Red Bugs - Inevitable?

[MtnDewMan]

I fixed it

movie

another movie

 

[mattseattle]

yup - works now! thanks!

 

[NaH2O]

Awesome!! Well, not for the coral, but for the information!

 

[mojoreef]

Chuck I put second movie up thier to, can you put that one up also??

Mike

 

[MtnDewMan]

Done, added it to the other post.

 

[Stircrazy]

Can you give more information on the bugs on A. millepora? What other type and how many of Acropora were in that system? i.e how bad was the infestation or how many other potential hosts were available? That is interesting, because I have not seen them go onto this group even when lots were available.

It was a small frag he got from a friend who got it at a local LFS out here, there tanks are infested and they won't do anything about it or tell anyone as they don't believe it is a problem.

but it was a small milli frag non visible under the naked eye but under the scope they were easily visible and there were around 15 or more on it.

Steve

 

[EricHugo]

so, pretty active little guys. I like the one that has its head crammed so far down in the skeleton its posterior lifts off the ground. Also, obviously this coral is pretty well impacted and heavily infested.

I have a hunch that whatever their natural control is in the wild keeps them in check by how visible they become once they have caused this type of pigment loss.

 

[kevinpo]

Very cool video! Thank's for sharing it.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[zhenya]

Very cool video! Thank's for sharing it.

Regards,
Kevin

Very impressive.

Acroporids with enough coenosteum to move around (not the A. millepora type - I suspect they would get eaten).

Eric, it's interesting that you say this. I have a picture where this little bugger is sitting right in the polyp of A.tenuis. Polyp is certainly large enough to get that sucker but it didn't get eaten. I wonder why? Those polyps easily take cyclops( I watched them) but ignore those amphipods....something is wrong with this picture. :lol:

 

[EricHugo]

Well, not really. If you can see in the photo, these guys have lots of hairs on their appendages, and hooks, which are used to tightly grasp onto their coral. You can take a syringe and blast them, and some (caught unaware?) get dislodged, but others, no matter how forceful, stay firmly adhered. This means they can get around prettty well and largely stay out of the reach of the polyps. This is why I mentioned they seem to be found on species with some "walking around" room on the coenosteum. Obviously from the post abotu A. millepora, this may not always be the case - sigh, always exceptions!

In your coral, this is pretty common. I have a hunch, though, that a lot do get eaten and a gut analysis would probably tell the tale I could probably do that if I run across another colony with bugs sometime. I haven't had one to work on in a few months.

 

[zhenya]

Thank you,Eric.

This little buggers are very impressive and I hope some medications will be found soon( less intrusive to the tank as a whole). I have one pill of Interceptor that I've been sitting on for quite some time-sigh, just can't bring myself to nuke all the little bugs and polychaetes in my little tank. So far no bleachings or death of corals and I've been trying very hard to make all other variables as perfect as I can for the corals. I mean water parameters, flow and lighting, running ozone, bla bla. I can certainly say that the growth basically stopped on this A.tenuis(or whatever it may be). I know that I have them on another small colony as well but it grows really well and seem unaffected by the bug presence as far as I can tell. Which isn't much I'm afraid.

 

[mojoreef]

Hey Gene good to se you !!!


Eric you would think that those mites would be getting bombarded aby all those barbed nemotcysts??? lol

Ok getting my flack jacket on



MIke

 

[zhenya]

Hi Mike.

Maybe this amphipods wearing this flack jackets too...?
I was thinking the same thing,btw, why wouldn't they get zapped?

 

[Critter]

Eric,
With the information that you add related to the red bugs's life cycle, I am tempted to do only two whole system treatments instead of the recommended three. Comments??
(I completed the first yesterday with excellent results, cleaners and sally lightfoot seemed a bit stunned, but OK - cleaners went for food last night).
Thank you for your contributions!

 

[marinelife]

Does anyone know anywhere to get interceptor at, my local vets say no

 

[mattseattle]

I'll PM you the information regarding interceptor.

 

[marinelife]

mattseattle - Got some on the way, thank you for the information

 

[Hooked]

I'm doing my first treatment today and am interested to know how many of you have done only one successfully.

I thought 3 treatments were originally recommended as there was uncertainty about the larval stage. Per Eric B this is not an issue, so are 3 treatments necessary?

 

[marinelife]

I only did one treatment about two weeks ago and so far everything is good. Some have told me to do the rest because the bugs can build up resistance to the meds, but I looked at Eric B's thoughts and my tank after one dose and will do a second one again if I see any more.

 

[middletonmark]

That's an interesting question IMO .... as personally I wonder if they could become less susceptible to Interceptor - could single treatments allow a few resistant red bugs to live through it?

Maybe I'm missing something ... but that seems kinda scary possibility to me.