Red Bugs, Modern Coral Dying...help

sly65sally200

New member
WILL RED BUGS EAT LPS CORALS...LIKE MODERN, OPEN BRAIN, RED LOBO, ETC.? I HAVE A MODERN CORAL, THAT HAS SOME SMALL FINE PEN TIP RED BUGS ALL OVER IT. THE TISSUE IS RECEDING FAST. I HAVE NO ACRO IN MY TANK. I ONLY THOUGHT RED BUGS EAT ACRO. OR WILL THEY EAT LPS CORAL AS WELL? PLEASE HELP.
 
I have heard accounts of redbugs taking refuge in torches and frogspawn, not sure if they prey on them like an acro or just use it for shelter when the need arises. I would say they can irritate the coral to the point of damage if they were on it.
 
the bugs are all red and about has small as a extra fine tip pen...I would try to take a picture, but the camera won't zoom in enough...they only come out at night. I can see the crawl into part of the white skeleton part... I hope this helps
 
Are you sure that your parameters are all within generally recognized limits? Any chance it received some sort of contamination? How long has your tank been set up and can you tell us more about it?

hmmmm...I've never seen anyone say that red bugs attack SPS. I'm not saying it's not possible, I would prefer to read more about it before I believe it though. Can anyone link me to a discussion on this topic?

Redbugs are tiny. I could barely see them from only 6" away and only ever saw them on one SPS before I blitzed them with a batch of interceptor. From demon's link...
Here are two pictures hosted on Melev's site:
redbugs.jpg


IF YOU HAVE A MAGNIFYING GLASS...YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO SEE THEM LIKE THIS. THEY LOOK NOTHING LIKE THIS TO THE NAKED EYE.
redbug_800.jpg


And here is a link to Melev's treatment page...
http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

I treated redbugs well above the recommended dosage directly in my tank with no ill effects. My corals were healthy at the time though.
 
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THANKS EVERYONE....THESE GUYS ALL OVER MY BRAIN DO NOT HAVE YELLOW ON THEM. THEY ARE COMPLETELY RED. MY FISH GUY AT THE STORE SAID TO DO AN IODINE DIP, AND TO LOOK IT UP ON LINE ON HOW TO DO ONE..HOW DO YOU SUGGEST TO DO AN IODINE DIP?
 
BTW - if you indeed have these buggers, they probably have little to nothing to do with your ailing corals unless they are dying in mass numbers (unlikely). So, on the assumption that you have acoel flatworms, can you tell us a little more about your tank? Your hobby experience reads "beginner" - I (we) would like to make sure you don't end up stressing your stuff out even more by putting them through unnecessary treatments that might do more harm than good.
 
Well, the tank I have I bought off of someone locally last November. The actual tank turned a year old this month. The modern brain, I just bought about 2 months ago. It just started receding the past 2 weeks. My only guess was the red bugs I see crawling on it. I have several lps corals that I've had no problems, and I see not red bugs on them. I have tried to get the best picture has I can. You can't see the red bugs though, they move fast into the coral. But you can definitely see the coral skeleton on one side. I checked my water and the only thing I could find alittle off was my nitrate. it was at 5. I then did a water change. I only us ro water. I have a 125 gallon, Aqua c 180 skimmer inside berlin bs2 sump, 2 little fishes 150 phosphate reactor, coral twist uv sterlizer, 10k metal halides. I do a 25% water change every two weeks. My tank normally stays between 80 and 82 degrees. I did catch it 86 a couple days ago. It did not stay at that temp long. I keep my salt levels at 1.026. I keep my metal halides on for 6 hours and my actinics on for 12. If you need to know anything else please ask.
 
Do the bugs have legs? They literally speed towards the mouth and hide within the coral itself!? Can you describe them in a little more detail? None of the pictures on the http://www.melevsreef.com/id/ page looked similar?

I'm sorry - I've never heard of anything like this. I was sooo confident that you were going to say you had flat worms.
 
Well, the bugs are so small that you can't see, but they move as fast as a copepod...they have no yellow in them like the acrobugs...they are all red. I mostly can only see them at night. At the side of the coral, where it's all eating away. is where they are at. They crawl up into the white part of the coral skeleton. I haven't seen them in the mouth. Just on the sides, but they get up so far in there you can't see them. I have tried several times to veiw them as close as possible with a flashlight, but these suckers are fast. I have them on no other coral. But it's not the flatworms. I'm going to try to see if I can't catch them through a magnifying glass tonight. But then again the flash light will scare them away. I do want to mention, which I should have earlier, I had a red open brain that I purchased the same time as this one that died within the 15 day garuntee period. I never did figure out what went wrong with it. It's tissue just lost color, and it spewed it's guts out and died. But this modern brain, you can tell something is irritating it because it's little shockers are hanging out around the edge of the tissue where it is being bothered. I have searched the internet for 3 days, and have been in a few forums and can't find no answers. I wish I had a manual digital camera.
 
Without identifying what they are, you can't tell if they are actually killing the coral or not. It could be that they are just eating flesh that is already dead. All sorts of critters are claimed to 'eat' coral when all they are really doing is being opportunistic scavengers. I would post a thread in the LPS forum (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=332) and see if you get any hits.

That article is talking about freshwater dipping fish, not corals. Is it the same process? I don't know - but looking at a reputable site that is discussing coral dips would be much preferred.
 
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