Red/ brown / tan bugs on granulosa.

[lolgranny]

Hey guys, I’m pretty sure I have had some reg bugs for a while now as I haven’t added any coral to the tank in over a year. I’ve dosed it with interceptor probably 6 months ago in 2 cycles and they have come back. Everything is striving except this guy. Has good coloration, but PE doesn’t exist even at night now. I can clearly see some on it.

My question is this, would you bother dosing the whole 700g system again over the next 3 weeks with a high dosage. Kill your 3 harlequin and 2 cleaner shrimp. Or would you try and take it off the rock and just dip it/ frag it and keep a eye on things?

Like I said my tanks been cruising along very well lately so I’d hate to stunt it by dosing the whole system but I fear if I don’t think will come back again. Not to mention who knows if I have any on other pieces that I cannot see.

Thoughts ?
Thanks Dave.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Get some pics and make sure you are getting the correct pest. I would not treat the system as I would not want the losses you mentioned. Take out and treat as needed. JMO

 

[lolgranny]

 

[DeniseAndy]

Yep, those look like red bugs. Can you put your sps in a qt type tank to treat? May help contain the contamination. Of, if easier, move the other inverts to treat tank. Good luck.

 

[lolgranny]

Not a chance I’ll get the inverts out. Too many sps / caves to work around lol.

I could move the coral I believe. But it’s hard to say if that will even help since if they are on that I’m sure they are on the rock / others. Hey atleast I knowwwww with confidence I don’t have aefw. These guys are able to be delt with

 

[Bob the Bass]

Not a chance I’ll get the inverts out. Too many sps / caves to work around lol.

I could move the coral I believe. But it’s hard to say if that will even help since if they are on that I’m sure they are on the rock / others. Hey atleast I knowwwww with confidence I don’t have aefw. These guys are able to be delt with

If you remove the infected sps for treatment/quarantine do you not think that the remaining red bugs in the display will die due to lack of food source? I mean without any sps in the display to eat wouldn't they die off?

 

[lolgranny]

If I remove all the sps and qt them they would indeed die off, but red bugs aren’t on every sps. They only flavor certain ones. Usually smooth skin ones.

With that said, I have a couple smooth skin, over the past months I have only seen them on this and strictly this one. If I take it, remove, dip, and qt, I would almost guarantee that they would come back or still have been hanging around on rock munching on another coral in the meantime.