Red Bugs
- Thread starter dvmsn
- Start date
Rpierce
New member
Dave- One pill should do you tank twice. That's what I am doing. I used a 1/2 pill yesterday and I will use the other 1/2 on my follow up dosing. Here are the instructions that I followed. They are from Kip!
This from Kip- not me!
mkay... i've been asked for my .02c so here is a dollar Smile
i am sure the article mentions all of this, but i am gonna break down what i do (and have done twice)
the large interceptor pill is said to treat 360gal. in the beginning people were measuring it all out with expensive scales, etc and i find that a waste of time.
what will it hurt..... fish have never exhibited any signs of stress even at 2x dose. (which i did the first time and just a month ago as the 2nd time... more later) urchins, stars, corals, and snails could care less about the medicine in the water. The treatment targets arthropods that includes the red bug as well as (unfortunately) gamm amphs, munn iso, herp copes, mysis, larger shrimp, and crabs.
Before doing your treatment, get out as much as you can and house them in an isolation tank. You obviously cant catch pods and mysis so they will die in the display. If you have a fuge, (which is acro-less (as should be)) you can turn it offline during treatment. After treatment is over, you've ran heavy carbon and have performed at least a 25% water change... the fuge can be turned back online. (hold your horses... i recommnend a follow-up a week after the first.... so keep the fuge offline for the whole week and the shrimp, crabs, etc in isolation the said time as well)... NOW>>>> after the 2nd treatment is over... carbon, water change, and everything is ready... guys in isolation can go back in and the fuge turned back online. (NOTE: fuge offline will need circulation and temp control just like the isolation tank)
What to expect …. It wont be a visually stimulating treatment the way a flatworm exit treatment is. You wont see RBs floating thru the water. You may see them stringing off the slime of an acro, but not tons of them at once like flatworms unless you have RBs really bad. NOW… when you have flatworms really bad, there is the catastrophic risk of toxin release associated with their death en masse. WITH REDBUGS, there is no toxic risk associated with their dying bodies. The only toxic risk is the medicine itself and only to the critters mentioned above.
How to do it…. You’ve gotten every thing out that could die that you possibly can. You’ve isolated the fuge. You can even take your sump, skimmer, and other water processing equipment offline if you like to lessen the amount of interceptor you have to dose. If you have a frag tank inline, be sure it is treated as well. You will want to make sure your closed loop or powerheads are functioning so that the medicine is readily distributed around the tank and all parts of the acros are affected by flow. For you james… your display is 90g. By recommendations, that’s 1/4th of a large breed pill. At your own risk, you can do as I would and use a ½ pill and treat it like it’s a 180g… that’s a 2x dose. Cut the pill with a sharp knife on a cutting board…. Then put the pill in a small container and crush it with the butt of the knife (be careful how you hold the knife). Mix in a shot or two of tank water… swirl.. let it soak a few minutes… and dump it all into the tank to be treated. Even rinse the container out in the tank to get it all in there. If you want.. you can wait about 15-30 mins and watch the RBs get really active on the acro. In my 2 experiences (well 3, but the 3rd was a follow up and I didn’t see the RBs after the 1st treatment (2nd time around)), it takes about an hour or two before you see them starting to lose grip of the acros. Let the total treatment run for about 6hrs. At the end of the 1st treatment, run carbon, do a 25% water change and turn everything back on as usual. Keep your fuge offline until after the next treatment at 1wk if you choose. You can turn if back on (and I have with no loss), but that’s at your discretion. Be sure to leave the fellas in isolation til after the 2nd treatment so you don’t have to catch them again. 2nd treatment is the same as the first, but you return the guys in isolation and turn the fuge back online after the water change and carbon.
Now your display is RB-free.
To Keep it RB free…. DONâ€ÂT TRUST ANYONE!!!!! ……ANYONE!!!!! Reason I had to do a 2nd round of treatment was because I trusted a guy that swore he had no bugs, screens for them, and has treated for them. Well, he had bugs. I showed a pic of them to him and his response was “Ah, so that’s what red bugs are!.†SO… DON’T TRUST ANYONE!!!!!….. want me to say it again?
SO.. what to do with new acros and frags from others…. Treat them…. Treat them all with interceptor. Want me to say it again? … DON’T TRUST ANYONE!!! I bathe all of my new acros as soon as I receive them. I drip my tank water into their containers to acclimate them, but they never see my tank until after they’ve been treated. After they’ve been drip acclimated, I add about an 1/8th of a pill (yeah.. that’s enough for 45gallons, but I am treating only a 1gal bucket). I leave it in this treated bucket for 4-5hrs. During this time, the water is circulated (gently) and temperature is maintained by either floating the bucket in the sump (usually) or a small nano heater. After the treatment is over… the frags go into an acro isolation tank for further monitoring. (or can go into your frag tank or display tank if you wanna skip monitoring)
Why monitoring? …. AEFW’s… buts that’s another essay!
This from Kip- not me!
mkay... i've been asked for my .02c so here is a dollar Smile
i am sure the article mentions all of this, but i am gonna break down what i do (and have done twice)
the large interceptor pill is said to treat 360gal. in the beginning people were measuring it all out with expensive scales, etc and i find that a waste of time.
what will it hurt..... fish have never exhibited any signs of stress even at 2x dose. (which i did the first time and just a month ago as the 2nd time... more later) urchins, stars, corals, and snails could care less about the medicine in the water. The treatment targets arthropods that includes the red bug as well as (unfortunately) gamm amphs, munn iso, herp copes, mysis, larger shrimp, and crabs.
Before doing your treatment, get out as much as you can and house them in an isolation tank. You obviously cant catch pods and mysis so they will die in the display. If you have a fuge, (which is acro-less (as should be)) you can turn it offline during treatment. After treatment is over, you've ran heavy carbon and have performed at least a 25% water change... the fuge can be turned back online. (hold your horses... i recommnend a follow-up a week after the first.... so keep the fuge offline for the whole week and the shrimp, crabs, etc in isolation the said time as well)... NOW>>>> after the 2nd treatment is over... carbon, water change, and everything is ready... guys in isolation can go back in and the fuge turned back online. (NOTE: fuge offline will need circulation and temp control just like the isolation tank)
What to expect …. It wont be a visually stimulating treatment the way a flatworm exit treatment is. You wont see RBs floating thru the water. You may see them stringing off the slime of an acro, but not tons of them at once like flatworms unless you have RBs really bad. NOW… when you have flatworms really bad, there is the catastrophic risk of toxin release associated with their death en masse. WITH REDBUGS, there is no toxic risk associated with their dying bodies. The only toxic risk is the medicine itself and only to the critters mentioned above.
How to do it…. You’ve gotten every thing out that could die that you possibly can. You’ve isolated the fuge. You can even take your sump, skimmer, and other water processing equipment offline if you like to lessen the amount of interceptor you have to dose. If you have a frag tank inline, be sure it is treated as well. You will want to make sure your closed loop or powerheads are functioning so that the medicine is readily distributed around the tank and all parts of the acros are affected by flow. For you james… your display is 90g. By recommendations, that’s 1/4th of a large breed pill. At your own risk, you can do as I would and use a ½ pill and treat it like it’s a 180g… that’s a 2x dose. Cut the pill with a sharp knife on a cutting board…. Then put the pill in a small container and crush it with the butt of the knife (be careful how you hold the knife). Mix in a shot or two of tank water… swirl.. let it soak a few minutes… and dump it all into the tank to be treated. Even rinse the container out in the tank to get it all in there. If you want.. you can wait about 15-30 mins and watch the RBs get really active on the acro. In my 2 experiences (well 3, but the 3rd was a follow up and I didn’t see the RBs after the 1st treatment (2nd time around)), it takes about an hour or two before you see them starting to lose grip of the acros. Let the total treatment run for about 6hrs. At the end of the 1st treatment, run carbon, do a 25% water change and turn everything back on as usual. Keep your fuge offline until after the next treatment at 1wk if you choose. You can turn if back on (and I have with no loss), but that’s at your discretion. Be sure to leave the fellas in isolation til after the 2nd treatment so you don’t have to catch them again. 2nd treatment is the same as the first, but you return the guys in isolation and turn the fuge back online after the water change and carbon.
Now your display is RB-free.
To Keep it RB free…. DONâ€ÂT TRUST ANYONE!!!!! ……ANYONE!!!!! Reason I had to do a 2nd round of treatment was because I trusted a guy that swore he had no bugs, screens for them, and has treated for them. Well, he had bugs. I showed a pic of them to him and his response was “Ah, so that’s what red bugs are!.†SO… DON’T TRUST ANYONE!!!!!….. want me to say it again?
SO.. what to do with new acros and frags from others…. Treat them…. Treat them all with interceptor. Want me to say it again? … DON’T TRUST ANYONE!!! I bathe all of my new acros as soon as I receive them. I drip my tank water into their containers to acclimate them, but they never see my tank until after they’ve been treated. After they’ve been drip acclimated, I add about an 1/8th of a pill (yeah.. that’s enough for 45gallons, but I am treating only a 1gal bucket). I leave it in this treated bucket for 4-5hrs. During this time, the water is circulated (gently) and temperature is maintained by either floating the bucket in the sump (usually) or a small nano heater. After the treatment is over… the frags go into an acro isolation tank for further monitoring. (or can go into your frag tank or display tank if you wanna skip monitoring)
Why monitoring? …. AEFW’s… buts that’s another essay!
