Successful Red Bug Treatment!

I am happy to say that I just finished the interceptor treatment for red bugs. They are officially gone. I treated 3 times, with a week in between each treatment. They were gone within 5 hours of the first treatment. Here are some pics!

Initial


1 Hour:



2 Hours:



3 Hours



4 Hours:



5 Hours:



Not a red bug in sight!! ;D

 

Congrats! How does everything look? Any adverse side effects? Comments, suggestions for others?

 

Everything looks great. Acro's are regaining color. I had some acro's that I got for free but don't know what they are. I posted pics but people couldn't ID most of them. Hopefully I will find out once they fully color back up. Here is what I did:

I used the recommended dosage of 0.025 grams per 10 gallons. I have about 40g in my system so I used 0.10 grams per treatment (I used an analytical balance in the lab I am working in). I had the skimmer taking in only water (no bubbles) during the treatments. I kept the GFO running the whole time. 12 hours after adding the interceptor, I did a 25% water change. I did the treatment 3 times in 1 week intervals. I couldn't catch the crustaceans. Most were alive after the 2nd treatment (the hermits did not make it). Most of them are always hiding (pom pom crab, porcelain crabs, even the emerald hides) and I have not spotted them after the 3rd treatment. This is probably not a bad thing because if they were dead they would no longer be hiding... I hope. The fire shrimp is still alive, but acted very strange during the treatments. He usually hangs out in the dark/shade, but he came out during the treatments. The pistol shrimp was also alive after the 2nd treatment. I am actually home from college for winter break (tank is at school), but I might be going back up tonight to check on everything and to make top off.

My recommendation to others is that you follow these directions, as they worked perfectly for me and didn't hurt anything besides those poor hermits. Try and catch the crustaceans. Red bugs can live for 4 or 5 days without acro's, so if you keep the crustaceans out for the duration of the treatment, and reintroduce them 3 weeks later, you will not be reintroducing the red bugs.

Also, many people have a hard time dissolving the interceptor. I did not. I have read NOT TO MICROWAVE the interceptor. What I did was I took the pill, put it in a ziplock bag, put a magazine on top of the bag, took a hammer, and crushed up the pill. I then weighed it and put it in vials (0.10 grams in each). I stored them in a dark drawer at room temperature. When I was ready to do a treatment, I took a vial and poured it into a cup of RO/DI. I stirred it with a plastic knife and rinsed the vial with some more RO/DI (to get out any powder left over in the vial). The interceptor dissolved almost instantly. I slowly poured the solution into a high flow area of the tank.

Also, if you do not have a scale to weigh it out, here is what you do. Go on your computer, go to google, search for a scale, then buy one. Simple as that. Think about how much you spend for your acro's, how much they have grown, and how much they are worth. Think about how much you love them. Then think about those poor crustaceans. Is it worth the cost of a scale? Here is a scale for $12.50. There you go!

1 pill (for 51-100lb dogs) is more than enough for the whole treatment (depending on your tank size). I think I read that 1 pill treats 400 gallons? Just go with 0.025 grams per 10 gallons. I will be setting up a quarantine tank (hopefully) and will be closely watching corals before I add them to my DT. It is much easier to treat corals that are not in a DT. If everyone had a quarantine, then people would stop getting these pests. I have actually been selling frags lately to try and support some of these costs for this expensive hobby. I do not want to sell corals that are infested with pests! Quarantineee!!!

Sorry this post got so long lol. Hope it is helpful

 

Nice documentation.

Did you notice a favorable response in other acropora that showed no systems? They sure like the smooth skin, but all my acropora and sps like stylo responded favorable to the treatment with better colors and pe.

It was just a relief to have the RB gone in the long run for not much of a head ache. Treating flatworms and nudibranchs is a nightmare compared to RB.

 

It is hard to tell with acro's that were in good shape even before the treatment.. It is hard to tell just yet. My two stylo's were doing very, very well before the treatment, and probably couldn't get any better lol. The unknown acro in the pictures has much better polyp extension, and a few others have colored up. My red planet seems to have a significant new growth. I try to take a pic of every coral in my tank because it is cool to look back and see the growth. If I see any significant improvements in other acros, and even other corals, that seemed fine even before, or if I see anything that really surprises me, I will be sure to post some pictures! Wow that was a long and probably grammatically incorrect sentence!

I have heard that interceptor can sometimes improve other types of coral as well. Unfortunately many other parasites aren't visible to the naked eye.. Interceptor obviously was not developed to treat red bugs, but it works. The thought is that interceptor can kill other parasites as well. This is probably what happened with your stylo! All I have to say is thank god for interceptor and the person who thought of using it to treat fish tanks!

I am determined never to have to deal with that kind of nightmare! At least in my DT!

 

How was the effect on your inverts, you mentioned the crabs went into hiding and your shrimps reacted weirdly? I have to do a dosage and am worried about my shrimp, i got blood, peppermint, and harlequin. Im thinking to throw them in my other tank while i do the dosage for a few weeks.

 

Definitely pull your shrimps if you can. I have a CBS that for the life of me, I could not remove. Acted weird for a few days, but is still fine. Crabs were decimated on the other hand. I was only able to remove a handful before treatment.

Also, cold shock works as a great treatment as well. Dropping the temp to about 65 works pretty well.

 

I mean remove them if you can catch them. Mine seemed to do fine. My shrimp and most crabs survived.

Haven't heard this! There is little risk to corals with the interceptor treatment, and its very easy. I would be scared (for my corals) to drop the temp!

 

Update! Here are my two biggest improvements. These were the most affected/damaged corals by the red bugs. I didn't even know what they were. I now think the first is some type of turaki, and the second is possibly a tricolor valida. Here are the before/afters:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:


All of my hermits died. All other crabs (that weren't targeted by my wrasse) lived. All shrimp (fire shrimp and pistol) lived. Copepod population quickly reestablished. All I have to say is ;D

 

Congrats!