Bugged

[Henry]

It was cool meeting a bunch of people yesterday and getting some new SPS corals. But when I got them home, I see tiny red dots running around the corals. So tiny so almost can't be seen. These are those red bugs, right? So now I need dog worm poison to kill them? Can somebody help? Thank you fellow reefers.

Henry

[Aquattro]

Henry, welcome to the board. Sory to hear you got the bugs. I'm afraid that anyone buying acros though needs to check with a magnifying glass before adding them to their tank. I'm sure lots of people from yesterday have new additions to their tank they didn't plan on.
Do a search here and ReefCentral's SPS forum for info on Interceptor, the stuff that kills these bugs. Unfotunately it also kills all your crabs and shrimps, so you need to remove them if possible. Good luck!!

[ree-fready]

Are these always harmful or only when conditions deteriorate. (love that speling)

[Aquattro]

In my opinion, they are always harmful. They will eventually brown out out your corals, they'll start to bleach and turn a light beige, and eventually die. Some seem more affected than others, but popular concensus is they are bad always. They are, however, avoidable and treatable, so there is no reason to add them to your tank. I DO NOT add acro to my tank without a 6 hour bath in the Interceptor solution followed by a visual inspection with a magnifying device.
I also think it's irresponsible to pass them around knowingly without saying anything. Ultimately though it's buyer beware, and you need to make an informed trade/purchase/aquisition or suffer the consequences. For me, this means always assume a coral is afflicted and treat accordingly.

[StirCrazy]

Are these always harmful or only when conditions deteriorate. (love that speling)

I have had them as long as Brad has and he has had nothing but problems and I have had none. for every person that has problems I am willing to bet there is 10 that have them and don't even know it.

Steve

[Aquattro]

Well, thank you for that, Steve. I wish we had all know this was just a big hoax right from the beginning. So many people have done so much research into this, and all they had to do was ask you. Wow. :rolleyes:

First, you haven't confirmed you even have them. In fact, you continually insist you don't. I can't see them in your tank, so your thoughts on this are at best only your thoughts about bugs you may not even have. Everyone else that has confirmed the presence of these bugs report at the very least that the corals did better AFTER treating and removing the bugs form their system.
So bring over some pieces of your acro, we'll put it under the scope, and if you have them, we can them assign some weight to your opinion.

[StirCrazy]

First, you haven't confirmed you even have them.

um.. it was you that told me I did have them and you showed them to me. but as of late I have not seen them but you keep telling me that this doesn't mean I don't have them. at any rate it is going to be like any other problem where if you have a problem you report it and if you don't you usually don't say anything.

I am not saying for a fact only that I have seen them a few different times in my tank, I have never treated so it stands to fact that they should still be there. and at any rate I didn't have a problem I can pin to them and if you Read the threads on RC and such at first there was a huge volume of postings saying there wasn't any problems associated with them and then the topics split sides to those that have them and don't have problems and those that do.

I only know one or two people that are convinced the bugs are bad. I do feel they are bad but maybe in some circumstances the bugs can't thrive or maybe they only thrive under specific conditions. I have not seen any real studies on them so if you have some links send them my way. until then I am sitting on the fence on this one.

I will bring over a chunk of acro tomorrow though as I am curious.. because I know for a fact I did have them and if they are gone now I would like to know why.

Steve

[Quinn]

Has anyone over on RC done a controlled experiment to really see if these things cause any damage? Heck do we even know what they are other than bugs yet?