Red Acro Bugs

[Brian5000]

I took a close look at my acopora frag and saw that it was completely dead (it never really had much color, so it was harder to tell). When I took a closer look at it, I found it was covered in red acro bugs. I removed it, and I'm not that concerned at this point since it was the only acropora in my tank.

Questions about red bugs:

I'm not sure that the frag was the healthiest to begin with. Are these red bugs predacious killers or just opportunistic scavengers?

Since their only food source is now gone, do I still need to treat the tank? Or should I be fine just waiting a few months (my budget won't really allow any new purchases anyway).

For future additions, what should I do? Breif freshwater dip? Iodine dip?
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Singapore Forum

 

[Anonymous]

If you don't have any other acros in the tank, you don't need to do anything. If you don't have any shrimp, or you could remove them easily, you could treat your tank with interceptor now and not need to wait months to add more acros. However, if you don't plan on adding any additional acros it won't be necessary.

I dip incoming acros in iodine, but its debatable whether that does much for red bugs. In any event, it likely won't get rid of all red bugs that may be on a coral.

There is info about the interceptor tank treatment here:
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=45859

 

[TIDALZONE]

I dip with tropic marine pro coral cure at a 3x strenghth works great at killing any on coral when being qurintined but i think any new addition should be dipped as these guys can hitch hike on anything.

 

[Brian5000]

Thanks for the responses
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Honda Prelude

 

[Jakets]

I have dipped every piece in TM Pro coral cure since it's been on the market. Not a 3X the strength but I'm now dealing with a red bug outbreak. After I do the 3 treatments I'll be dipping everything new in interceptor

J

 

[das75]

Would think if your tank is acro free beyond the life cycle of the bug you don't have to treat the tank. Guess question is how long will they'll live without the corals.

As Interceptor seems to be the accepted cure for Red Bugs, seems a dip in Interceptor for new additions prior to adding to display would be the way to go. Details here: http://www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

Hey Jakets, joined 2002 and here's your first post?