[EricHugo]

Bomber - I have sent samples out to two bug experts. It may be awhile, but we will have a formal description when they are finished.

My weekend experience consisted of using 100ml of tank water with each of six pilot trials and very small infested fragments to see if any were worth further and better tests.

1. 0.5g Boric acid mixed into the seawater for 10 minutes
2. Epsom Salt mixed to 35ppt for five minutes
3. 0.5 g Epsom salts for ten minutes
4. About 1/4 teaspoon permethrin product (Rid, Nix) in seawater for five minutes
5. Hydrogen peroxide - 1 capful for ten minutes
6. full strength hydrogen peroxide for one minute.

Questions - does it kill the amphipods and does it kill the coral

At first, it seemed as though the permethrin and the full trength short H2O2 were the best, but four days later, both H2O2 treatments have really wrecked the corals. The Boric Acid was the most heavily infested, and the treatment seemed to cause the bugs to remain attached but most dead. The coral tolerated this well, but some bugs still remain. It definitely knocked out a lot of them. The epsom salts are somewhat effective, but some bugs still remain and coral seems stressed. The big surprise was the permethrin. After reading the ingredients of the product, I thought this could be basically flea spray. Also, the surfactants gave me pause, but soap immobilizes and kills fleas pretty well, although generally has a bad effect on corals, too. As it turned out, the fragments dipped in the product tolerated the product well and killed all the amphipods.

So, this week we are going to expand the boric acid and permethrin treatments to be a little more controlled and varying the times and concentrations on a number of species.

It's not that I don't like the idea of Interceptor. I don't like the idea of treating tanks, and if it reallyis effecttive, this means it is also effective against all the other small crustaceans, and being an antihelminth, also make me wonder about its effect on polychaetes etc. Now, quarantine treatment is a different subject.

Finally, as mentioned, the reason that some of us are standing up and paying atttention is as mentioned...just because some group of hobbyists yell fire, doesn't mean its really a fire. I'm sure I could list a couple hundred similar "myths" that turned out to be nothing. And, we don;t all have time to just drop everything in our lives and launch into background research and trials everytime there might be a problem. In fact, if this didn't show some importance to the hobby because of frag trading and they were just an occasional but unidentified symbont, like a specialized nudibranch, I still wouldn't care too much. Also, it takes some personal experience with them to draw any sort of postulates about them. No offense, but hearing reports third or fourth hand from John who said Frank who said "Sally's husband had them in the tank and they killed everything" makes me wince rather than be curious. So, if I might join in the group hug, it sure would feel good. Alternately, I guess, we can all just go away and forget about it since we are so slow on the draw. ;-)