaps that's how I obtained mine. Who knows and it makes no difference now. Anyway I'll treat and see what comes about by doing so. Thanks!
 
Appreciate the advice. Yes I agree on infecting others systems. I knowingly would never purposely sell corals that had issues. I know it happens and perhaps that's how I obtained mine. Who knows and it makes no difference now. Anyway I'll treat and see what comes about by doing so. Thanks!

You will need to ensure you remove shrimps and hermits and other crabs. To ensure you do NOT re-infect any Redbugs via the hermit crabs shells etc I would keep them in a temporary small tank/bucket with a small filter etc for a week and half. From what I read on the subject, without SPS the redbugs die within a week.

I've had my Fire/Blood shrimp survive 3 treatments...he is still in my tank to this day. However, each time I treated the tank he used to fall to the sandbed but would recover after a water change.

Pods to die off. But even without reseeding the population does rebound. If you seed with a good pod kit or piece of liverock the pods will return.
 
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