Who dosed twice or 3 times? (red bugs)

[Reeftanker3295]

I just dosed interceptor for my red bug problem (thanks Josh!) and it just finished the 6 hour cycle and I did a water change just now. I have a question about this interceptor though, who dosed it more than once? The reason I am asking is because I heard they found out that red bugs are live bearers and do not lay eggs. All of the red bugs are gone from my tank, along with the pods...
Do you guys dose for safety again or just dose once?

 

[prattreef]

Where did you hear that about red bugs? Anyway, you really should do a 2nd treatment in a week. as they do seem to come back. A 3rd treatment isn't needed. IME

 

[Josh]

I did 3 treatments a week apart and they were all gone.

But guess what, they came back 6 months later! If you are adding any corals to your tank you are going to get them over and over IMO. Just be prepared to treat every 6-12 months once or twice. Also I've switched over to a mix of snails for my cleanup crew instead of hermits as the hermits are usually gone after the treatment.

Also, IMO, it doesn't really hurt to wipe out a good portion of the microfauna every once in a while as long as you are doing water changes afterwards and/or running your skimmer pretty heavily. Having pods have to repopulate every now and then seems to keep the tank "challenged" to build up any heavy detritus or mulm. Of course, you can't do this with your tanks that have pod eaters, i.e. mandarins.

 

[prattreef]

I found the Borneman reference to Tegastes sp. being live bearers. I didn't know that, but my observation remains unchanged. Even after one prolonged ( 12hr.) treatment at higher than recommended dosages, the bugs come back again. At least a 2nd treatment is recommended. and I agree with Josh, they will come back down the road.

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Ok I will definitely do the next treatments then. I plan to interceptor dip any new acros now.

 

[ming]

IME, 1 treatment is definitely not enough. But even so, if you buy corals down the road, unless you can have a separate system for your newly purchased frags, and also treat it 3 times, you're bound to get it back again. I actually stopped purchasing hermits because of that reason, but I still like shrimps in my tank unfortunately. Everytime I see the red bugs, I have to try catch the shrimps or risk them dying from the treatments which has gone both ways

 

[duke62]

isnt there a dip to prevent red bugs from getting into the DT

 

[batt600]

I did one treatment but i caught it when it first started havent had them sence.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

isnt there a dip to prevent red bugs from getting into the dt

nope

 

[Reeftanker3295]

isnt there a dip to prevent red bugs from getting into the DT

No, the dips do not kill red bugs.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

I would do 2x times to make sure, i know alot of people dont do 3x because scarded of killing shrimp and hermits

 

[Reeftanker3295]

Yea I actually couldn't get my shrimp out yesterday and had to dose and hope for the best. He's ok today though.

 

[duke62]

if interceptor kills red bugs why cant u use that as a dip?

 

[Reeftanker3295]

if interceptor kills red bugs why cant u use that as a dip?

That's what I was saying I am going to do haha
I am saying none of the pre-made dips (coral ReVive) kill them.

 

[James404]

There is actually a very good thread going on in the SPS forum of RC now regarding the use of Bayer insect spray as a prophylactic dip. It is still somewhat in the experimentation phase but so far the results have been very good. It has been shown to kill all red bugs and AEFW with a 15 minute dip!! The stressing of the corals has been very minimal.

 

[garys reef]

any pics on red bugs

 

[Josh]

if interceptor kills red bugs why cant u use that as a dip?

Yes you can do that. I use the 2.5mg pills, cut them in half, grind up one half and mix it in a small container with the frags and corals I buy. After an hour all the live bugs are dead. You can't do much about any eggs that might be on them (that is why you will most likely be dosing again in 6-12 months).

Also I put 2 drops of flatworm exit in there as well.

 

[duke62]

See im just getting into sps i always had softies and lps so this is all bew for me.i guess im saving my coin to buy multiply frags so i dont have to waste the inteceptor