red !@$#!@#$@ bugs!

mannyhernz

mannyhernz

Member
well just found out i have a couple of nice frags that have these....all my colonies are ok though..how can i just treat these fraggies without intercepting my tank?....buying a sixline and a dragonface pipefish this weekend. Also need a fast way to eradicate these from my lil frags...any help would be appreciated...
Manny
 
I'd just nuke the tank unless you have decorative shrimps or crabs. Other than those critters, treating with Interceptor is relatively benign in my experience. I've done it 2 or 3 times over the years.
 
im getting ready to do it as well. ive been meaning to get more hermits for my clean up crew since i have almost none left but now i think ima hold off on it till after the treatment. i have a CBS but id actually LIKE him to die cuz he killed cleaner shrimps twice now. will interceptor effect my starfish or my clams?
 
yeah I just treat my sps with interceptor. It looked like all red bugs are gone but who knows, time will tell. Any experience with six lines eating redbugs? I would like to add one also if she really help.
 
my 6 line wouldnt touch them...nuking the tank is so easy and painless...

i didnt even do the water changes or run the carbon like suggested...just dosed it and five days later again, and every five dyas for the rest of the month....did a nice big water change when i was done and havent seen them since...

both my coral banded shrimp and stupid pistol shrimp made it through every treatment...CBS has since died but the pistol is still live and clickin...

i treated in february of this year...
 
Just finished an interceptor treatment myself... If these frags have been placed in your main tank, chances are you will need to treat your entire tank to avoid a future breakout of redbugs...

I would just get the interceptor, I tried lugols, TMPCC, and a sixline, and none of them worked. Did an interceptor treatment and redbugs are no more in my tank!
 
It's very important to repeat the treatment at least 3 times 5 days or a week apart. Otherwise the redbugs will come back in my experience. LooseHip is right, if the frags were in the tank, better safe than sorry.

As for your decorative shrimp, you'd better set up some sort of QT for them, or wave bye bye thru the glass.

I think adding a sixline would be like whistling while you walk by the grave yard. It'll make ya feel better, but won't do much to protect you.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13827739#post13827739 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nathenvan
I read somewhere that redbugs do not lay eggs. As a result, second treatment is not needed. Is that right or wrong?.
Click to expand...

since the treatment is relatively harmless to your tank...apart from Crustaceans nothing else will die...i dont care to find out (the hard way) whether they lay eggs or not....i do know from watching them that they will hid in the polyps etc of the corals while the drug is in the water......so those couple that make it through the first treatment will certainly breed again knowing the end is near, as they see their little buddies being swept away in the slime of the acro's... not doing a second and third treatment is like taking one pill from your week long prescription and calling it quits...it makes no sense...

more too that...i feel that doing a WC and running carbon after a dosing is like getting a transfusion to pull the good drugs out of your system shortly after dosing them...

this method has been around for a long time and i still havent read from anyone that it has killed anything in their tanks other then the crustaceans...personally i used one pill for large dogs to treat my system, i crushed it all up divided it into 5 parts and as i needed them mixed them with some RODI and dumped it into the tank...1 pill is good for 380g~ divided by 5 that is good for ~ 75g...my tank is 25 g so i did 5 triple doses and nothing bad happened...other have gone as high as ten times the dose and not had anything bad happen...

that is not to say nothing bad will happen (though, so far past history and performance tells us it wont) i would recommend doing the dose as prescribed on the various web pages out there and be done with the little buggers...they arent that big a deal...
 
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Yeah I am not sure you can overdose maybe though... I used an entire large pill (rated for 51-100 lb dog) to dose my 50 gallon system... 1 hour past nothing happened, 2 hours later nothing, 3 hours later I was getting worried, 4 hours later all gone!

It has been a week, and I have seen a slight improvement in few of the corals that were infested with them!

I thought I read that Interceptor also kills bristleworms?? Can anyone confirm that? I have some big ones that survived the first treatment.
 
well i think ill try the interceptor....only thing is how to obtain legally?....do i just walk in a vets office and say that i need it for my reef tank?.....is the pill used for illegal stuff?...if so i dont think any vet in los angeles is going to beleive that...
 
print a copy of the use and benifits of interceptor in reef tanks and bring it to the vet , thats all i did . he was more than willing to sell them to me , good luck
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13829217#post13829217 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mannyhernz
well i think ill try the interceptor....only thing is how to obtain legally?....do i just walk in a vets office and say that i need it for my reef tank?.....is the pill used for illegal stuff?...if so i dont think any vet in los angeles is going to beleive that...
Click to expand...

Bring this article in and show the vet...

http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html
 
I took pictures of my tank, and a copy of that article to my dog's vet. She took it home, did a little research then called in a prescription for me and let me know the next day.

As far as them laying eggs...I treated once, one time. No red bugs, BUT a month later they were back. The next time I treated, I did the once a week treatment x 3. Haven't seen any since. Almost a year now.
 
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