Interceptor Treatment - Our Experience Day 1

[Reefland]

I thought I would post a thread documenting my experience with using Interceptor as a treatment for the all too common red acro bugs. Our camera is not powerful enough to pick up pictures of these tiny bugs but here is a picture taken by zhenya that shows them pretty well:



Several months ago I noticed the red specs on a couple of our frags:
A. nana
A. tortuosa
A. valida
A. sp.

Like that last one huh? Of these, the ones affected the most are the A. valida and the unidentified sp.; to the point the A. valida is about gone and the unidentified sp. is receeding at the base. For all others listed above, we have noticed declined coloration and virtually no polyp extention on any of the these corals. Other coral frags in our tank that are unaffected are A. pulchra, A. formosa, A. youngei, 4 different variations of A. millipora, 3 different variations of M. digitata, 4 variations of M. capricornas.

The A. nana frag that we have is being used as my test specimen if you will. This frag has not shown any tissue recession but has a very obvious pale coloration. To prove the bugs were the impact on this frags coloration, I used a turkey baster to blow them from the coral on a couple of occassions and although it worked temporarily, the bugs always returned. During the few days the bugs were significantly reduced from the frag after using the baster, purple coloration would begin to return noticably but then pale out again as the population increased.

We decided to acquire some Interceptor to use based on the research done on the products use in the marine aquarium for this purpose. Here is a detailed thread on Reefs.org that talks more about the testing performed initially and the recommended dosing and actions to follow:
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=45859

Tonight at 7:30pm, we added our first dose of interceptor to our reef. We cut a tablet in 1/4th and used on of the pies for our tank. Once the tablet was cut, I ground it into a powder and let it dissolve in a cup of tank water for about 30 minutes, stirring it often to help it dissolve. Once dissolved, the water was poured into our tank with everything running, only cutting the air to the skimmer to make sure the medication wasn't removed through foam fractionation. From the time the medication was added, there was no noticable impact to anything in the reef. The water did not cloud at all, polyps were extended on all unaffected corals and the fish continued business as normal.

As of 10:30 when the lights went out, I could still see the bugs on the A. nana frag, but it was expected per the write up in the link above. I plan to do a very small water change tonight but at this point, I think I will wait until the morning. We do not have a sand bed and therefore have a reduced population of pods that would be affected by the medication so I am not concerned at all with die-off. First thing in the morning I will check out the tank in depth and see what kind of bugs we see on the corals.

Stay tuned for updates on our Inteceptor experience.

[Samper]

Just for reference and I don't know if my spelling is correct but their scientific name is something like Tegastes acroporanus. A marine science major at USC was very adament to me about using it since he claims he took the time to collect a few and send them to someone for an ID. I don't know how reliable that information is or who he sent them to though.

[golfish]

Scott,
I think that if the tank has a DSB loaded with critters that are killed during the treatment then and only then is a WC needed....I've no expert with this stuff but I have dumped it in a few times with no harm done at all. I don't have any sand in my tanks, plus I was only able to count about 3 reds bugs in the tank.

So how are things this morning?

Mark

[Reefland]

We performed a water change very early this morning, just a small 5 gallon change. After observing the tank throughout the night, I determined that I would do the water change not because of the Interceptor treatment but because I got a notification from my log that one was due. Basically after the treatment, I observed no need for a water change to be done other than it was time to be done. I agree with Marks statement above, a water change is probably not necessary for tank that don't incorporate live sand beds and have a ton of fauna from the sand bed.

This morning after gazing into the tank, I can only see 1 red bug on the unidentified A. sp. and it appears to be hanging by a this thread. What I mean is that the bug doesn't appear to be crawling on the coral, only loosly hanging to it as I can see it blowing around with the current.

The first dose may have been 100% effective, at least to the naked eye.

[Samper]

Are you using a mesoscope to observe or a large magnifying glass? I bought a big nice glass from the book store and it works just fine but I'd love to own the scope. Do you know who where you got them from? If so I'd warn them cause when I was in SC almost every member of the club down there had been or was infested due to all the trading going on.

[Poseidon]

YAY!!!

Glad to hear it was effective! Nice how those little critters pick the the A. Tortusa as a host! That particular coral is one of the most expensive I have seen!

[Reefland]

Are you using a mesoscope to observe or a large magnifying glass? I bought a big nice glass from the book store and it works just fine but I'd love to own the scope. Do you know who where you got them from? If so I'd warn them cause when I was in SC almost every member of the club down there had been or was infested due to all the trading going on.

Samper,

I am not sure where they came from exactly, and with the amount of people affected by them I would say it could have been from trading or purchasing from a store. It's been a while since I've ordered any frags online.

Day 3 Update:

No noticable negative effects on anything in the tank except for the red bugs from our first treatment. All of the time I have observed that tank today I have seen 1 bug that appeared to be alive moving around on one of the effected corals. Becuase of this, I will perform a second treatment next Friday in order to make sure they are gone for good. I don't anticipate a 3rd treatment being necessary.

[golfish]

good to hear Scott.......

[stephane]

Any update please?

[Reefland]

We ended up with 2 treatments of Interceptor with no negative effects and no signs of red bugs.

[stephane]

I did one treatment tonight

thank you all

[Reefland]

It's really pretty harmless to do, at least in a tank without a DSB. My tank is bare-bottomed which may have made the process easier.

[stephane]

Yeah mine to is bare botom to

24 houre after some of my hermit crab did it some dont.

I also have a purple linkia it is still alive does the interceptor atack the star?

How long after the treatment I should start my skimmer and ozone again?

And how long between my other treatment?

thank you

[zhenya]

Sorry folks for resurecting this thread but I figured I'll post my experience as well with the Interceptor.

I administered first dose yesterday at 12:30 in the afternoon, I also disconnected my carbon filter and turn off air valve on the skimmer to eliminate bubble production. I wanted the water treated with this medication to still enter the skimmer chambers and kill the bugs if there was any. I disconnected the ozone as well.
Here's my observations of the results so far... I had single acro crab death and a few amphipods that I saw floating around( that is after 10 hours when I restarted my carbon filter and skimmer). I haven't changed water as yet as I wanted to see if there would be any negative signs...none so far.
I took out my macro lens and took some close up shots of corals and so far I weren't able to find a single bug. By the way, late last night after the lights go out, I inspected the tank with a flash light and magnifying glass to see if I find more evidence of death among crustaseans or perhaps polychaetes. I saw large number of "pods" running everywhere and spotted lots of bristle worms cruising the sand bed( I am thinking that they "sensed" that there were some dead pods and what not laying around). My point is that if there was some deaths among the crustaseans it wasn't significant and I'm pretty sure that I haven't totally wacked my sand bed, however, it is too early to tell at this point and I will update later if I notice something worth mentioning.
I intend to do another treatment after my return from vacation next month.

I had also noticed some polyps extention on some corals that hadn't shown any in quite some time.

[zhenya]

I intend to do another treatment after my return from vacation next month.

Well, it looks like I have no choice and second and maybe even third treatment will be necessary. I had found few of the bugs yesterday while shooting some macro shots to check for them.

So far this is the only two corals that I found them on but it;s enough for me to justify more treatments, especially since all the commensal crabs are dead at this point.

[Poseidon]

Blasted little things! I guess they can be pretty tough too, like COCKROACHES!

[zhenya]

Yep, resilient little buggers. I might up the dosage a bit in the second treatment to see if I can get them all zapped. I;ve got plenty of medication left so if it's war they want war they'll get...

[charlie]

Gene,
I got thru my first treatment on Saturday, lost one acro crab, and it looks like all, or most, of my micro blue leg hermits. However, all 6 of my shrimp made it thru. One of them looked like me in the 70's, but hey, I made it thru them!! I haven't seen any bugs since then, but I am gonna go ahead and do a 2nd treatment next weekend, just for grins!

[zhenya]

Gene,
I got thru my first treatment on Saturday, lost one acro crab, and it looks like all, or most, of my micro blue leg hermits. However, all 6 of my shrimp made it thru. One of them looked like me in the 70's, but hey, I made it thru them!! I haven't seen any bugs since then, but I am gonna go ahead and do a 2nd treatment next weekend, just for grins!

Hi Charlie,

Good to hear your shrimp made it thru first treatment.
I've read somewhere about similar experiences, the hermits could be replaced if you decide to do it after your battle with red menace is over.
Good luck on your second treatment!
Like you, I couldn't see any bugs in the first few days after the treatment but it looks like some survived and given that they reproduce rather quickly I am sure that second and maybe even third treatment would be needed for me. Unless I double the dose or something in the second treatment, but why risk it? I think it will be safer to just zap them three times like Dustin recommended and hope for the best.

[charlie]

I agree on the dosages Gene. It's bad enuf we are trying to kill heartworms at the same time in our tanks. I don't think stretching the envelope any further would be beneficial to anything. I also just discovered that I did lose 1 cleaner shrimp. He hung on like a real trooper, but didn't quite make it.