Sentinel For red buggies

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

Well now that interceptor is officially discontinued and sentinel is on the shelves I was wondering if anyone has been using it and if so what have you noticed?

I decided to be a guinea pig myself about three weeks ago. I stopped at the vet and got two of the larger tabs.

I like to dose my Qt tank pretty regularly so I figured i'd see if this stuff was a safe useable alternative.


In case you are unfamiliar with sentinel it's basically interceptor with an added ingredient to help control flea eggs called lufenuron. The large tabs contain 23 mg of MO(interceptor) and 460 mg of lufenuron.

Roughly three weeks ago I decided to dose my qt with one half of a tab. The system is about 70 gallons.

First thing I noticed is that the sentinel has a coating on the pill and that it crushed up pure white as opposed to the familiar brown. Without hesitation I dumped it in.

I should mention that I this system does not have any red bugs in it at all. This has been mostly an experiment on weather sentinel is safe as opposed to effective, which i'll touch on soon.


The treatment was pretty standard. I saw nothing outright that would let me think the lufenuron had any immediate bad effects.



I left the tab in with my skimmer off overnight. When i turned it back on it overflowed for a long time. I ended up turning it way down for a day for so.That was a significant difference. With interceptor the skimmer would skim a ton out right away but never actually overflow.

I have a few resident hermits that I would take out when I dosed interceptor. I left a couple larger ones in and some smaller red ones. Interestingly they all survived the treatment. I am a little concerned by this.





Fast forward a week. I dosed the other pill but this time I rinsed the coating off.

Treatment was the same. All the crabs survived again.

No ill effects on any coral, just unfortunate that I couldn't confirm that it kills RB.

Using the old 23mg interceptor tab would wipe out any small hermit with in hours. I was not really using this test to see if it kills the bugs because I know Interceptor does at that strength. Or at least it used to. For whatever reason 23mg of the same active ingredient left the crabs seemingly unaffected.

At this point it's been about three weeks and the thank seems fine. No mystery occurrences or coral deaths at all.


If anyone has tried sentinel or plans to, please share your experiences.

 

[nater]

nice to see you being a guinea pig for us ! lol. did not know they discontinued interceptor. that is not the best thing i have ever heard as i was able to get that locally very easily. hopefuly in time we will hear a story if sentinel is an optional and effective replacement. thanks for bringing this to attention and glad your system faired without harm. also , i cannot wait to get some sticks from you when my tank is cycled and i am back from europe! i am going to splurge ! keep up the great work bro and enjoy the weekend!

 

[Chameleon]

I used it a while back and noticed the same skimmer issues you mentioned. It did kill the redbugs. For sure. I did it 3 times about a week and a half apart for safety, but after the first time no more red bugs... I saw no ill effects to other inhabitants, but lost a peppermint shrimp that I couldn't catch.

 

[nater]

I used it a while back and noticed the same skimmer issues you mentioned. It did kill the redbugs. For sure. I did it 3 times about a week and a half apart for safety, but after the first time no more red bugs... I saw no ill effects to other inhabitants, but lost a peppermint shrimp that I couldn't catch.

awesome post with vital info. glad it worked out for you.

 

[Aquaph8]

Ive been hoarding my last three tabs of interceptor. I haven't seen any red bugs in a long time. Glad to hear the new stuff is working.

 

[Coral Revolution]

Great job, thanks for taking the time to test. I would think that if the crabs aren't affected that it's not as strong as interceptor. On my last interceptor treatment, some large pods survived, it was a whole pill for a 150gal tank.

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

Great job, thanks for taking the time to test. I would think that if the crabs aren't affected that it's not as strong as interceptor. On my last interceptor treatment, some large pods survived, it was a whole pill for a 150gal tank.

That was kind of my fear as well but its the same dosage. Could it be that is is not as potent?

 

[ritter6788]

Following along. Thanks for taking the time and risk to do this. It could help everyone along the way.

 

[Chameleon]

That was kind of my fear as well but its the same dosage. Could it be that is is not as potent?

Maybe it is just in a less soluble concoction. I know with interceptor it was a pill and more crushable. My Sentinel was a chew tab. It sounded like yours was a pill? Ill try to post a pic of the box later. Drugs always come with binders and other stuff to affect solubility, maybe this was changed in the new product. Maybe your crabs are x-crabs Its the same stuff I use for my dog for heartworm down here in the South.

 

[slojmn]

Ive been hoarding my last three tabs of interceptor. I haven't seen any red bugs in a long time. Glad to hear the new stuff is working.

Hehehehehe, Me too, I have 2 pills left which will do 4 treatments on my main tank. I haven't seen any red bugs in a long while as well. Maybe my dipping protocol is getting them before they ever enter the tank.

 

[rockinzebra457]

May sound dumb but how are you seeing the red bugs?

 

[Scoly]

Tagging along on this!!! I've been hoarding the last of mine also, hopefully it works as well on the rb's

 

[gws3]

For what it's worth... I had one hermit that always survived my interceptor dips while the others that I couldn't get out all died. He was a different species than the scarlets and typical blue legs.

 

[Diesel]

For what it's worth... I had one hermit that always survived my interceptor dips while the others that I couldn't get out all died. He was a different species than the scarlets and typical blue legs.

Tagging on! G, that was a interceptor crab, straight from the reefs of Japan. :bigsmile:

 

[Dowtish]

It seems as though a few folks have used the sentinel and that it worked. I am hoping that it is working on the bugs and not killing all the CUC/pods in the tank. That would be awesome.

 

[Chameleon]

Well I am sorry for the confusion guys. I used Interceptor Spectrum not Sentinel. This stuff works and is still available to my knowledge. Here is a pick of the box. I love their model dog pic:

 

[saltwaternoob]

Yes the interceptor spectrum has been confirmed to work on the other sites as well. My fellow club member used it in a 300g fully stocked with sps, no ill effects.

 

[Eric B]

Yep just dosed a 400 gallon tank with the interceptor chews like above picture. It worked just like the normal interceptor did but only draw back was I had to order from Australia as I don't have a dog and no vets around me would sell it to me with out a dog. Even ordering it I had it in about 5 days and after first dose I saw no more red bugs but still dosed again a week after first dose. I had 1 larger hermit crab make it through both doses but all small ones were dead with no other ill effects to the tank. From now on every coral gets a bayer insecticide dip before going into the tank and no water from the bag enters my tank from any coral/fish/etc. as a precaution!

 

[terri_ann]

So does anyone know if Sentinel works at killing red bugs?