red bugs and smooth-skinned acropora?

[danel]

I noticed that I have some red bugs on a couple of acros that were introduced about a 2 months ago and they didn't have anything back then. I dipped them using interceptor before putting them in the DT. Now the rest of my sps seem to have red bugs, but only some sps and unfortunately the ones encrusting on bigger LR seem to be the ones with the most red bugs. I've been reading more about treating the whole tank and removing all the inverts before that. I'm making plans to do this over the next month.

The main question is, what exactly are smooth-skinned acros? My torts and slimmers seem to be the only ones that don't have bugs on them.

My tank is a 125g with a 30g sump. My plans is to use about a 1/4 of one pill every 7 days on the tank at least 4 times to make sure every red bug dies.

Should I keep the skimmer running during the treatment?

Do I have to run any carbon?

Any suggestions/ideas as to how I should treat this?

Anyone that has gone through this treating a similar size tank?


Thanks in advance!

 

[unbreakable]

something like a granulosa. they tend to go towards those smooth-skinned acros but other acros aren't out of the clear. you can even find them running across montiporas. ive had them before and its nothing to go crazy about right away.. itll be a while before the corals die depending on the infestation

cant give any suggestions on treatment since I had to breakdown the tank because of house renovations.

 

[skinny sam]

I would keep the skimmer running but shut the air intake off so your skimmer gets the treatment as well. Don't run carbon for at least two days after dosing as it can remove the meds pretty quick. After the two days I would then turn the skimmer air intake back on and run carbon until the next treatment. Repeat the above for at least three treatments and you should be rid of those pests. I just went threw this about 3 months ago and this worked for me.

 

[danel]

something like a granulosa. they tend to go towards those smooth-skinned acros but other acros aren't out of the clear. you can even find them running across montiporas. ive had them before and its nothing to go crazy about right away.. itll be a while before the corals die depending on the infestation

cant give any suggestions on treatment since I had to breakdown the tank because of house renovations.

Did you ever set the tank back up?

I would keep the skimmer running but shut the air intake off so your skimmer gets the treatment as well. Don't run carbon for at least two days after dosing as it can remove the meds pretty quick. After the two days I would then turn the skimmer air intake back on and run carbon until the next treatment. Repeat the above for at least three treatments and you should be rid of those pests. I just went threw this about 3 months ago and this worked for me.

What size is your tank? With my water volume being about 150g total, how much of one pill should I use?

Thanks for the info!

 

[sabodish]

the red bugs in my tank LOVE my hawkins echinata and both of my tri color valida. i havent seen them on any of my millis, montis or pocciloporas.

 

[skinny sam]

Danel my tank is a 240 with a total water volume of 350 gallons and I used the hole pill crushed of course and disolved. For your system I would think about a third of a pill should do the trick as I think one pill is enough for 390 gallons. I think you would be allright if your dosage is a little high and it won't cause any problems.

 

[danel]

Awesome, thanks a lot Skinny Sam! I'm actually about to start this treatment in a second. I'll post my results.

here is a pic of one of the infested corals:

 

[Rickyrooz1]

Tagging along

 

[klepto]

The main question is, what exactly are smooth-skinned acros?

Should I keep the skimmer running during the treatment?

Do I have to run any carbon?

Any suggestions/ideas as to how I should treat this?

Anyone that has gone through this treating a similar size tank?


Thanks in advance!

Smooth skinned acro's are just that. Acros that don't have a lot of texture on the branching due to the spaced out corallites- often times the corallites aren't very defined which also contributes to this term. It is just a general term.

Redbugs can effect many different species of Acropora, not just the "smoother skinned" ones.

I would recommend not running your skimmer for at least 6-10ish hrs post treatment. Often times interceptor will make your skimmer start overskimming which could be problematic. I like to dose the interceptor at night into a high flow area and then resume skimming the following morning. I know plenty of reefers that use the same method.

Do not run carbon during treatment because it will pull the medication out of the water column and thus reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.

Following treatment (within the next few days), I like to do a 10-15% water change to help pull some of the Interceptor out. Resume running carbon and GFO as usual once complete (at least 12+ hrs after each treatment) to further the removal of the Interceptor.

 

[danel]

I closed the air valve since last night from the skimmer so it hasn't been running at all this morning. I do intend to run carbon after the treatment tomorrow morning. I'm going to do a 20% water change after the 6 hours mark.

The reason I did it during the day was to keep track of what was going on.



After the first hour I didn't see any change towards the red bugs, but the pods were another story. My fish were going crazy eating all of them since they were just floating.

After the 2nd hour, I noticed that the red bugs weren't moving anymore. I still saw the same amount on the corals but there was no more movement by them.

At the 3rd hour mark, I noticed that the red bugs numbers were reduced by at least half their numbers. A lot seemed to be attached to a sort of slime/string kind of hanging from the corals. I can actually see the red bugs floating in the water at this point.

So far I'm REALLY liking the results!

Also, I wasn't able to take out my shrimps out of the tank, a cleaner, a blood and 4 peppermint shrimp are still in the tank. I'll report back how they make out. I really hope they survive...


AND, the memory card for my camera decided not to work anymore so I won't be able to take clear pictures with my cell =(

 

[danel]

4th hour of treatment and I cannot see any red bugs at all! This is awesome!

 

[danel]

24 hours after the start of the treatment and I cannot see a single red bug! Unfortunately the blood shrimp and the cleaner shrimp which I couldn't catch, didn't survive the treatment as I found them dead this morning.

I'll post pics of the results later today when I get a new memory card.