Red bugs on your sps? Share your exp.

[David Grigor]

DaveM,

Do you have the ability to look at the coral from all sides. They move around and if you can't see the whole coral they may just be on the back side at the time you inspect. I typicall see the highest # of bugs on the side of the coral with the least amount of flow. Also they can crawl in/out of the polyps which definately make me believe they are not harmless. At minimum they do irritate the coral.

These to things could well explain the difference in numbers with you look at the coral and not necessarily a crab or something else eating them. I would only assume that if I actually witnessed it eating them.......

 

[AgentSPS]

3 months after infestation growth completely stopped and bleached almost white.


<img src=http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=2237226>

 

[AgentSPS]

Pic taken last month...recovering nicely
<img src=http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=2237242>

 

[Greg Hiller]

In the 'update' category:

From my tanks, after I eradicated them by removing all Acros for a week the bugs have not returned to any of my tanks (originally only in my frag tanks). I've been VERY, VERY careful in not re-introducing them with infected Acros from other people. I have still done some trading, but any Acros are quaratined and dipped until I'm certain they are not carriers. The quarantine process for me can take many weeks. I still maintain that the bugs are harmful to some Acros, but it is only a small subset that they can really damage. Still, any stress on the corals can only make small upsets to a tank (low Calcium or alk) much more serious to any particular coral.

 

[AgentSPS]

Still, any stress on the corals can only make small upsets to a tank (low Calcium or alk) much more serious to any particular coral.

I should mention that I had problems with alk, magnesium, and ca (all go hand in hand) when the bugs started to gain a foothold on a few of my corals.

 

[ReeferMac]

Still, any stress on the corals can only make small upsets to a tank (low Calcium or alk) much more serious to any particular coral

I agree with you wholeheartedly there Greg. That's one reason I'm so interested in hearing of people having success getting RID of the problem on a permanent basis . I'll go to great lengths to eliminate pests from my aquarium, but only after I've assured myself I'm only going to have to undertake this PIA once.
Is your Q tank setup w/ similar lighting to your reef tank? I'm trying to think of ways I can accomplish a similar setup in my fish room... If I can throw a 20-gal. up on the wall w/ some PC's over it and a Power Filter, I may very well try and grow some Cyano in the near future. I don't do much trading during the winter months, so now would be the perfect time.

- Mac

 

[andre]

Greg what did you dip the corals in when you removed them and in what ratio?Was it effective?
Did these corals go back into your system and are they still free of the red bugs?
Any help would be great

 

[Greg Hiller]

Particularly suseptible Acros may be nearly impossible to clear of the little buggers. If you REALLY want to clean a suseptible Acro I recommend only attempting to clean a small frag. My proceedure is dip in the SeaChem dip, or use Lugols at 10-20 drops/liter for 15 minutes. You may need to dip mulitple times and blast with a baster and observe under a microscope several times to make sure they are all gone. To be on the safe side after the last treatment wait 2-3 weeks and see if they return before adding the frag to a clean system. The method I'm mentioning above just willl not work for large colonies. But if you want to start with a clean system and slowly move in only 'cleaned' frags this is one way to do it.

Once they are gone if you place them in a clean system they will never return (they don't materialize out of thin air/water).

>Is your Q tank setup w/ similar lighting to your reef tank? <

Whatever it takes to keep the frags alive until you are sure they are clean.

 

[ReeferMac]

Thanks for sharing Greg. I've recently started up a new tank, so I'm still on the fence about what to do.
The lazy side of me says ride it out, it's only a temporary thing in the hobby, but the practical side tells me to treat the problem now, while your frags are still small.... Sigh... We'll see where this one goes.

- Mac

 

[andre]

Thanks Greg
My Q tank is the same lighting.
I only have a few large acro colonies(millipora table,slimer,2 purple tips) most are frags.You say the dip will not work on the colonies? I heard millipora and slimers dont get the bugs is this true in your case

 

[trickyblue]

Here is what those bugs have done to my Green Acro...

Some Polyps starting to come back, but bugs are everywhere, I have a Purple Acro that has them too but it continues to grow however polyps dont come out as often...

Can someone write a summary of what has been said, I dont want to read 15pages..
but in my opinion these things harmfull.

 

[keon]

trickyblue, thats terrible but hopefully it'll recover.
how long did it take for that to happen and were any other acros effected?

k

 

[Greg Hiller]

For me the slimer never got the bugs. Other Acros it just depends. The reason I say it will not work on a colony is that you can never really inspect an entire colony under a dissecting microscope.

Trickyblue:

That's pretty graphic! As far as a summary of the thread (with my opinions/experience thrown in) I wrote an article about the mites a while back.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/iss...003/feature.htm

 

[brentp]

I purchased a very good size frag of Acropora caroliniana about a month ago. About two weeks ago I noticed 30 to 40 red bugs on it (luckily I mounted it close to the glass or I probably would not have noticed), the coral still looked very healthy. I took it out and gave it a 10 minute dip in lugol's. Every couple of minutes I moved the coral vigorously in the solution to get the little suckers to let go. I then moved it to a quarantine tank. A few days later I could see maybe 2 or 3 bugs on it. They may have been dead because they were not moving. I gave it another dip just like above and put back in the quarantine tank. I've watched it closely for the past two weeks and no sign of the little critters. It is still growing and has better polyp extension now. I haven't seen them on any other acros either.

 

[davem511]

ok nobody laugh at me, I'm not a scientist.... I know not many people still use UV sterilizers but I'd be interested to know if anyone who does, has red bugs?? They spread so fast (in my tank they seemed to anyway) that I wonder if their larval stage is free floating and possibly susceptible to UV?? Again, not a scientist but just had a crazy thought so I figured I'd ask if anyone had a UV sterilizer and a bug problem.

 

[AgentSPS]

ok nobody laugh at me, I'm not a scientist.... I know not many people still use UV sterilizers but I'd be interested to know if anyone who does, has red bugs?? They spread so fast (in my tank they seemed to anyway) that I wonder if their larval stage is free floating and possibly susceptible to UV?? Again, not a scientist but just had a crazy thought so I figured I'd ask if anyone had a UV sterilizer and a bug problem.

hmmm not a bad theory at all...seems like it might be difficult to prove though. Its probable though that these bugs have a free floating larval stage.

 

[RedEyeReef]

davem511, good thought.

What about O3??? Anyone have UV or O3 that can comment on Red Bugs or lack of?

 

[Brad A.]

I run O3 and have the red bugs. But, I'm still not convinced they're doing anything majorly bad (comment applies to my tank only).

I should add.. I have very low #'s of red bugs. Nothing like 30-40 on an acro (that I can see). I think I've had the bugs for several months now...but just noticed a while ago.


Brad

 

[ReeferMac]

Hmmm.. O3 - that's Ozone, right? Relates to ORP readings in the tank water? Huh? Wonder if that's related?

Can you **** off your tank really good and see if... ( I'm kidding, I'm kidding.. )

- Mac

 

[Travis]

ReeferMac, O3 kills anything it comes into contact with. So if there was a correlation it would be that the larvae would be killed by coming into contact with the ozone resulting in less bugs.