brown mites...

Reef Goddess · Sep 2, 2009

Yeah, I guess I'll just use some interceptor. I'll try a small mandarin first. Hate to kill off all my copepods and gametes shrimp in that tank.

I won't harm my snails right, cause I have a whole bunch of baby tiger trochus in there that have actually made it from the planktonic stage. Its cool, cause tiger trochus are really expensive to buy. The mature trochus are always spawning in my main system, but that tank is on a closed loop, so I must have transfered some water from there when we setup the qt.

Where do you guys buy interceptor nowadays? We tried some sites recently, but they all ask for a prescription.

Acroholic · Sep 2, 2009

If you contact a veterinarian, they will often prescribe you some for
off-label use like this. Friend of mine owned a LFS here and had an infestation of them. Contacted a Vet near his shop, and he prescribed him some to use in his system. Pretty cool.

If not, maybe a fellow reefer near you has some extra.
Dave

Emster · Sep 3, 2009

Here is the dosage for interceptor....

The "CURE" for Red Acro Bugs : General Reefkeeping Discussion

Reef Goddess · Sep 3, 2009

I found this website: Vet Meds for Pets - Popular pet medication brands at discount prices it doesn't ask for an Rx for Interceptor.

ahayes13 · Sep 3, 2009

yes it might affect some of your snails. when i treated i lost some snails and pepp. shrimp and sexy shrimps. you could remove as many snails and put them somewhere else during treatments.... so for a few weeks.

Reef Goddess · Sep 3, 2009

Thats what I've been doing. 20 baby tiger trochus so far. ;]

Acroholic · Sep 6, 2009

Reef Goddess said:
I found this website: Vet Meds for Pets - Popular pet medication brands at discount prices it doesn't ask for an Rx for Interceptor.

Canadian source is why...just as good. You can remove interceptor quickly with gac like any other med.

Acroholic · Sep 7, 2009

Reef Goddess said:
I found this website: Vet Meds for Pets - Popular pet medication brands at discount prices it doesn't ask for an Rx for Interceptor.

I would look closely at the Canadian product. It is not the same as the American Rx only product. They both contain mibemycin oxime, the active ingredient in American Interceptor, but the Canadian product also contains Praziquantel, which is a dewormer and will kill Feather dusters and coco worms. Each of the large breed chews has 228 mg of praziquantel, which is not in the American version of Interceptor.

I'd do research under the use of praziquantel in a reef before I put this in my tank.
Dave

starfish · Sep 9, 2009

Try looking up halacarid mites. Marine depot believe it or not has a good referance with pics.

BeakerBob · Sep 9, 2009

I seem to remember a situation a while ago that is similar to yours except it got even worse.

Check out this reefers infestation here and here....it almost looks like red mites with a spider web on the corals.

Reef Goddess · Sep 10, 2009

Yep it is the same stuff. They completely melted all my loose ricordia I had cut the week before to frag out. I thought it was a zoo problem, but I think they were on some zoo frags because those zoos were next to the rics they were munching.

So, I double dipped every single loose zoo frag/frag colony and all other softies in coral revive and trop marin. Then I glued all the loose frags down to frag tiles. Then, hehe jerks, I moved all my sps frags in my qt tank to the area where my softies were and moved all my softies to the other (mite free) end of the tank.

I noticed that the mites seemed to be staked out in the aragonite underneath the infected corals so I figured if I removed the food source, then the mite population would collapse.

A week or so later and all the glued down zoo frags are healthy and mite free. I've found no other evidence of mites reoccuring on the other soft corals in that tank. Of course no corals will be moving out of that tank for at least a month, once I can be sure the mites are gone.

They did form a "spiderweb" over the effected corals, especially the loose ricordia. The zoanthids are more resistant and the mites don't seem to be able to create a web over them as easily.

From observation, I think these mites have a short life cycle and can only do rapid damage with a constant food source. I'm still not sure what they could have come in on.... I'll update this thread in a few more weeks.