Red bugs on your sps? Share your exp.
- Thread starter Mark
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Lunchbucket
Premium Member
haven't had time to read through all the post but this sounds like some bad crap!! i just looked in to my tank and found them on at least 3 of my corals. on a neon polyped acro that hasn't had good color or expansion for a while now 
thought i saw one or 2 on my purple tip acro (that would **** me off) and today i saw a few on a tan acro that just won't color up. used to have green polyps now it has very very few polyps.
so no head way anyone?? nothing we can do?
have we for sure names these bugs as BAD? also are they still just on acros?
Lunchbucket
thought i saw one or 2 on my purple tip acro (that would **** me off) and today i saw a few on a tan acro that just won't color up. used to have green polyps now it has very very few polyps.so no head way anyone?? nothing we can do?
have we for sure names these bugs as BAD? also are they still just on acros?
Lunchbucket
turtlespd
Premium Member
PerryinCa,
Are you sure the bugs are gone? have you added new sps into your tank and how do you plan not to add these red little bugs? they are very small and at first i didnt notice them onmy sps either but as soon as one corals bleached i saw millions and then millions..some of my sps are still doing great but are not also infested..they seem not to bother any monti but man they are all over my acros..its odd to see how they dont touch o ther acros. Im sure lugol's dip will help kill a great amount of those bugs but im not sure 100% and it takes just one of those sukers to destroys ones tank..i learn to live with them although never learned how to lose a coral. Im getting very worried and will be adding a madrin goby soon.. ANy thought on getting the greeen with orange dots or the original dark black with extrodinary markings? i read a while back someone use one of them but man this thread is long. I will be moveing my tnak soon so hopefully somehow i can killhtese things..i plan to even dip my rocks in lugols solution and add the mandrin..who knows ..even my sand will be exposed to a healhy does fo lugols..other than that i just gotta live with them just like those cute little flat worms i love so much...
Paul
Are you sure the bugs are gone? have you added new sps into your tank and how do you plan not to add these red little bugs? they are very small and at first i didnt notice them onmy sps either but as soon as one corals bleached i saw millions and then millions..some of my sps are still doing great but are not also infested..they seem not to bother any monti but man they are all over my acros..its odd to see how they dont touch o ther acros. Im sure lugol's dip will help kill a great amount of those bugs but im not sure 100% and it takes just one of those sukers to destroys ones tank..i learn to live with them although never learned how to lose a coral. Im getting very worried and will be adding a madrin goby soon.. ANy thought on getting the greeen with orange dots or the original dark black with extrodinary markings? i read a while back someone use one of them but man this thread is long. I will be moveing my tnak soon so hopefully somehow i can killhtese things..i plan to even dip my rocks in lugols solution and add the mandrin..who knows ..even my sand will be exposed to a healhy does fo lugols..other than that i just gotta live with them just like those cute little flat worms i love so much...
Paul
Brimarbio
New member
Guess it's my turn 
I just got a bunch of frags from Ebay Friday. All were looking well with good extension and coloration till Monday when one of the Acro (red color, not sure exact name) started bleaching from the bottom up. It was as if something had eaten all the polyps away. The next day the effected area had doubled and that's when I observed some little "critters". I don't think they were the same as these red bugs people are talking about though. This coral didn't loose any color, at least not in the part that was still alive. And these critters were much bigger than those described by others. They were roughly a half a cm or so with a clear red strip down the length of their body (possibly from eating the zoox of this red coral???). Any ways I took it out and did a 30 sec. FW dip which seemed to kill most of them, they were falling off left right and center and for the rest of that day the coral seemed really happy and I didn't see any critters. That was Tuesday and of the 5 cm length of this frag about 1.5 cm of living tissue was left. By Wednesday lunch time the critters were back in full force and there was but a spec of living coral left. This AM the coral was completely gone, reduced to a bone white skeleton, but gone too were the critters. What worries me most is that there are several other SPS colonies in close proximity and I'd hate to loose them in such a fashion, or at all for that matter. I'll see if I can't find one of these critters in that bucket I used for the dip and post a pic of them.
Brian
I just got a bunch of frags from Ebay Friday. All were looking well with good extension and coloration till Monday when one of the Acro (red color, not sure exact name) started bleaching from the bottom up. It was as if something had eaten all the polyps away. The next day the effected area had doubled and that's when I observed some little "critters". I don't think they were the same as these red bugs people are talking about though. This coral didn't loose any color, at least not in the part that was still alive. And these critters were much bigger than those described by others. They were roughly a half a cm or so with a clear red strip down the length of their body (possibly from eating the zoox of this red coral???). Any ways I took it out and did a 30 sec. FW dip which seemed to kill most of them, they were falling off left right and center and for the rest of that day the coral seemed really happy and I didn't see any critters. That was Tuesday and of the 5 cm length of this frag about 1.5 cm of living tissue was left. By Wednesday lunch time the critters were back in full force and there was but a spec of living coral left. This AM the coral was completely gone, reduced to a bone white skeleton, but gone too were the critters. What worries me most is that there are several other SPS colonies in close proximity and I'd hate to loose them in such a fashion, or at all for that matter. I'll see if I can't find one of these critters in that bucket I used for the dip and post a pic of them.
Brian
nardis
New member
I just picked up some frags from a local reefer since I missed the Detroit Area frag swap. He a few corals that were infested with the red copes. I don't have any yet in my tank and don't want them, so I went to my LFS and purchase some lugol's and a few capsules of erythromycin which is used to treat cyanobacteria (red slime). Before adding the frags to my tank I treated them with a strong solution of 1/4 capsule and about 5 drops of lugol's in about 1/4 cup of water.
My observation was that the copes shook the buts very rapidly, then they jumped off of the frags. The ones that remained on the coral were dead still. I left the frags in this solution for 10 min. then I put them into my own tank water.
The copes were dead, even the ones that clung to the frags. The clingons were later brushed of with a small water color sable brush. I can't say for sure that I don't have them in my tank, or that the corals were not harmed, so I will keep all posted.
My observation was that the copes shook the buts very rapidly, then they jumped off of the frags. The ones that remained on the coral were dead still. I left the frags in this solution for 10 min. then I put them into my own tank water.
The copes were dead, even the ones that clung to the frags. The clingons were later brushed of with a small water color sable brush. I can't say for sure that I don't have them in my tank, or that the corals were not harmed, so I will keep all posted.
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
yeah please keep us posted!
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket
SawCJack00
Professional Mind Reader
I have recently moved some frags from my 125 to my 450. These frags were very small (most were 1/2"). I knew that many of them had the bugs. before placing them in my big tank, I dipped them in a solution of Kent D (4 X regular strength). this got many of the bugs off. I then carefully inspected each frag in bright light. I used a toothpick to remove any remaining bugs. This worked very well. I placed the frags in the tank about 2 weeks ago, and have yet to see one red bug. Hopefully I can continue to do this, and end up with bug free colonies of my favorite corals from my "bugful" 125
Jake
Active member
Saw jack,
I would watch out doing it this way only because the bugs can hide in the coralites and sometimes escape detection. What has worked good in my experince (and the experince of a couple of very experinced reefers in my area) is after initial dip put them on the front glass (On a shelf you can get from target or walmart made for showers) and give them a couple of days to a week and then redip before placing them in the new display. If you have a dissecting microscope a final check is also desirable before adding them to the display. The distance of the frags from the effected colonies when placed back onto the shelf helps to keep them from getting reinfected in the short time they are back in the tank (If you have noticed proximity seems to facilitate the spread of theses parasites) This method works great with frags.
I also had good luck with setting up a 20G tank and growing Cyano (not hard to do). Then placing infected colonies into the 20G nuking it with Red Slime remover-while shutting off the skimmer but adding a bunch of calerpa for filtration. The colonies were left in there for 2 weeks under VHO lighting. I experinced no mortalities (Must be noted that they tank had a fairly mature DSB also to support water quality) and could not find a bug on the colonies after the first week. As a final precaution colonies that were not attached to significant pieces of live rock were dipped before placement into the main display. This was all done around a move to a new apartment. I had my acro's boarding with a couple of reefers while transferring liverock into a new tank. My new tank is completely parasite free. Sure it might have been overkill but how on earth could I have gotten them out if they got into the new system? Better safe then sorry, espically because they are so hard to get out of the display tank when they infect it.
FYI-This was all done around a move to a new apartment. I had my acro's boarding with a couple of reefers while transferring liverock into a new tank. The acros became infected while boarding. I was made aware of it and was able through the following "stratigies" to free every last one of these acros of the parasites before adding the acros frags and colonies along with the live rock the colonies were attached to back into the main tank.
Oh yeah the reefers in the boston area have been having much better sucess with Sea Chems Reef Dip product than with Lugols. Two Capfulls per gallon for 15 minutes with small powerhead in the bucket the treatment is being performed in. The Perfect Pet and chucksreef were the ones who discovered the increased effectiveness of the Reef Dip over lugol's.
Sorry to be so long winded but I wanted to give in detail the methodology I used to solve the latest problem I had with these guys. Maybe I am just lucky though as when my origional tank got infected about 8 months ago I happened to be having a bad Green Cyano problem and when I added red Slimed remover to that tank the red bugs were gone for good in that tank. Other reefers in the area have had good sucess with this stratigy though, so I really think it will work well for others.
Hope this info helps someone
Regards
Jake
I would watch out doing it this way only because the bugs can hide in the coralites and sometimes escape detection. What has worked good in my experince (and the experince of a couple of very experinced reefers in my area) is after initial dip put them on the front glass (On a shelf you can get from target or walmart made for showers) and give them a couple of days to a week and then redip before placing them in the new display. If you have a dissecting microscope a final check is also desirable before adding them to the display. The distance of the frags from the effected colonies when placed back onto the shelf helps to keep them from getting reinfected in the short time they are back in the tank (If you have noticed proximity seems to facilitate the spread of theses parasites) This method works great with frags.
I also had good luck with setting up a 20G tank and growing Cyano (not hard to do). Then placing infected colonies into the 20G nuking it with Red Slime remover-while shutting off the skimmer but adding a bunch of calerpa for filtration. The colonies were left in there for 2 weeks under VHO lighting. I experinced no mortalities (Must be noted that they tank had a fairly mature DSB also to support water quality) and could not find a bug on the colonies after the first week. As a final precaution colonies that were not attached to significant pieces of live rock were dipped before placement into the main display. This was all done around a move to a new apartment. I had my acro's boarding with a couple of reefers while transferring liverock into a new tank. My new tank is completely parasite free. Sure it might have been overkill but how on earth could I have gotten them out if they got into the new system? Better safe then sorry, espically because they are so hard to get out of the display tank when they infect it.
FYI-This was all done around a move to a new apartment. I had my acro's boarding with a couple of reefers while transferring liverock into a new tank. The acros became infected while boarding. I was made aware of it and was able through the following "stratigies" to free every last one of these acros of the parasites before adding the acros frags and colonies along with the live rock the colonies were attached to back into the main tank.
Oh yeah the reefers in the boston area have been having much better sucess with Sea Chems Reef Dip product than with Lugols. Two Capfulls per gallon for 15 minutes with small powerhead in the bucket the treatment is being performed in. The Perfect Pet and chucksreef were the ones who discovered the increased effectiveness of the Reef Dip over lugol's.
Sorry to be so long winded but I wanted to give in detail the methodology I used to solve the latest problem I had with these guys. Maybe I am just lucky though as when my origional tank got infected about 8 months ago I happened to be having a bad Green Cyano problem and when I added red Slimed remover to that tank the red bugs were gone for good in that tank. Other reefers in the area have had good sucess with this stratigy though, so I really think it will work well for others.
Hope this info helps someone
Regards
Jake
nardis
New member
Polyps out, all fine
Polyps out, all fine
24 hours after the treatment all frags are fine. I hope this works. The copepods fell off of all frags during the treatment and those that did not were brushed off, including in the corallites. In any case they were dead after 5 min, I treated for 15min.
BTW I think that the Lugol's didn't have much of an effect on the pods, the killer was probably the erythromycin which is the same as Red Slime Remover (just alot cheaper and more available).
I used a blacklight to spot the pods during treatment.
I hope this helps
Polyps out, all fine
24 hours after the treatment all frags are fine. I hope this works. The copepods fell off of all frags during the treatment and those that did not were brushed off, including in the corallites. In any case they were dead after 5 min, I treated for 15min.
BTW I think that the Lugol's didn't have much of an effect on the pods, the killer was probably the erythromycin which is the same as Red Slime Remover (just alot cheaper and more available).
I used a blacklight to spot the pods during treatment.
I hope this helps
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
well i just noticed a crap load of them on my acros
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket
nardis
New member
UPDATE
UPDATE
carefully inspected all frags and corals to day (especially my tricolors) for the little red terrors and there are none to be found. All frags survived the treatment , none have bleached and all have polyps extended.
So far so good.
If you are in a similar situation to the one I was in, you may want to give it a try. I am speaking in terms of new corals into a clean tank not treating the whole system.
UPDATE
carefully inspected all frags and corals to day (especially my tricolors) for the little red terrors and there are none to be found. All frags survived the treatment , none have bleached and all have polyps extended.
So far so good.
If you are in a similar situation to the one I was in, you may want to give it a try. I am speaking in terms of new corals into a clean tank not treating the whole system.
Sorry to join in but I too seem to have red bugs. I found them on one of my frags, not all (yet?).
I've got Reef Dip as well as some Iodine here. Should I wait and see or treat now before it spreads? I do not want this to get out of hand and on to the other SPS I've got. The frag it's on has lost some color (pale purple now).
Suggestions anyone? It sounds (granted I've come in recently and not read 100% of posts) like the two latest treatments at least help.
thanks,
Chris
I've got Reef Dip as well as some Iodine here. Should I wait and see or treat now before it spreads? I do not want this to get out of hand and on to the other SPS I've got. The frag it's on has lost some color (pale purple now).
Suggestions anyone? It sounds (granted I've come in recently and not read 100% of posts) like the two latest treatments at least help.
thanks,
Chris
Jake
Active member
Treat now or you will never be able to get rid of them. Reef dip works best at 4X recommended concentration for at least 20 minutes and the longer the better. Don't take these guys lightly and also don't knock them off the frag before removal. Recommended dose of reef dip they seem to laugh at. 2 X knocks them back. 4X kills them good and I have done this on a couple of corals frags someone gave me and it worked great. Now some others in the area have had sucess with 4X concentrations- No coral mortality but all visible red mites were dead.
Just to test coral tolerance - I left a couple of frags I had just received (that were infected) for 24 hours in greator than 4 Xsolution (About 6X) with moderate lighting and a little areation. Half way through the treatment I added a second dose of Reef dip as the areation caused a protein skimming effect - Seemingly depleating the amount of Reef Dip in solution. these Frags appeared stressed at the end of treatment (But the water had also dropped to about 65 inthe container) but no mortality and are looking good now.
Just some backround- These frags had been previously dipped at 2X recommended concentration for 20minutes and red mites persisted. After holding them for another day, the Red mites were still walking around mocking me so I decided to do the above experiment.
Hope someone finds the information useful
Jake
Just to test coral tolerance - I left a couple of frags I had just received (that were infected) for 24 hours in greator than 4 Xsolution (About 6X) with moderate lighting and a little areation. Half way through the treatment I added a second dose of Reef dip as the areation caused a protein skimming effect - Seemingly depleating the amount of Reef Dip in solution. these Frags appeared stressed at the end of treatment (But the water had also dropped to about 65 inthe container) but no mortality and are looking good now.
Just some backround- These frags had been previously dipped at 2X recommended concentration for 20minutes and red mites persisted. After holding them for another day, the Red mites were still walking around mocking me so I decided to do the above experiment.
Hope someone finds the information useful
Jake
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
wow, some are making head way now!
so what is the concensus? are they harmful or not??
i have upped my feeding BIG TIME and it seems that i don't have them as much or the corals are doing fine w/ them. only one that isn't is a blue tip stag that i think got light shock but is comming back now.
anyone have them and not seem to hurt the coral?
Lunchbucket
so what is the concensus? are they harmful or not??
i have upped my feeding BIG TIME and it seems that i don't have them as much or the corals are doing fine w/ them. only one that isn't is a blue tip stag that i think got light shock but is comming back now.
anyone have them and not seem to hurt the coral?
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket,
Harmful or not ? Only you can determine that on a case by case basic. Some corals are effected more than others and know way to know for sure you have exact same bugs as someone else.....
Harmful or not ? Only you can determine that on a case by case basic. Some corals are effected more than others and know way to know for sure you have exact same bugs as someone else.....
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
hmm, didn't know there were 2 types.
so do you guys think they have been around for quite some time and we just noticed them or is this something new in the industry??
Lunchbucket
so do you guys think they have been around for quite some time and we just noticed them or is this something new in the industry??
Lunchbucket
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