Acro bug ID

[Brooks Allman]

Hey everyone,

I was looking at my acros last night and noticed these small brownish bugs quickly moving on one of my acros. This is a newer tank and a transfer into a new system so this coral has already been a bit irritated. It’s PE has not been good since the new tank. All my other acros are fine and have great PE.
These bugs are fast and use the polyp pores for cover next to the polyp. I don’t see any bite marks or tissue loss.
I’m thinking red bugs but it doesn’t look like the ones I’ve seen in the photos.

 

[PBar]

Dear colleague,
according to your description seems indeed to be red bug (or similar family such, white, black bug…)
Anyway, the treatment in general is the same - Interceptor.

The questions now are:
Can you easily remove the acro?
Are you are familiar with the treatment?
Do you know Interceptor? You might need to check with your local vet...

Good luck and let us know if you need any help
Cheers

 

[Brooks Allman]

Dear colleague,
according to your description seems indeed to be red bug (or similar family such, white, black bug…)
Anyway, the treatment in general is the same - Interceptor.

The questions now are:
Can you easily remove the acro?
Are you are familiar with the treatment?
Do you know Interceptor? You might need to check with your local vet...

Good luck and let us know if you need any help
Cheers

All the corals in the tank are pretty small and easily removable. I could remove all the acros and place them in a bucket with interceptor to kill the bugs. My only concern here would be the effectiveness if they are somehow not on the corals and in the tank. Does the treatment make more sense for the whole tank or would removing all the smaller frags and colonies to a bucket to be treated work?

Thank you!

 

[ChiCity]

better to treat the whole tank…
i used interceptor many years ago,
but i caught the infestation (black bugs) early.
it was effective for me…
ymmv

 

[PBar]

Hello,
it depends a bit… particularly for how long the corals were in the tank.
If the corals are easily removable, I would first do the treatment outside the tank.
That is actually what I did here in my tank.

The issue of treating in the tank is that you kill other things (tiny crustaceans... ).
Not a big drama, but not the best as well.
If you can initially avoid it… better.

Again, I’m pretty loaded with sps… and at least once a month I use a flashlight during the night to inspect it.
I treated 3 small colonies outside the tank (3x the recommended dosage) and they never showed up again till now.

Good luck with it!

 

[PBar]

Just one small important remark: my corals are always glued in a small rock.
Then. I glue the small rock into the tank.
I treated the coral together with small rock attached.