Valida Acropora

[blackheart]

I just got a valida from my LFS that was sent as a bali aqua-cultured piece. It came into my LFS brown so i got a real nice sized piece for 40 bucks. I brought it home and in the week i have had it, it has already started getting purple tips.

so i thought i was on the right track

My bro came over and said that they are real suseptable to red bugs and that is prob why it is brown. I dont know though. It is starting to turn around and it is a real nice piece so i dont want to take it back if its just brown from stress.

What would you guys do?

Thanks

 

[hobogato]

why would you take it back? red bugs are easy to treat if they are there, plus if it had redbugs and you didnt dip it, your entire collection of acros could possibly have them - you will want to treat anyway.

 

[blackheart]

yeah i guess thats true But they do take time to spread and they like the valida most of all i am told. Also Lets not get ahead of our selves because i am not even sure that this coral has red bugs. Has anyone come up with a sure fire way of testing for this?

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Look at the coral. If it has red bugs, you will see them.

 

[blackheart]

yeah it does not have visable red bugs on it i have stared at this thing long enough to have my old lady threaten to move out. I have seen red bugs running around before in other peoples tanks so i know what they look like and they are visable on this coral.

Maybe i am just being paranoid because of the color of the coral

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

There are a lot of factors that can cause a coral to brown out. Red bugs is probably the least common cause.

 

[hobogato]

i agree - you would see them on a valida pretty easily. if you cant see em, then you are probably fine.

 

[blackheart]

I'll tell you that is what i wanted to hear! So lets just stop there I will continue to stare down this piece just incase. But thanks you for your opinions.

 

[hobogato]

you know - if you dip things coming in, you wont have to worry about it in the future - and there are alot worse things to get in your tank than redbugs - AEFW for example. dont learn that lesson the way i did

 

[blackheart]

AEFW?

 

[Tank Razed]

acro eating flat worms

 

[hobogato]

Acro Eating Flat Worms - trust me, you dont want those. here is a documentation of what i had to do to get rid of them. not to mention losing about 1/3 of my acros during the process.

 

[blackheart]

sounds awsome I'll be sure to stay away from those little guys thanks for the heads up