Red bugs!

buzzword

Member
Well I wondered why my Acroporas didn't have the polyp extension that I see at a couple of my LFS. So I got into a discussion with one of my expert LFS guys and he showed me some red bugs that he was treating his acros for. They are very tiny and hard to see but I finally saw them. He said that this was probably my problem and gave me some Interceptor to take home and dip my acros in.
So I get home and pull out the magifying lens and low and behold red bugs all over my acros! They like the smooth stem acros. My milli, abrotanoides, and robusta do not have them and have good polyp extension.
I am going to dip all other acros right now. Interceptor is for heart worms in dogs and can only get it from a vet. If treated in display tank it will kill all inverts, pods, and possibly good biology, so i am going to dip the acros.
I will let you all know how it goes later today. If you have trouble with polyp extension on your acros look for tiny, pinpoint orange spots moving on your acros, that is red bugs.
 

dburr

Active Member
You are better off doing the whole tank 2 or 3 times at 1 week apart. Just remove hermits and shrimps. Snails and pods will be fine, well some pods will die but not all. I can get you a whole bunch of info if you want. Dose per gallon, how long, what to do after.
The thing with dipping is, you won't get them all. Some will be on rocks, eggs are lying around, ect. They will just repopulate your tank. I dosed my tank twice 10 days apart. That was almost a year ago, still no bugs. :cheer:
LMK, Dan
 

buzzword

Member
dburr, thanks for the link. I had seen that. I had heard all pods and stuff die too. I am just concerned that if I dose whole tank I may get a crash. I will see how this goes and if not well then dose whole tank. I have a mandarin and 4 shrimp and don't want to tear the tank apart just yet. Thanks again for the info and help.
 
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