red bugs

[kidder]

What is the general concensus on red bugs these days? I have been trying to do some research on them and everything I see is on attempts to eradicte them but nothing on the effects they have other than the odd statement about an acro losing color.
What is the mainstream method for eradicating them? Is it still interceptor? Any known ill effects from the interceptor method?
My big question is just whats the sort of damage they cause.

 

[brandyrb]

I believe they eat acropora or something in acropora that can cause stress. There used to be a video showing the red bugs digging into a coral, but I can't find it now. My personal experience was loss of color and polyp extension. In extreme cases loss of the coral itself.

The red bugs seem to prefer certain types of acropora. My experience with them was they loved my tri-color acros. They also infested my tort and other corals, but the tri-colors were an absolute favorite of theirs. The garf bonsai you got today would be a target. Some people don't have much problems with their acros when they have red bugs, some do.

Here's the original post on red bugs by Dustin Dorton:
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=439155#439155

My experience with treating my whole display tank with interceptor was that I lost all crabs, a lot of pods and a couple of cleaner shrimp. I also assume that it made my sleeper banded goby blind as he would no longer eat and died not long after the treatment. Everything else was fine. I even had a mandarin in the system and he survived too.

I didn't know what red bugs were when we first started and had to treat the whole tank to get rid of them. At the time we didn't have a quarentine system setup for coral. I now treat every new coral I get with interceptor in a quarentine tank to keep my system pest free.

I had to take a frag to the vet that deals with exotic animals at the Garland Animal Clinic in Spokane to get the interceptor. I forget the vets name. I did get charged for a vet visit as well as the meds.

Brandy

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
They are parasites that use some Acropora as hosts. This can cause stress on some of them and in combination with other environmental factors results in loss of color and/or tissue.

Interceptor will blind and even kill some fish while others are unaffected. I have used Interceptor many times but have not found it to be effective long term. The damage to other livestock outweighs its benefits for me. In the seven years I've dealt with them I have never lost a coral due to them. The most impact has been slower growth and a lighter coloration.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[tamarindthai]

i am with ,Kevin

Interceptor will blind and even kill some fish while others are unaffected. I have used Interceptor many times but have not found it to be effective long term. The damage to other livestock outweighs its benefits for me. In the seven years(Dang is 4 1/2 years) I've dealt with them I have never lost a coral due to them. The most impact has been slower growth and a lighter coloration

 

[mattj206]

Treating new coral is the best way to use interceptor, because it won't hurt ur main tank.

If they are in your main tank however - go thru the entire treatment cycle, and it will completely eliminate the bugs forever! -Thats what I have found-

If you don't do all the treatments (something like once a week for three weeks) they will come back and pretty much ruin some acros.(slow growth, poor extension, poor health)

Some people have sucess controling the bugs with those little dragon pipe fish ect????

Oh yea, if you have the bugs, please expilictly warn anyone you trade with to dip and rinse first or quarantine and treat.

 

[kidder]

Oh yea, if you have the bugs, please expilictly warn anyone you trade with to dip and rinse first or quarantine and treat.

I think I have red bugs. Please don't hate me! I feel branded!:lol:

 

[tamarindthai]

I think I have red bugs. Please don't hate me! I feel branded!:lol:

that 's not the end of the world,,if you feel uncomfortable about it treat it..

 

[brandyrb]

I think I have red bugs. Please don't hate me! I feel branded!:lol:

They're pretty common. If they do end up causing harm to your acros and you decide to treat your display, the only way to keep it pest free is to treat all new corals before they are put in the display. That's why I bought a quarentine tank .

 

[Barbie]

Dr. Katie Girsberger at Valley Vet and Dr. Patti Sledge at Peone Pines have both prescribed Interceptor for treating red bugs, also. You'll end up paying a vet visit probably, but once you get the prescription for them you should be set. The stuff isn't cheap, but worth it if you're freaking out about having reef VD. QT tanks can save you SO many issues, in the long run.

Barbie

 

[returnofsid]

The Garland Animal Clinic is also familiar with the use of Interceptor for Red Bugs and will prescribe it for you. As above, you'll pay an initial pet visit.

 

[kidder]

I saw some real old posts on one of the forums about red bugs actually requiring acro's to live and that after a while in the tank with no acros they all died out and the tank became red bug free. Is there any truth to this? If there is how long does it take. I would be much more open to the idea of setting up a quarantine tank and removing all my acros, treating them, and leaving them in a different tank for a period of time.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I saw some real old posts on one of the forums about red bugs actually requiring Acros to live and that after a while in the tank with no Acros they all died out and the tank became red bug free. Is there any truth to this? If there is how long does it take. I would be much more open to the idea of setting up a quarantine tank and removing all my acros, treating them, and leaving them in a different tank for a period of time.

This is false. They do not kill the acros, they seem to feed off what they find in the mucus coating and perhaps irritate some such as tricolors... The treatment is often as bad as the cure. Best to prevent getting the pests in the first place, if already in an established SPS display, it is a coin toss as to whether to treat or not IMO. If the corals can be removed to treat, that works well. Leave the tank empty of acros long enough to starve out those left swimming in the display.
AEFWs are a different story though, and perhaps that is what the thread you had read was about.

 

[kidder]

QT tanks can save you SO many issues, in the long run.

Barbie

You know the funny (not haha! funny) part about this is that I had always thought that the issue with unwanted "bugs" and such came in on live rock and I never really understood why people quarantined frags when they turned around and dumped pounds and pounds of hitchhiker holding live rock into their tanks. Boy do I ever get the message now!

 

[kidder]

This is false. They do not kill the acros, they seem to feed off what they find in the mucus coating and perhaps irritate some such as tricolors... The treatment is often as bad as the cure. Best to prevent getting the pests in the first place, if already in an established SPS display, it is a coin toss as to whether to treat or not IMO. If the corals can be removed to treat, that works well. Leave the tank empty of acros long enough to starve out those left swimming in the display.
AEFWs are a different story though, and perhaps that is what the thread you had read was about.

What you said secondly was what I was getting at - whether you could starve the red bugs into extinction by removing your acros. Is there any other species of corals that they live off of that would also have to be removed?

 

[loohunter]

in my opinion, if you give your corals every opportunity to thrive through good water chemistry, stable params, proper lighting and flow. then red bugs are nothing to worry about. i have seen a few tanks infested with them and the corals are beautiful and thriving, however i guess it does raise the question how well would they be doing without the bugs

 

[returnofsid]

It seems that, for the most part, red bugs are most likely to infest "smooth" polyped Acropora sp. If these can be removed from your system, dipped and QTd, the redbugs in your system should die. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how long you'd have to QT and leave the display Acro free for. I know there's information about this though, because I've read it. Just don't remember the time frame.

I have used Interceptor without any ill effect, BUT, at the time, I had no fish in the system. It was a frag tank that I knew had flatworms and I suspected had red bugs. I never saw any red bugs but wanted to make sure. I used the Interceptor and FWE at the same time. I also used larger than recommended doses and dosed a total of 4 times, throughout 3 weeks. I don't think this was necessary, but didn't want to take any chances...lol.

As mentioned above, several times, I've seen some beautiful tanks that did have red bugs. I don't believe they harm corals. One of the most beautiful tanks I've ever seen belongs to someone who's battled the redbug. In fact, it was the first I'd ever heard of redbugs and after seeing the tank, it could make you wonder if the corals eat them!! LOL

 

[brandyrb]

The extreme cases I was referring to that resulted in loss of the coral, other environmental factors were in play too. We were fairly new to SPS and had swings in our parameters which stressed the frags we lost out and I think the red bugs were just the last straw for them.

The red bugs do stress out acropora though and can result in loss of color, growth and polyp extension. The tiny frag we took to the vet had the bugs everywhere. Other acros just had a few.

I think the time frame to leave your display acro free is mentioned in one of the threads linked to in Dustin Dorton's treatment forum. I would remove all acroporas and treat them.

 

[brandyrb]

Here's a wiki on the red bugs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_acro_bug

Here's another site on the red bugs and treatment: http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

OK, one more thing. I don't know how much success people actually have using the dragon face pipefish, but we tried one and our cleaner shrimp tore it apart. It's a very pretty delicate fish and I was devestated and hated my cleaner shrimp for killing it, so if you decide to try them make sure your system can keep one alive. I know Kevin has some in his big display, but I wouldn't recommend having them with large cleaner shrimp, having tried it.

 

[kidder]

Well, when it comes to reef keeping I am about as conservative as it gets. I believe that less is usually more. That being said I am not yet convinced drastic action needs to be taken - everyone correct me if I am wrong though. If I do anything, and not sure I will, then I will set up a quarantine tank and remove all my acros and treat them in a quarantine tank and leave them out for a month or so - starve the little buggers out. Appreciate all the great input so far.

 

[colleen]

After having fought Acropora Eating Flatworms I gotta say that red bugs just don't seem like that big of a deal in comparison.

I had a few smooth skinned acros that were surviving red bugs okay, but they didn't have very good color or polyp extension and didn't grow much at all. After the interceptor treatment the corals most affected by red bugs colored up and started growing.

To get the interceptor I visited a local vet armed with data from reefcentral.com and a photo of my tank. I even brought her a frag with redbugs on it so she could check them out in person.

Biggest problem I had with the in tank interceptor treatment was that the treatment almost completely wiped out the pod population and my spotted mandarin was really skinny for a while.