Red Bugs as Natural AEFW Treatment?

[koral_lover]

I know this is going to sound strange, but in my few years of reefkeeping, I've always noticed a pattern...in two personal past tanks and while researching on forums...back in 2008-2011...

It seems folks get infected with red bugs, finally decide to treat, and then aefw appear. Either the hobbyist had aefw the whole time, or perhaps the redbugs assisted in keeping them in check? Or at least allowed them not to take hold of the coral so much.

I know Sanjay Joshi lived with AEFW for many years and had sps colonies the size of basketballs....I am wondering how he did this successfully, its hard to baste such large colonies...but he mentioned he had red bugs the whole time too...

I am not recommending those that have aefw to throw a bunch of red bugs in your tank, but I have thought about the relationship between red bugs and aefw lately and wondering if others have thought about this...do they compete against each other?

Or maybe this theory I have developed is completely false - interested in hearing other peoples thoughts.

 

[JM68]

I had the same experience a few years back. My 120g sps tank, i started seeing red bugs. Treated with interceptor and within a couple weeks of the red bugs being gone the tank was over run with aefw. Im curious to hear other peoples experiences and thoughts.

 

[koral_lover]

I honestly feel red bugs do somehow keep AEFW at bay...

I sometimes think that red bugs maybe like munching on the AEFW eggs, haha!...losing my mind - I know.

 

[Tweaked]

Very interesting thought.

 

[watchguy123]

You do have an interesting point and lots of people have also wondered the same thing. I don't really know what harm red bugs do to coral. Maybe they don't do any harm, maybe its just the AEFW that make coral unhappy (and kill them sometimes).

Unfortunately, I am not brave enough to throw red bugs into my tank to see how and if they pester my sps. But maybe somebody is.

Your thought is interesting, indeed.

 

[captjab]

Here is a poll I ran on here a while back concerning the same question.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2374503

 

[scrapz]

Yup, noticed it after I treated the RB so I could believe it.

 

[Atomikk]

I have done the same thing and also the reverse. The last time I was battling AEFW, I had re-introduced the red bugs by accident into the QT. They multiplied and held the flatworms at bay. The technique that I used to get rid of them was to add FWS (Flat Worm Stop) until AEFWs died and then interceptor for the red bugs. Problem solved.

If I had a AEFW problem again, I would introduce red bugs again.

 

[krzyphsygy]

This is very interesting. I have seen this happen before first hand. Red bugs appear, treatment, then all out aefw. I wonder if the redbugs are a symptom of aefw. Maybe a natural preditor that come in together. One killing the other in the wild. However the interceptor only kills the red bugs allowing the aefw to come out. This is not my opinion. I have seen this happen. Very odd.

 

[reefmutt]

Atomikk! Where you been?
Well, I have aefw, red bugs and their cousins, white bugs.
I have had aefw for at least 6 months.. Maybe longer. I also have about 25 peppermint shrimp in the tank that I believe are very effective aefw egg eaters.
I have been under the assumption that the pepps have been controlling the aefw as I don't see them very often.. I need to dip one coral in particular regularly for aefw but not really any other colonies.
The bugs, I only recently noticed.. Not sure how long they've been in my system but I have a good amount of corals that just sort of sit dormant and don't do much while others (many) grow like crazy..
I have heard over the years that bugs seem to slow the progression of or even control aefw and that reefers get an explosion of aefw after treating with intercepter.
I'm stuck..
I'm considering ordering another 30 pepps, in preparation for an intercepter treatment but I'm undecided.
I was under the impression that flatworm stop didn't really help but recently I've seen a few people using it..
I may give it a try for a few months before doing anything else..
Anybody have any idea what's even in flatworm stop??

 

[Led reef]

 

[Jim Z.]

Red bugs may cause the acros to produce more slime which may deter AEFW's from attacking the corals. Might be worth examining in greater detail...............Jim

 

[reefmutt]

Would seem natural that two predators wouldn't want to coexist on the same prey..