New acropora bug resitant to any dip interceptor flatworm exit,

[jhuntington12]

i too have these guys on a few of my acros. anyone found an ID for them yet?

 

[305Reefer]

i too have these guys on a few of my acros. anyone found an ID for them yet?

They are blackbugs.. Only 2 people I found have beat them, most people loose everything if they dont cut down their reef to tiny frags and use Revive at 4x dose. Someone mentioned minimum 8 minutes and that worked for me. But it also seriously hurt or killed all the smooth skin and deep water acros.. Tenius and other more textured acros had no problems and bugs were gone.. They did eventually come back but I believe in my case its from my frag (QT tank) where I placed the frags being plumbed in-line to my main display.. Thats why I went the interceptor route.. At this point I already chopped all my corals down to tiny frags and tossed the bases and parts that were hurt so I have little to loose..

 

[305Reefer]

If you have two SPS ready systems I think its possible to do a tank transfer method to get rid of them.. That said most people dont have two SPS ready systems they are willing to infect with such a virulent bug. These things are NASTY. They kill acros fast and have almost made me quit sticks altogether..

 

[305Reefer]

I also heard that the fallow period for black bugs is closer to 6 months. Which is kinda crazy they can live that long without their favorite food and makes me think they can atleast subsist on other food sources..

 

[jhuntington12]

I also heard that the fallow period for black bugs is closer to 6 months. Which is kinda crazy they can live that long without their favorite food and makes me think they can atleast subsist on other food sources..

Thanks for the update.

I did notice them eating one of my acros and with a few daily dips of revive and moving this acro to a different spot on a frag tray - it was able to recover.

Now I have another acro out of nowhere starting to recede and have spotted these guys on it. Seems they like the books and crannies of the old ceramic plugs. Hoping I can move everything off this rock that they will die off.

Any known predators? I have wrasses but was thinking of a pipe fish to potentially help? Fingers crossed.

 

[305Reefer]

I dont want to scare you, but be very scared. These things are monsters and tank killers. They make AEFW look like a walk in the park. They always come back, dipping once in revive will not kill them.. It will take the ones on the surface and let you baste them off in the dip. But inside the nooks and crannies they are laying eggs and still alive.. I dipped mine in 3x revive and they lasted 30 minutes before they died. 4x did kill them in about 6-7 minutes.. judging death by when they stop moving..

Someone I trust warned me ahead of time. As soon as I knew what they were I decided to take down my tank immediately. I cut all my colonies, cut frags, dipped in 4x revive for 8 minutes and placed in QT. Threw all the colonies in the trash (heartbreaking) and I still haven't beaten the bugs two months later. I found the dip gives me a month of them not injuring my corals, but they always come back. Luckily when they come back, they come back slow. When they are in a display they reach a quantity where they basically bloom and grow exponentially and when it gets to that point I believe they can kill even a large colony in 2-3 weeks and will kill mini colonies in just a week.

 

[CoralWealth]

man those things are making my skin crawl and makes me never want to buy another frag again haha.

Good luck with those, wish you the best!

 

[Devin Walters]

I have these, I’ve tried Bayer dips everyday for a week for 30min. Did nothing, I treated the entire tank with interceptor 4 treatments one a week. Still alive, just started treating the tank with dr.g’s to see what it does. I’m to the point of breaking the tank down and starting over, these dang things won’t die.

 

[305Reefer]

I have these, I’ve tried Bayer dips everyday for a week for 30min. Did nothing, I treated the entire tank with interceptor 4 treatments one a week. Still alive, just started treating the tank with dr.g’s to see what it does. I’m to the point of breaking the tank down and starting over, these dang things won’t die.

I dont think its how many times you do the intereceptor, its how strong the dose is... Although im just hypothesizing at this point. I did a 4x dose this last time. I saw them on my corals still but they weren't moving at all... and when i basted them they vanished... making me think they were actually dead or just extremely stunned... Im going to wait 7-8 days and then try a 5x dose...zero effects to the rest of the tank except nuking every dang pod in the tank.. brittle stars, snails all ok.. I removed my hermit crabs, emerald crabs, and a pistol shrimp.. I couldn't catch them all.. A few emeralds died, a few hermits died.. but a few of each also survived and were just walking around in a daze for a few days.. When i did the water change, started skimming again, and added fresh carbon they all went back to normal and recooperated.

 

[305Reefer]

Dr. G's and interceptor are the same thing. Milbemycin Oxime one is just dissolved in a liquid vs being put in a pill or beef flavored chewable. lol I used the Interceptor plus which has prazi in it too... figured I might as well treat my fish at the same time..

 

[Cnidoblast]

Has anybody ever tried diflubenzuron?

 

[3mm3]

@305Reefer , I may have missed it but do you have a magnified image of this pest?

 

[Backreefing]

I’m a new guy at sps buuut has anyone tryed copper sulfate? There is a sweet spot that kills all- most pests and doesn’t kill the corals . I read about it J Sprungs volume 1 and JSprung said it takes high quality testing kits to get the ppm just correct and you gotta be good at it .
I’m still learning with sps , I’ve been lps and softies until this year so that’s my 2 cents
Sheesh if the tank is gonna die anyway then what do you got to lose . I’m not buying any more acropora this scars me .

 

[305Reefer]

@305Reefer , I may have missed it but do you have a magnified image of this pest?

I have weakly magnified images of it..


More videos of them on my chanel.

 

[Monkeytank]

I know it's not the flatworms, but have you tried Purge from Underwater Creations Inc, the people that make Vibrant? https://www.uwcmn.com/product-page/...a-eating-flatworm-treatment-pre-order-special