Red bug question

miztic · #1 07/30/2007, 12:35 AM

Sorry if this has been answered before, I didn't really find anything specific in the search, just how to treat ... anyway, my question:
I came home with a bunch of frags and put them in my QT tank that is a complete reef tank, just no fish, anyway, one of the frags, and only one has redbugs on it, so what do you think, can it wait until tomorrow until i can get interceptor for a dip to treat it? or should i bag the coral now and leave it isolated so it doesn't 'infect' the rest of the tank?

Thanks!

SDguy · #2 07/30/2007, 12:43 AM

Chances are they've transfered to other corals, especially during all the movement of purchase, acclimation,adding to the tank. I would just treat the QT system

Oldude · #3 07/30/2007, 12:55 AM

I agree with treating the qt. Remove any acro crabs if there are any as they will likely not make it.

miztic · #4 07/30/2007, 08:09 AM

This is not a propper coral QT tank, its got way too much life in there that I don't want to kill, including crabs, a hitchhiker pistol shrimp and my mantis shrimp, not to mention the thousands and thousands of pods that i've been carefully 'culturing'.
I would rather setup a separate tank and transfer all susceptible coral in there and treat..

the QT aspect is mainly having a fishless tank so no Ich transfers into my main system, and I can catch redbugs, AEFW and anything else in a much smaller system before it goes into my main tank.
but it is in no way meant to treat anything..

I read that the redbugs starve in 5 days? so with a separate little bb tank, put maybe a couple rocks in there, I can treat that one with interceptor and leave the main tank coral-less for 7 days..

I'd still prefer to dip until no signs are left.. I REALLY don't want to treat the whole tank, its sole purpose is to house inverts..

Thanks for the advice.

Lobster · #5 07/30/2007, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by miztic
I'd still prefer to dip until no signs are left..

You can't rely on a dip for red bugs, since most folks believe the bugs need to be exposed to the interceptor for a prolonged period of time to be effective. From 6-8 hours is usually recommended.

If you can isolate all the corals the bugs may feed on in a separate tank, you can treat there. I'd repeat the treatment at least once (a week after the first) before putting them back in the main tank.

They are very easy to treat for, just be thorough and read up first so you cover all the bases.

miztic · #6 07/30/2007, 09:38 AM

I read the 6-8hr thing, I was thinking I'd put them all in a 10gal or something with a powerhead overnight for the 'dip'

Repeat treatment is also planned yeah, at least one time more a week after there are no more signs is what i figured on..

all your help is much appreciated ..

It just occurred to me that my initial question was "should i pull the infected coral out right away to avoid infecting the others"
I guess the answer is no because they could have already spread anyway, so no point to isolate the coral now..

miztic · #7 08/03/2007, 09:39 AM

Small update

I have no patience for waiting for the interceptor to come in, and figured i'd try to cut down on the numbers of redbugs with a freshwater dip, so I blasted them off the coral.
so the results:
first the bad: the acro has completely bleached and is bright white, I thought it had rtn'ed but i saw polyps last night

the good: no sign of the bugs on it or any other acro in the tank..