alindell
Valuable Member
So my journey with these little bugs has been exhausting. It got so bad, at one point I set up another tank just to quarantine a rock with zoa's that had them on it.
I'll preface this by saying everything was doing good until I noticed some montipora species not looking good. I figured oh well not everything will thrive. I gave these montipora species to another reefer who quickly pointed out I had black bugs. I bought interceptor and killed them quickly. Montipora came back happy within a month.
At the same time I noticed my zoa garden not looking good. I figured my angel fish were the problem and yes they do pick on them, but I could tell something else was going on. They looked ticked like something was irritating them. There's a distinct visual difference between an angel fish that picks at polyps and them being irritated by something else. Hard to explain but I knew something evil was in the zoa garden.
I observed the zoa's and noticed these tiny little black specs probably no larger than a pin head moving around on the polyps. I thought I had killed these because the specs were no longer on the montipora and I did, but only on the montipora. I believe these bugs were similar but different bugs. I could easily see the bugs on the montipora, but these black bugs were incredibly small. I knew I had to kill these bugs.
I started by over dosing the recommended amount of interceptor with large pills for 160 the gallons. Did nothing. I then got a 5 gallon bucket and placed the rock with the zoa garden in it and dumped in iodine and crap ton of rx. That did nothing too. I then tried the popular bug killer for lawn and garden. (I can't think of the name of the top of my head), but that didn't work either. I then set up a quarantine tank and overdosed everything I thought would kill them melafix, coral rx, bug killer all at the same time.... Nothing these dang things are invincible. I then went to desperate measures. I did a 5 minute RO water dip and applied hydrogen peroxide directly to the polyps. I went full nuclear war on these things. Well it seemed to kill about 90% of them and killed 90% of my pink diamonds that for some reason we're not affected by the bugs, but definitely couldn't handle the peroxide.
So even after this some still survived. I figured oh well I killed most of them and put the rock back. I'll just have to live with it. The zoa's eventually looked better but are still annoyed. Thankfully these bugs seem to be a zoa specific pest.
On a side note they don't really move from the rock. I observed something interesting, I had a couple zoa's on a frag rack doing good, as soon as I put them on the rock the bugs infested them and started to kill them and the angel fish noticed a dying weak polyp and ate one, so I know its the rock as other zoa's in my tank away from the rock are doing fine.
Recently I felt like really trying to find something that kills them. Tonight I took out the dying frag and looked at it under a magnifying glass. I could definitely see the little jerks. I put the frag into a container with rx and revive for like 30 minutes and they were still alive. I tried directly putting coral rx on the frag out of water... Nothing. I then directly applied revive... Nothing, then the bug killer for weed and lawn and again nothing. Then I applied direct water to the frag and hydrogen peroxide. Even still they survived although I could tell they were feeling the effects. I was out of options and just observed them. After about an hour I noticed they were upset. I squirted some water at them and some came off. I then applied more hydrogen peroxide and eventually after another 30 minutes they appeared to have all died. I'm not exactly sure what killed them. Maybe the peroxide or Maybe the long exposure to the killing agents just set in and took them out. Regardless I checked the frag and could not find one single moving black spec.
It really took a lot. These things are incredibly resilient. Surviving direct exposure to rx, revive and bug killer, to water and hydrogen peroxide. They also survived exposure to ro water and hydrogen peroxide until finally they died. I've never seen a Bug withstand so much.
Anyways that's my rant about these things. They really suck and I don't think I'll ever get rid of them. I even added 3 wrasse to eat them but they are just too small. If someone finds a magic potion to kill these things let me know. I'll pay too dollar.i thought I'd have to get a blow torch to kill them.
.
I'll preface this by saying everything was doing good until I noticed some montipora species not looking good. I figured oh well not everything will thrive. I gave these montipora species to another reefer who quickly pointed out I had black bugs. I bought interceptor and killed them quickly. Montipora came back happy within a month.
At the same time I noticed my zoa garden not looking good. I figured my angel fish were the problem and yes they do pick on them, but I could tell something else was going on. They looked ticked like something was irritating them. There's a distinct visual difference between an angel fish that picks at polyps and them being irritated by something else. Hard to explain but I knew something evil was in the zoa garden.
I observed the zoa's and noticed these tiny little black specs probably no larger than a pin head moving around on the polyps. I thought I had killed these because the specs were no longer on the montipora and I did, but only on the montipora. I believe these bugs were similar but different bugs. I could easily see the bugs on the montipora, but these black bugs were incredibly small. I knew I had to kill these bugs.
I started by over dosing the recommended amount of interceptor with large pills for 160 the gallons. Did nothing. I then got a 5 gallon bucket and placed the rock with the zoa garden in it and dumped in iodine and crap ton of rx. That did nothing too. I then tried the popular bug killer for lawn and garden. (I can't think of the name of the top of my head), but that didn't work either. I then set up a quarantine tank and overdosed everything I thought would kill them melafix, coral rx, bug killer all at the same time.... Nothing these dang things are invincible. I then went to desperate measures. I did a 5 minute RO water dip and applied hydrogen peroxide directly to the polyps. I went full nuclear war on these things. Well it seemed to kill about 90% of them and killed 90% of my pink diamonds that for some reason we're not affected by the bugs, but definitely couldn't handle the peroxide.
So even after this some still survived. I figured oh well I killed most of them and put the rock back. I'll just have to live with it. The zoa's eventually looked better but are still annoyed. Thankfully these bugs seem to be a zoa specific pest.
On a side note they don't really move from the rock. I observed something interesting, I had a couple zoa's on a frag rack doing good, as soon as I put them on the rock the bugs infested them and started to kill them and the angel fish noticed a dying weak polyp and ate one, so I know its the rock as other zoa's in my tank away from the rock are doing fine.
Recently I felt like really trying to find something that kills them. Tonight I took out the dying frag and looked at it under a magnifying glass. I could definitely see the little jerks. I put the frag into a container with rx and revive for like 30 minutes and they were still alive. I tried directly putting coral rx on the frag out of water... Nothing. I then directly applied revive... Nothing, then the bug killer for weed and lawn and again nothing. Then I applied direct water to the frag and hydrogen peroxide. Even still they survived although I could tell they were feeling the effects. I was out of options and just observed them. After about an hour I noticed they were upset. I squirted some water at them and some came off. I then applied more hydrogen peroxide and eventually after another 30 minutes they appeared to have all died. I'm not exactly sure what killed them. Maybe the peroxide or Maybe the long exposure to the killing agents just set in and took them out. Regardless I checked the frag and could not find one single moving black spec.
It really took a lot. These things are incredibly resilient. Surviving direct exposure to rx, revive and bug killer, to water and hydrogen peroxide. They also survived exposure to ro water and hydrogen peroxide until finally they died. I've never seen a Bug withstand so much.
Anyways that's my rant about these things. They really suck and I don't think I'll ever get rid of them. I even added 3 wrasse to eat them but they are just too small. If someone finds a magic potion to kill these things let me know. I'll pay too dollar.i thought I'd have to get a blow torch to kill them.
.
