Red Bugs - Inevitable?

[NaH2O]

Travis - thanks for posting the pics! I can definately make them out in the second picture. How long after you introduced the milli frag did you notice the red bugs?

 

[racenrich]

travis...great shot...i should see i could post a shot of before and after...on my millie...its a huge difference now!

As for the H20 changes....i have a 55g, 1/2 the size of yours and i only did 10% H20 change after each treatment, giving me about 20gallons total remove for all treatments.

You should be okay on that, also, you may only need one treatment after reading this thread......
HTH

Rich K.

 

[Travis]

Nikki, I've had that frag for about 5 months now. The first time I noticed the bugs was last night. I would say they've been there for at least a week though.

Rich, I would love to see before and after pics of your milli. Thanks for the info on the water changes. I think I should be safe doing 2 treatments with a 25% water change after each one. I was initially thinking of just doing a single treatment after reading Eric Borneman's post but I think I will go ahead and do 2 just to be safe. Might as well make sure I get them for sure. I'm not so much worried about babies surviving in the mother's gut and hatching out as I am with a few bugs possibly surviving the first go around. My buddy donated me some salt so I should be able to start treating this weekend.

 

[Lunchbucket]

hope you can "gett'er done"!! ASAP

Lunchbucket

 

[Travis]

Oh I'll Git 'R' Done alright!!! Thanks for the help.

 

[Lunchbucket]

hey how'd it go? i just put in my 2nd treatment. i'll do a water change about 9:30pm (7hrs later). i upped the dose a little this time as no one that i have talked to has seen harm in a little more. just want to get them w/ 2 doses as i am not doing a 3rd.

my cleaner and 2 emeralds survived the 1st...lets hope they survive the 2nd !!

Lunchbucket

 

[mattseattle]

i didn't even do a water change after my 2nd treatment. i wanted to make sure i got them all and it worked.

i did do a water change about 2 days later. i also ran carbon after about 12 hours.

a few days later my polyps were back and my acros started coloring back up in a week or so.

 

[Travis]

My treatment was successful. First treatment was last Friday. Couldn't find a single bug afterwards. I was able to save my 2 acro crabs and I returned them to their home after the treatment. Mantis shrimp are still "clicking" but I haven't seen my hitchiker crab yet. Pods are still all over the place. I did a 25% water change after the first treatment and added 4 cups of fresh carbon. About 2 days after the treatment I noticed regular polyp extension again in all of the corals that had reduced polyp extension due to the bugs. Several of the worst affected corals have had growth spurts since the treatment. There has actually been a 19% increase in calcification since the first treatment (evidenced by having to increase my daily kalk dosage from 9 liters per day to 11 liters per day to maintain a constant alk). This, of course, could be due to many factors but I would like to believe that the bugs were inhibiting calcification rates of the affected corals.

I just finished the second treatment a couple hours ago. Went to remove the acro crabs again and one of them was gone. I'm assuming it died. Funny thing is I broke a claw off of one of them when removing the the first time. The one-clawed crab was the one that was still alive. After the treatment I went to return the remaining acro crab and it was dead. All I did was removed it from the colony and floated it in a bag of water in the sump for about 8 hours. Man these things die easily. I did another 25% water change and added 4 cups of fresh carbon again.

 

[Lunchbucket]

sorry to hear about your crabs!! but i'm VERY glad you had enough salt to do 2 treatemtns. now neither of us have to worry about them EVER again!!

i'm about 15min away from a 25% water change on the end of my 2nd treatment. i'll add about 1.5-2cups of carbon and change it tomorrow for fresh.

my cleaner shrimp and the one emerald that i SAW were still alive and looked A-OK...lets hope they make it

Lunchbucket

 

[Elmo18]

I did my first treatment today.

Polyp extension already looking better on the acro frag I am observing/watching which had the red bugs.

Will do second treatment soon.

- Elmo

 

[Lunchbucket]

well i ended up loosing my cleaner shrimp out of the whole deal. the two emerald crabs survived. that sucks but at least i won't loose my corals do to those stupid red bugs!!

later
Lunchbucket

 

[Elmo18]

Updated on first treatment. No visible signs of red bugs left, but will do second treatment later this week.

Cleaner shrimp survived first treatment, as well as pods.

- Elmo

 

[mojoreef]

Ok did the first dose today. Three hail Mary's and two Our fathers said!!!!!!!


Mike

 

[NaH2O]

Ok did the first dose today. Three hail Mary's and two Our fathers said!!!!!!!


Mike

Excellent, Mike! Good Luck

I wanted to add some personal observations on some frags I had in quarantine. One of the frags was in a clear container for acclimation, and everytime I disurbed the container, the red bugs would come off the coral and swim to the sides of the container. I was amazed at how quick they would swim back to the coral, and how fast they moved. Anytime I bumped or moved the container they would come off the coral. I guess the point of this post...if you move your coral to try to see the redbugs, you may miss some as they move off the coral or towards the base.

 

[zhenya]

Ok did the first dose today. Three hail Mary's and two Our fathers said!!!!!!!


Mike

Hi Mike,

I had joined 21st Century myself and treated for this buggers couple of days ago- so far so good and I had only lost few commensal crabs in my acro colonies. Since I have a dsb I was worried about nuking it dead but it appears that most things survived.
Good luck and post your personal observations on the results as you see it.

 

[mojoreef]

Nikki I still cant even see the little buggers!, I am going by Erics and Elmos eyes.

Gene you know I really hate joining the 21st century, it was so much nicer in the last one, lol. I ended up putting in three of the 25mg pills. The thought of loosing the commensal crabs is what pisses me off the most, I dont care much for the other crabs or shrimp but those little guys are important. Time to start making some calls to replace them.

Gene/nikki how many dosages are you doing?? and how far apart is the plan??


Mike

 

[reedman]

Keep the updates coming folks. I talked to my vet and she said she'd prescribe it for my tank, so I might be doing this soon too.

Good luck Mike, Nikki, and Gene

 

[zhenya]

Nikki I still cant even see the little buggers!, I am going by Erics and Elmos eyes.

Gene you know I really hate joining the 21st century, it was so much nicer in the last one, lol. I ended up putting in three of the 25mg pills. The thought of loosing the commensal crabs is what pisses me off the most, I dont care much for the other crabs or shrimp but those little guys are important. Time to start making some calls to replace them.

Gene/nikki how many dosages are you doing?? and how far apart is the plan??


Mike

I liked last century much better myself,Mike...I was younger then too... :lol:

I hear you on the commensals, it was tough for me watching them die...I had really large one in my Seriotopora solony that held on for couple of days after treatment but I don't see it now too, probably gone as well. :|

I intend to do another dose after I comeback from vacation( I would do it sooner but I'm living next Tuesday for a week so it'll have to wait untill I comeback). The only way for me to see if I had any success with my initial dose is to take macro shots of corals and I had done it- so far i haven't seen any but it's too early to make a positive statement that they are all gone.

 

[NaH2O]

Mike - since I'm treating the QT, I treated on the first day the frags came in....waited another day, then treated again. This is also what I did on the first shipment of frags I received a month or so ago. I am only doing 2 treatments, since more is known about the bugs. I have also been able to observe the corals pretty closely, and I haven't seen any bugs after the first treatment ended. The second one for me is kind of a "making sure" treatment. The "cure" put out by Dustin, says 7 days inbetween doses, but I think folks are treating sooner than a week for the second treatment.

 

[fishermann]

Mike if it helps at all I did one treatment several months ago and haven't seen any since, My belief is that one treatment is enough if done right, UV off, protein skimmer air lowered so as not to collect any skimmate, carbon and resins removed. I did not do a massive water change either afterwards, I just put carbon back in and some poly pads and did my normal water changes once a week 5%. Corals are back to growing and looking good.