Starve out acropora redbugs?

[Jake_the_reefer]

So recently I discovered red bugs on my little frags of a random green acro that I own in my frag tank and I am wanting to get rid of them asap so I can start fragging my nicer acros from my other tanks.
If I throw out all acropora from this tank how long will it take for the bugs to get started out? Its only like 15$ in acro frags so I can't justify spending a ton of money on interceptor to kill them.
Is starving them even an option? Will the redbugs feed on anything else? I have montis, birdsnest, Seriatopora, pocilipora, spongodes monti, chalice corals, leptos
What is a reasonable amount of time to know they are starved out?

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Any tips?

 

[Devin6871]

This post would probably be better received on the sps specific subforum

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

bumping this for you guys with experience with red bugs. Thankfully, that's not one I've had to deal with yet.

 

[billwill]

If it’s a frag tank, pull and dip several times over a three week or so period. You’ll find 10000’s of threads in that. There is no starving them out unless you delete corals. I’ve had success in display tank using the heart worm medicine. Don’t throw corals out because you don’t want to spent $12 for Bayer. I’m sure locals would take for free if you explained the situation

 

[vetteguy53081]

Interceptor pills from a veteranarian is the only real way to rid if them

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

If it’s a frag tank, pull and dip several times over a three week or so period. You’ll find 10000’s of threads in that. There is no starving them out unless you delete corals. I’ve had success in display tank using the heart worm medicine. Don’t throw corals out because you don’t want to spent $12 for Bayer. I’m sure locals would take for free if you explained the situation

When you say delete corals you mean getting rid of the corals they feed on. If i were to quarentine all acros would there be anything else they can feed on in the tank?

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

After reading through some other forums. I found a post on a different site about 8 years ago saying without a host redbugs can starve in less than a couple weeks. I am going to move my acros to a temporary treatment tank, dipping them every couple days and let the bugs in the display tank die.

If anyone knows if any other sps they can feed on I would love to know. I have birdsnest and whatnot

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

Interceptor is a dog medicine that contains the ingredient Milbemycin Oxime. It can be used in a display tank as long as you remove your inverts, like shrimp, crabs, and pods. Interceptor is notoriously difficult now to get your hands on since it requires a prescription from the vet, but there's a product called Dr. G's Coral Dip that contains that ingredient, vitamin C, and ro/di water. I actually have the same problem in one of my tanks, so it's on the way now. You can wait for me to do the treatment if you want to use me as a test subject and I'll report back. Keep the skimmer on, but disconnect the airline tubing. Also remove your activated carbon. Dose 1 cap per 25 gallons. After 12 hours, do a minimum 25% water change (more is better) and reinstall carbon. Repeat this once a week for 2 more weeks for a total of 3 treatments. This is to take care of the babies that hatch from eggs. The bottle says it is not reef safe, but that's because it kills some inverts. FWIW, I have $5k+ invested in this tank and I'm willing to try it based off of nobody else reporting any real I'll effects.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

Just an update for anyone looking at this in the future. I did 2 treatments with Dr. G's Coral Dip and the only negative affect was losing my shrimp. It took a couple of weeks for them to die, so try not to get your hopes up if they survive at first. I tried several times to lure them into a trap, but they're smarter than me. I did not lose any snails during the treatment, which was nice. After the first treatment, I could not see a single bug. I decided to hold off on the next treatment to see if it was needed and found another bug about a week ago. Another treatment finished and now I can't find any issues. Each time I did a 50% water change and added fresh carbon. No fish or corals were negatively affected. If you're on the fence I'd say it's good to be cautious, but this is 100% effective for red bugs. Good luck and happy reefing!

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Update. The only acropora in this tank died. The tank has been acro fallow for around 20 days. I am hoping the bugs have starved themselves out. Still have other sps such as birdsnest and montis

 

[KalamazooReefer]

Update. The only acropora in this tank died. The tank has been acro fallow for around 20 days. I am hoping the bugs have starved themselves out. Still have other sps such as birdsnest and montis

Did it work? Did they die out after acros were all gone from that tank?