It was bound to happen eventually...

[Reef Bass]

After acquiring numerous fine corals, I seem to have also acquired my first coral pest: red bugs. At least there appears to be a fatty in the lower middle of this pic of my Purple Tri Color:

If I hadn't been doing some macro work, I wouldn't have ever seen it. I'm not going to play around with these guys. I'm planning on nuking the tank with Interceptor. My vet is off til tomorrow. Anybody got an extra?

I'm weighing the cost of shrimp and crab repurchase against 15 or 20 gallon barebones QT set up.

Clearly I'm going to have to be more careful in the future with quarantine procedures. Apparently an iodine dip before introduction to the tank isn't entirely and completely effective for red bugs.

All my corals have come from Caesars, the club and its members. Somebody has red bugs besides me.

On the happier side of things, here are some other pics I've taken recently.

Devils Armor

ORA Borealis

ORA Plum Crazy

Purple Rim Green Monti Cap

Idaho Grape

Aussie Acans

 

[Reef Bass]

I forgot to include my clams. Here is my blue maxima:

And my gold:

 

[Reef Bass]

Xenia:

ORA Blue Voodoo

 

[gdm42001]

I may have picked up some at that last meeting, I have one frag I won with red spots.
Not really sure, can't see them moving.
Then again, every time I get out the magnifying glass my granddaughter wants in on the game. Maybe after she goes down for a nap.

 

[crispyreef]

Unfortunately pest do get spread around, either unkowingly or they know and don't care. I am AEFW free now for 4 weeks. I pray I got them all. At least red bugs are easy to deal with, still a pain though. I was using iodine also but I don't think it is very aggressive. I now use Marine Melafix to dip all corals and I like the results much better. Good luck and very nice pics.

 

[gdm42001]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14085889#post14085889 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crispyreef
Unfortunately pest do get spread around, either unkowingly or they know and don't care. I am AEFW free now for 4 weeks. I pray I got them all. At least red bugs are easy to deal with, still a pain though. I was using iodine also but I don't think it is very aggressive. I now use Marine Melafix to dip all corals and I like the results much better. Good luck and very nice pics.

Tell me about the Melafix dip

 

[kokaneejr]

Too bad it took such great photos to find a pest. Are you using a flash as I have been having a hard time getting my xenia sharp. Good luck with the bugs,Craig.

 

[coralfarmer]

I have to run a constant level of interceptor in my grow out tanks because I am moving so many corals through it. Maybe one of these meetings I can give a demonstration on my Quarantining method for SPS and fish. It is pretty effective at removing pests before they hit my display tank. I have done some abbreviated demos at past meetings but I think that maybe we should have an in depth demonstration.

 

[Reef Bass]

Naps are good Guy! My kids don't take 'em any more. However, they do have very sharp eyes and I think I could train them to spot wee bugs on my corals. As I get older focusing on little items up close gets more difficult. Without having taken some close ups, I wouldn't have seen the little coral juice sucker.

Yeah Craig I consider myself lucky that it is "only" red bugs and not AEFW. You have my pest sympathies. And no, I'm not using a flash for the Xenia shot. I wanted some depth of field to allow the front hands to be in focus but not the back, so wide open was out. I ended using about f5.6 and a high enough ISO to give me a shutterspeed of 1/50th which was just enough to "freeze" the pumping action.

I found it interesting that each of the little hands has their own pumping rhythm. By being patient I could get different combinations of open / closed fists. I like the one I posted which has a top and bottom open hand and left and right closed.

There are three key elements to sharpness - proper focus, sufficiently quick shutter speed and shooting straight through the glass (not at any angle other than perpendicular). Having an awesome camera and bomb lens seal the deal.

Yes James, in depth demo please. You were kind enough to go over your 3 10 gallons next to each other approach with me once and I'd like a "refresher" please. It would be great if we could get to a place where we as a club feel confident exchanging frags with each other without feeling like we're rolling the nasty pest dice.

 

[crispyreef]

Guy- Marine Melafix is a tree extract that has been used for a while in fresh water systems for bacteria and fluke meds. This is new for salt water and the results are much the same but you can not use it as a whole tank treatment. It will kill all pods, crust., sea stars ect. As a dip it works great. It is very strong against pest but not the coral. If you have pest, you can see them melt off. Its only a 5 minute dip too. I have doubled the dose and contact time with no loss of the coral. Again, it works much better than iodine IME.

 

[gdm42001]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14090595#post14090595 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crispyreef
Guy- Marine Melafix is a tree extract that has been used for a while in fresh water systems for bacteria and fluke meds. This is new for salt water and the results are much the same but you can not use it as a whole tank treatment. It will kill all pods, crust., sea stars ect. As a dip it works great. It is very strong against pest but not the coral. If you have pest, you can see them melt off. Its only a 5 minute dip too. I have doubled the dose and contact time with no loss of the coral. Again, it works much better than iodine IME.

I have a bottle of Melafix but it does not mention dipping corals, what is the dose you are using? My frag had tons of bugs on it, I made up a dip with the iodine I have here, I increased the dose in the container till they almost all started free swimming when I swished the frag around.

 

[coralfarmer]

they have come out with one specifically for salt water I think it is a 1% solution. I actually use the one for ponds it is a 4.5% solution.

 

[elensius]

surprisingly, my red bug problem disappeared a few months ago once I brought my water chemistry back into line (again)... perhaps the sudden shift in *some* parameter wiped 'em out? either way, after seeing them on my acros for close to a year, they've been gone for several months now... go figure (the only new fish were a watermelon wrasse and a rainford's gobi - though I don't think either are know for eating red bugs?)

-Nate

 

[Reef Bass]

Watermelon / 6 line wrasses are known 'pod eaters that can out compete slower eaters like Mandarins. Seeing as how copepods are arthropods, as are red bugs, I don't think it would be much of stretch for a pod eating wrasse to start snarfin red bugs.

Either way, it's nice to have fewer of the little buggers!

 

[gdm42001]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14096793#post14096793 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralfarmer
they have come out with one specifically for salt water I think it is a 1% solution. I actually use the one for ponds it is a 4.5% solution.

The one I have is 1%, Melaleuca CAS#8008-98-8 99% inert ingredients.
It says it is for fresh or salt water fish
so how much would I use to dip?

 

[crispyreef]

It is something like 20mls per 1/2 gallon for 5 minutes. I am not sure though so I will let you know when I get home this evening.

 

[gdm42001]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14098747#post14098747 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crispyreef
It is something like 20mls per 1/2 gallon for 5 minutes. I am not sure though so I will let you know when I get home this evening.

Cool thanks, dipping from now on

 

[crispyreef]

That is it. 20mls per 1/2 gallon for up to 5 minutes. I also use a baster to blast the frag.