Red Bugs & My In-Tank Treatment Journey

[Greg P]

I never found Red Bugs on any of my Acros back in 2012 with my first tank, and swear I never saw any on my Acros back in 2016 in my second tank, but after my tank re-start back in July of 2019 I now have Red Bugs.
During the time from tank shut-down July-2019 and re-start Aug-2019, I did not share any corals from anywhere.
I can only surmise I either had them to start with, or they came from the new LR I purchased.
Or they came from either the Trochus snails or Cleaner Shrimp I bought. Not likely.
I can't blame any vendors as the only wet things that were added to my re-start were some Real Reef Rock, a large troupe of Banded Trochus Snails, and a Cleaner Shrimp.
Let's just assume I had them to start with and never knew about it.

Regardless of where they came from, I now have Red Bugs, and am going to document my journey as I go through it.

Some of the necessary info is repeated below'

First, a friend brought me a bottle of Bayer Complete, so I no longer need to worry about Frags.
Second, I bought some Milbemax for my DT. See below

My Acros have been very lacking in color, almost severely so.
After lights out, I saw my issue ...

Viewing my corals with a flashlight and magnifying glass after lights-out was my first viewing of these pests. During the day they look kinda red-ish. But you can't identify them even with a magnifying glass.
Then a cut acro dipped in Coral rx for about 30mins confirmed it ... I pulled a pest out of the dip and, under a microscope, I saw a copepod with a red head ...

So, now I'll start using some Milbemycin Oxime.
I found some MilbeMax which contains 12.5mg MO and 125mg Prazi in 2 tablets. Others have used the same mix/dog pellets, so away I go.
The recommended dose is 1 x 23mg Large Dog tablet per 400g of tank water.

I have a total of 115 gallons of system volume, so I'll use these 2 pills throughout 3 doses.
This will give me a higher dose than the recommended 5.75mg/100g dose.
Mine will be about 8.3mg but I won't worry about it. Others have dosed higher than this without issues.

I've removed my breeding banded trochus snails and a cleaner shrimp to a QT.
I have no other inverts to worry about, although I've read micro stars survive and hope mine do as well.

My 2 tablets are rated for 400+ gallons, so I've divided the tablets in to 3 doses that I will administer over 3 weeks.

I've started by removing, cleaning and replacing my skimmer cup. I've then installed a hose on my skimmer cup drain to run into the sump and removed the air inlet hose.

I've also added an airstone with air pump to the DT. 4 hours later and my pH is still holding strong @ 8.2 so I'm good to go without the skimmer for a night.

Tonight, @ midnight, I start my first dose, and tomorrow @ noon I'll perform my waterchange.

Then I'll add some carbon (0.8Rox) and wait a week before adding the second dose.

This will be followed by 2 more doses and hopefully it'll be the end of my Red Bugs

Wish me luck !!!

Pills before crushing

After weighing

 

[Tahoe61]

Sounds like a solid plan.

I have used the medication twice, on the second round I was not aggressively doing the recommended water change or charcoal. But that is at my risk.

After treatment increased water clarity was noticeable. Lack of film algae on glass after treatment was cool.

Some experienced a cyno bloom post treatment.

I did see a die off if bristleworm.

 

[Greg P]

Sounds like a solid plan.

I have used the medication twice, on the second round I was not aggressively doing the recommended water change or charcoal. But that is at my risk.

After treatment increased water clarity was noticeable. Lack of film algae on glass after treatment was cool.

Some experienced a cyno bloom post treatment.

I did see a die off if bristleworm.

Already dealing with cyano, so bring it on !!

Thanks for your input

 

[Greg P]

Hope I don't get an AEFW outbreak, but as far as I can tell, I have none in my tank.
I've read others having this issue after treating with Intercepter.

I hope it's an issue where the pods kept the flatworms at bay, and I have none.

I hope my micro brittle stars survive, and my baby banded trochus snails
I'll re-populate my copepods.
I don't have any amphipods or isopods to worry about.

Fingers crossed my baby trochus snails survive as they are everywhere in the DT and sump

 

[Greg P]

Countdown to dosing the system;
T minus 4 Hours

I'll report back tomorrow afternoon after the Water Change

I'm out ...

 

[Greg P]

12 hours post-dose #1 and everyone looks fine, even the trochus snails I couldn't initially find.
I've done a 25% WC and added 1 cup of GAC in a bag in the sock. I'm not interested in re-installing a reactor as I never use them anymore.

Not 1 Red Bug is visible !!!

Pre-dose very visible bugs

Post dose for color reference. Hopefully my acros will color up now !! They were much more vibrant last summer.

I'll upload more pics in a week after dose #2

 

[Greg P]

I missed the pics after dose #2. Daytime polyp extension mildly improved back then.
Here we are 5 days after dose #3 and daytime polyp extension is definitely improving.

 

[Greg P]

I think the most notable improvement has been my Green Hulk
Day 1 and Day 19

 

[Greg P]

I'm watching almost daily for signs of AEFW and am happy to report that so far there are no signs.
I'm hoping that, while this has happened to others in the past, I never had any to begin with.

 

[pharazon]

Any update?

 

[SuncrestReef]

I discovered red bugs in my tank last year. I added a couple of dragonface pipefish which are known to feed on red bugs, but they didn't eradicate them. Because I don't have any easy way to remove my pistol shrimp from the tank without completely tearing apart my aquascape, I didn't want to go the Interceptor route.

Now, over a year later, I still have red bugs, but to be honest they haven't done any noticeable damage to my corals. The infected SPS colonies are still growing and thriving, with good coloration and polyp extension, so I've just learned to live with the red bugs.

Here's a macro video I shot of the red bugs in action in my tank:

 

[Greg P]

Any update?

All is good. No return of bugs and my corals are much happier.
The copepod population rebounded within a month

 

[pharazon]

All is good. No return of bugs and my corals are much happier.
The copepod population rebounded within a month

Really glad to hear that!

 

[SHNICI]

All is good. No return of bugs and my corals are much happier.
The copepod population rebounded within a month

Do you got any impact on the ammonia? Cus that interceptor like I know take advantage and over the bacterias in your tank. Do you notice something or ?

 

[Greg P]

Do you got any impact on the ammonia? Cus that interceptor like I know take advantage and over the bacterias in your tank. Do you notice something or ?

I did not notice anything, but I did not test ammonia either

 

[cperry7467]

Reviving this from the dead just to share my experience so far. I suspect I have red bugs but very hard to confirm. I have 1 colony that has lost color and started to peel over the past couple of weeks. I saw what appeared to be small dots of this coral and another which is why I believe it's red bugs. The interceptor treatment seems pretty low risk soi decided to give it a try.

I have peppermint shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, hermit crabs and a large amount of bristle worms. Catching the shrimp would be close to impossible so I took my chances. My system is probably 180 gallons so I am using half of a large pill of Interceptor Spectrum Chew. Yesterday I mixed it with water and poured it in to the tank around 5pm. I looked in the tank during lights out to see how the bristleworms were doing and they were out crawling around like normal. My shrimp and crabs seem fine as well. It's now 11am, 18 hours after the first dose and there have been no adverse effects from what I can see. My carbon is offline, UV is offline, filter socks are in and skimmer is running with the plug out so nothing is removed. I am going to wait 24 hours and then run carbon.

I'm not sure I understand the point in a water change though. If I understand correctly the prazi and Milbemax are only active for up to 72 hours, so that combined with carbon should eliminate it. Is the water change just to deal with nutrients from die off? I might skip the water change since my nutrients are low anyway.

 

[Oshanickreef]

Hey I am noticing red bugs in my system. Need to dose asap. Was wondering which to get Interceptor or Milbemax?
min calling the vets tomorrow. Hoping they can hook me up with something to kill these pests! I have lost 10 baseball or larger sized acro colonies and I’m pretty sure this is why.

 

[Oshanickreef]

Reviving this from the dead just to share my experience so far. I suspect I have red bugs but very hard to confirm. I have 1 colony that has lost color and started to peel over the past couple of weeks. I saw what appeared to be small dots of this coral and another which is why I believe it's red bugs. The interceptor treatment seems pretty low risk soi decided to give it a try.

I have peppermint shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, hermit crabs and a large amount of bristle worms. Catching the shrimp would be close to impossible so I took my chances. My system is probably 180 gallons so I am using half of a large pill of Interceptor Spectrum Chew. Yesterday I mixed it with water and poured it in to the tank around 5pm. I looked in the tank during lights out to see how the bristleworms were doing and they were out crawling around like normal. My shrimp and crabs seem fine as well. It's now 11am, 18 hours after the first dose and there have been no adverse effects from what I can see. My carbon is offline, UV is offline, filter socks are in and skimmer is running with the plug out so nothing is removed. I am going to wait 24 hours and then run carbon.

I'm not sure I understand the point in a water change though. If I understand correctly the prazi and Milbemax are only active for up to 72 hours, so that combined with carbon should eliminate it. Is the water change just to deal with nutrients from die off? I might skip the water change since my nutrients are low anyway.

Update? How are your shrimp? Also how did you get the meds? From the vet?

 

[cperry7467]

The shrimp were fine, no issues. I ordered it from some Canada pet care site. It's the chewables but worked great, no problem.

 

[Oshanickreef]

So I just wanted to share my experience. I dosed interceptor spectrum for my 150 gallon. I dosed enough for about 200g. Removed my red serpent star, some snails, my urchin, anemones and two pipefish (I figure they are safer in an established tank). Before dosing I had bugs on most acros and some montis. After 5 hours of treatment I hurt my eyes trying to find red bugs. Pretty sure they are gone. I had a poly filter in the tank I forgot about but removed it after 1.5 hours treatment. I don’t think that mattered much tbh. PE is more present already. Corals look happier and I also look and feel much better knowing they are gone. After 6 hours of treatment I turn on my carbon reactor with fresh carbon. I noticed some bristle worm death around that time too.
12 hours after treatment began I did a 30 gallon water change and siphoned 1/8 the sandbed (all I had room to siphon). I noticed lots of pods acting completely normal as well around this time. So maybe there is hope for the pods! Yay!

definitely glad I don’t have to worry about the red bugs. They are toast!