are you freaking kidding me? Red bugs????

[nemofish2217]

so flatworm damage makes the corals look kind of like they are STN?...

 

[clkwrk]

no the leave blotchy spots as seen on the left side of the picture. If they have been in the same spot for a while then yes you may see recession like STN

 

[nemofish2217]

well, i can definitely see bugs..... polyps are still fully extended, and color still is fine, i just notice it is a little "paler" in the middle of the coral.... so im guessing it is just bugs?

Also, i have been reading, and it seems as though there is some speculation that using interceptor can lead to the outbreak of AEFW.... is there any truth to this or is it purely myth? if you dont have any AEFW in your system then you dont have anything to worry about, right?

 

[nemofish2217]

just as a side note.....i can actually probably take out the corals and put them into a QT tank..... if i did this and treated them all in there, would my tank be free of either red bugs or AEFW after about 6 weeks or so? Because sont both of these pests need acro hosts to survive? just trying to figure out an alternative to nuking my tank....

 

[SaraB]

I'm just finished my 2nd interceptor treatment with QT'ing all of my acros in a 10 gallon tank. I do the treatments in a 10 gallon plastic bin and then move the Acro's back to the 10 gallon tank until the next treatment. Next week is treatment #3 and then the acro's are going back in my main tank. You do have to watch your salinity levels with evaporation on the small tank and I also do daily 1 gallon water changes. So far so good ... no signs of red bugs and the corals seem to be doing okay.

Sara

 

[twon8]

i believe red bugs can only survive for 5 days without a host, but as for aefw, i have heard months or longer

 

[nemofish2217]

okay...so,
1). Is treating the whole tank better than QT all sps?
2.) If i am still getting good PE, growth, and color from the only infected sps, should i even treat? or just wait to see if things progress for the worse?

 

[bradleyj]

IMO, They aren't going to go away unless you treat your tank, they will only increase in population. I would treat the whole tank three times like it is suggested and be done with them. If you follow the guidelines and do it the correct way then they will be dead and the offspring will be dead. (No worries anymore.)

 

[dilligaf_biker69]

some interesting reading here too, depends on how easy u can get your frags/colonies into a QT/Hospital tank, I happened to set my 40 Gallon breeder up next to my 125 and use the same sump....all I will do is add a HOB skimmer and move all frags/colonies over for the specified time...that way the pods in the main system will still survive and moving the inverts out of the breeder wont be too much of a chore...


some more reading

 

[poknsnok]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7232793#post7232793 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by twon8
i believe red bugs can only survive for 5 days without a host, but as for aefw, i have heard months or longer

Ita amazing the different stories you hear. I have heard that AEFW can only survive a week without acros to feed on

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7235831#post7235831 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by poknsnok
Ita amazing the different stories you hear. I have heard that AEFW can only survive a week without acros to feed on

One of the guys in my club has been testing this, and hes determined about a week.


The problem is that almost nobody kills all of them in their tank.

 

[twon8]

i wouldn't treat my whole tank, i value my microfauna too much to do that. i would set up a hospital tank for a few days and treat in there.

 

[nemofish2217]

but dont you have to treat once a week for three weeks?

 

[dilligaf_biker69]

read this.....lol

read this

 

[nemofish2217]

okay, so thats really good literature...i think that approach sounds good.... I have a couple more "final"questions

1.) so, is he saying that you treat the corals in one container and then after the 12 hour treatment place them in a separate QT tank?
2.) since he siad one treatment is usually enough, do you have to worry about the eggs of the red bugs on the coral that might be unaffected by the first treatment? Or will you be almost guaranteed that the one treatment will kill the entire population. Or would it be beneficial to go ahead and repeat the medication after 24 hours?
3.) I have maybe three or four corals that have started to encrust. If i pull them off, and some of the encrusting tissue or a piece of the base falls off, should i put epoxy over what is left so the bugs do not have a host to feed on?

Thanks you guys for all your help and time....

 

[shelburn61]

Hey Matt,

1) yep.

2) Since Interceptor doesn't hurt the coral, overkill is the best practice IMO. Upping the dosage and repeating is a good idea. Are there any indications that Interceptor affects acros at all? I didn't see any and I treated the whole tank for like 24 hours without a skimmer or carbon.

3) all acro tissue has to be removed. This means frags that fell behind the rocks 6 months ago, everything. The problem with the quarantine method is that a lost people can't guarantee they got all the tissue out in the first place, so they end up with a few straggling RB's

If you are going to all this work, I would also quarantine for 10 days or so just in case

 

[nemofish2217]

thanks chris,
do you think covering the left over tissue with epoxy would work? What would some other methods be to getting it off rocks?

 

[shelburn61]

you can turn the pumps off and squirt a little kalk paste on the spot (be careful), scrape with scissors or bone shears? epoxy might be the easiest