Corals that tolerate red bugs.

JPMagyar

JPMagyar

New member
Although I treated with Interceptor over a year ago my tank became reinfested (probably by my own fault). None the less I have avoided re-treating as a matter of principle and thought I would share some pictures of an infested tank doing reasonably well inspite of the Red Bugs for later comparison after I re-treat with Interceptor.

The corals I have seem to tolerate the little buggers well. I also suspect that the bugs are being kept in check by my pair of dragonfaced pipefish, and a "worm" that puts out a sticky web and ensnares quite a few of the bugs (uncertain of the i.d. of said worm; guess I'll have to do a search).

Anyways, I'm planning to nuke the tank so I can trade/sell some of my huge Oregon Tortuosa with a clear conscience, but just wanted to put up some pics to support the idea that it is possible to maintain an attractive tank even with the dreaded Red Bugs being present . . .

___________________
ColorsMar06.jpeg


Biosphere2Mar06.jpeg



HTH someone
Joe ;)
 
Last edited:
Lovely tank.

I'm not really suprised. My Acro's seemed to do less than perfectly, but fine, for the months I contemplated what to do.

Did better after treatment, but it's no death sentence IME.

Lovely tangs, look pretty big if that's the 280 :)

As for the worm/snail ... does it look like this?
28196vermetid_1.jpg

if so, vermetid snail
 
The worm!

The worm!

Them's the ones!

I suppose I should know what they are after having them for years, but since they didn't seem to hurt anything I never gave them much concern.

Can you tell me more?

Thanks!

Joe

p.s. It is the 280, and the regal tang is growing bigger by the day. Hopefully, he'll continue to play nice with the other kids as he grows:rolleyes: .
 
Not a lot, really. I think in one of Reefkeeping's archive articles there's something on them.

Vermetid will dig up some stuff on them, probably my same pics about 10 times, though :lmao:

Not necessarily a problem, but when their mucus-web goes onto an Acro I've found it causes the polyps to retract. Like this:
28196vermetid_gunk_on_acro.jpg


Nothing to freak about, but as I'm skewing my whole tank to the benefit of my Acropora ... I epoxied over the end of the nearby ones.
Seems effective.
Still have others, they don't seem to be harming anything IMO ...

Creepy close up, though.
28196vermetid_snail.jpg
 
My Nikon 990 Coolpix ... a 5 year old camera. Sadly, the `manual' modes + whitebalance have died, as the macro focal distance is quite close, and it does quite well at that stuff.
 
Joe, the tank looks empty without that big green polyp mille. LMK when you have some oregon for me, i have some i can dip it in.

take care,
joe
 
Sweet tank ............I also agree that it is very posible to have nice sps even with rb's

Here's my rb infested tank
120-complete-a.jpg


Here is a pic of a coral that got rb's when it was put into my tank.
Granulosa-growth-a.jpg


and now still with rb's
granulosa-growth-b.jpg


JPMagyar- You can always treat corals in a qt before sending out.
 
I agree with these guys, i've got a few frags of super blue tenius, and they're crawling with rb's but the one with the little acro crab, has no rb's...but regardless the ones with the rb's still have awesome color and good PE. so until things start to go bad i'll treat the tank :p.
 
Nice set up.

Nice set up.

CL,

I love your aquascaping! Less is more in my book . . .

And great photo to boot. What kind of camera and lighting did you use?

Joe
 
Re: Nice set up.

Re: Nice set up.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6938012#post6938012 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JPMagyar
CL,

I love your aquascaping! Less is more in my book . . .

And great photo to boot. What kind of camera and lighting did you use?

Joe
Click to expand...

Thanks! Pictures taken with sony w5
 
I hate to say this but this was a one inch frag with red bugs. It still has red bugs in this photo and today it is twice this size. There are three smaller colonies of this acropora now along with twelve other species. All doing fine over five years, good growth and polyp extension. They donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t like stag horn acroporas for some reason.
The colony to the left never had red bugs, even though it is directly next to the infested one, also other stag horns in my tank are bug free.
117137105acro.jpg
 
This is pretty interesting. I stopped by a friends house this past week after working with a client and he had red bugs as well for the past year to year and a half. All his corals are great in color and growth. The corals also had awesome polyp extension. So it doesn't look like they actually kill or harm a healthy coral. Maybe just stress out an already dying unhealthy coral.
 
Probably just opportunist getting an easy meal on the expelled Zooxanthellae from a RTN'ing coral. It is very similiar to people saying a Hermit Crab is killing their SPS, when actually they are just consuming the dieing flesh..

I to have Redbugs with no apparent problems to my SPS. Along with my Red Bugs I have tons of pods, & Mysid Shrimp that would get wacked by the Interceptor treatment.
 
I would say, in my experience, that my corals did MUCH better without the red bugs. RB's didn't kill them, didn't seem to affect a few varieties ... but I still feel, having treated, that the corals were visibly `better' after.

While they might not kill an Acropora [and there might be multiple species of bugs we're talking about] ... I still would tend to think that they're requiring the Acropora to expend some energy dealing with them.
 
I agree with above. It took me a while to see them, I thought everything was fine. Everything looked great. Then I saw them, and treated, and everything looked MUHC MUCH better.

Someone around here's sig is "You dont know how bad acro red bugs are until theyre gone" and I think thats very true.

And FWIW, the coral with the quote "
and now still with rb's"

doesnt look like it has them.... Or atleast not in that pic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
SPS Pest?!
Replies
10
Views
1K
griss
griss
R
Stay Away
Replies
6
Views
473
saltypilot
S
E
Red Sea weir overflow
Replies
9
Views
576
griss
griss
E
Setting up 10g quarantine tank
Replies
9
Views
689
Dr. Reef
Dr. Reef
M
Rock hard crushed coral sand bed
Replies
8
Views
551
Jimbob
Jimbob
Back
Top