Milbemycin Oxime

[NaH2O]

Collin - I don't know if you will be able to answer this or not, but I am looking to find out information on the breakdown and/or removal of Milbemycin Oxime (aka Interceptor®) in a tank. This is a product hobbyists are now using in their systems to treat for Red Acro Bugs. I thought I stumbled onto the chemical structure somewhere, but I can't find it now for the life of me. Here is a quote from the Official website: Novartis

Properties
Milbemycin oxime, the active ingredient, is a mixture of the macrolides milbemycin A3 oxime and milbemycin A4 oxime. It interacts with the GABA receptors of the nervous system like other macrolides leading to paralysis. Milbemycin oxime is active against nematodes and arthropods.

I have a thread going in the Advanced Topic Forum: "Red Bugs - Inevitable?". In this thread I commented on the mode of action (also listed in above quote) for Milbemycin Oxime, but I wonder what happens to it once in the water? The "Cure" for Red Acro Bugs indicates 3 treatments total, with at least 25% water changes and carbon after 6 hours, following each treatment (crustaceans introduced after this time were not effected). How readily is this removed from the systems? It doesn't seem to be a concern for anything other than crustaceans in a tank situation (of which there are a lot of), but I want to understand what happens to the drug once it is in the water. Would this have a long term effect on the system even with water changes? Is the carbon useful? Perhaps water changes aren't necessary, and other filtration would take care of it? Hopefully, you will be able to shed some light for me.

 

[cwcross]

Collin - I don't know if you will be able to answer this or not, but I am looking to find out information on the breakdown and/or removal of Milbemycin Oxime (aka Interceptor®) in a tank. This is a product hobbyists are now using in their systems to treat for Red Acro Bugs. I thought I stumbled onto the chemical structure somewhere, but I can't find it now for the life of me. Here is a quote from the Official website: Novartis


I have a thread going in the Advanced Topic Forum: "Red Bugs - Inevitable?". In this thread I commented on the mode of action (also listed in above quote) for Milbemycin Oxime, but I wonder what happens to it once in the water? The "Cure" for Red Acro Bugs indicates 3 treatments total, with at least 25% water changes and carbon after 6 hours, following each treatment (crustaceans introduced after this time were not effected). How readily is this removed from the systems? It doesn't seem to be a concern for anything other than crustaceans in a tank situation (of which there are a lot of), but I want to understand what happens to the drug once it is in the water. Would this have a long term effect on the system even with water changes? Is the carbon useful? Perhaps water changes aren't necessary, and other filtration would take care of it? Hopefully, you will be able to shed some light for me.

Nikki,

This is a tough question and I have to largely punt on it. However, I can nearly assure you that the agent can be removed with carbon. Furthermore, it will break down with some sort of 1/2 life that I would not expect to be more than 16 hours. This means it would be completely gone within 5 days with no carbon at all. With carbon, you could remove it within about 24 hours or less. However, I would suggest the carbon.

This is what I mean by toxins. Toxins can be very specific. Somethings will affect one family but have absolutely no affect on another.

However why are the red bugs bad? I have some tiny red pods of some sort on my rocks but never knew what they are. They don't seem to cause a problem? Is this what you are talking about. My chromis seem to eat them.

Also, I saleifert flatworm eXit has the same sort of instructions. I didn't follow then and did no siphoning of the flatworms before introducing the drug, no water change and did not run carbon until 24 hours later because my narsium snails all got drunk and fell over. I wanted to make sure that $%^tards were dead. My tank had no ill effects. Nothing but flatworms dying and drunk narsius snails the next day. They recovered after the carbon and are still alive.

However, I don't recomend this. I suggest you follow the instructions. The eXit instructions hinted that the extreme measures weren't necessary. It was just liability raising its ugly head...Collin

Regards...Collin

 

[NaH2O]

However why are the red bugs bad? I have some tiny red pods of some sort on my rocks but never knew what they are. They don't seem to cause a problem? Is this what you are talking about

If you link over to the thread I posted in the Advanced Topics forum, you will see what the Red Acro Bugs look like. They are pretty specific to Acropora spp., and are very very small. Currently, it seems no one is quite sure what they do....be it irritating, or harmful. Hobbyists that seem to have issues (some do not), note better coral "health" after the red bugs are eliminated. Since the red bugs issue is debated (benign or harmful), I wanted to get an understanding/try to determine if dosing Interceptor® would have any long term effects. Thanks