[reefrunner69]

These are on several of my acros, including the ones with no purple on them. Anyone know the latest word? At this point, I'm gonna try the Bio Coral/Coralline AminoAcids by Salifert, but wondering if any other reefers have had success with other products?

[traveller7]

Wow. They do look like mini-Red Planaria. I have not seen any that small but maybe a Salifert Flatworm Exit is in order after someone gets a real critter ident.

Btw: great macro shot

[reefrunner69]

They're not planaria, they are red bugs (acropora parasite copopods).

[traveller7]

Originally Posted by reefrunner69

They're not planaria, they are red bugs (acropora parasite copopods).

May they be gone soon and may I never get closer to them then your posted photos. As you can tell I know little about SPS although I have a few of folks left overs that are doing well.

Good luck.

[Reefland]

Originally Posted by reefrunner69

These are on several of my acros, including the ones with no purple on them. Anyone know the latest word? At this point, I'm gonna try the Bio Coral/Coralline AminoAcids by Salifert, but wondering if any other reefers have had success with other products?

Hey reefrunner69!

I have heard several reports of these, especially late last year but never really heard of anything that would definately get rid of them; doing a 5-10sec freshwater dip was one thing mentioned.

Dr. Shimek states on his site that the small coral fleas do not seem to harm corals but I have heard reports stating just the opposite:
http://www.rshimek.com/odd_critters.htm#Coral%20Fleas
These other reports include a loss of coloration, little to no polyp extension and death to the coral.

Before using the Salifert product, I would ask Habib his thoughts on it; I'll send him an e-mail or Pm and ask his comments.

Regards,
Scott Z.

[zhenya]

Kevin,

Here's a link to really long thread on RC : http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...threadid=39956

FWIW, I had two colonies with this creeps on them and so far I have lost one after about a year and the other one is thriving and growing. I'm not sure if those bugs were direct cause or something else(like my montopra growing big and shading it untill I noticed?). I'm yet to form an opinion on them and I'm not touching my other colony that have them,simply becouse it had encrusted adjacent rock and I don't want to stress it by breaking it off.
BTW, those are some great pictures of this bugs,thanks for sharing them. I don't know why people insist on calling them "red bugs", to me they look orange/yellow(I looked under magnifying glass when I was relocating those colonies and saw them for the first time).

[reefcam]

Kevin,

I've followed the red bug thread for a while and IMO and what I have concluded is they are pests in the aquarium. Do they do hard to SPS? Yes and no. Let me start with the No answer. Now this is based on pure reading and coming up with my own conclusion. But I don't think these bugs are the source of why the SPS are RTN or fading in color. There are many factors in our water that we do not tests which I think could also be a factor to the health of our SPS. The water condition in our tanks fluctuates more than the ocean water, so there are some tolerance the corals has to deal with. So couple the fact that the corals are constantly adjusting to the minor changes in our tank and at times can cause stress to the corals, dead tissues can occur at small spots. Now with the red bugs feeding on dead tissue, they are not helping with reducing the stress at the receding area and only contributing to keeping the coral in a stressful condition. This just reminds me of the time when many reefers believe bristle worms are the cause of their clams death, to later find out that the clam was already dying and the bristle worms are feeding on the dead tissue, while also irritating the good tissues, thus causing the clam to dye sooner than later. So same affect here but with red bugs on SPS.

I don't think they are harmful directly, but too much is not good either. One method of reducing the amount is to point a powerhead direct on the SPS, but you have to surprise the bugs, or they will latch onto the SPS to prevent being blown off.

Too bad a six line wrasse will not pick at them. Dipping the SPS in either fresh water or iodine will only stress your SPS more with 50% success rate. The red bugs are not a bacteria so there will not be any direct affect. But the change in water condition can stress the bug and kill it. But at the same time you are also stressing your SPS.

Hopefully R. Shimek will find a predator for just the bugs.

[Salifert]

At this point, I'm gonna try the Bio Coral/Coralline AminoAcids by Salifert, but wondering if any other reefers have had success with other products?


That stuff was never intended for gettting rid of these parasites.

I know that several have had success using it but also some who did not see any changes.

The reason why it might have worked in some cases is that it supplies some essential substances to a coral of which is known that they get depeleted very fast in a sps/lps coral when it is stressed.

So in the cases in which it has done the trick by getting rid of the parasites might have been due to allowing the coral to remain healthy and fight off the parasites.

I would not expect miracles when using that product for getting rid of the parasites since it was not designed to do so.

HTH

[zhenya]

Hi Habib ,

Nice to see you visit Reefland. FWIW, I use this particular product for about two month now but I did not buy it to use against the "red" bugs. I did notice however improved polyp extension in my Acropora species. Also, after posting last night I had examined closely my remaining colony that had those pests and I could not find any. Do you think that perhaps the corals health had improved sufficiently becouse of your product and that helped in eliminating them or... I'm simply blind and can't see them?

[reefrunner69]

That stuff was never intended for gettting rid of these parasites.

I know that several have had success using it but also some who did not see any changes.

I realize this, and I greatly respect your ethics for posting this, just goes to show why Salifert is such a good company

I am gonna try it, I mean what's the worst that could happen? Better polyp extension and healthier coral that still have red bugs??

Thanks for the response Habib

[Reefland]

Originally Posted by reefrunner69

I am gonna try it, I mean what's the worst that could happen? Better polyp extension and healthier coral that still have red bugs??

Shame on all of us if that was to happen!

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Reefland

Shame on all of us if that was to happen!

Hey hey,I was serious about my observation

[gumhead]

http://www.littlereef.com/redmites.htm

[Reefland]

Hey Dave!

That's an awesome write up you did on your experience, thanks for sharing that!

For those of you that might not read through that page, there is a link on that page to an article written by Greg Hiller:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...03/feature.htm