red acro bug cure DISCUSSION

[DustinDorton]

In all reported cases the bugs are gone after the first treatment. The follow up treatments are to get any unhatched eggs or larvae. I have little doubt that either of thise two will be present in the system.
2 additional treatments are the minium. I did 7. I really feel that its necessary to do them.

If you are nervous about treating so often and you havent done the first treatment yet, dont worry so much. I assure you after the first treatment is done with, you wont have any hesitation in treating again.

 

[texman]

OK - I treated my tank today after thinking about it for several weeks. All acro crabs seem to have died, but my cleaner shrimp, scarlet hermits, and emerald crabs survived quite well. Bugs seem to be gone. I did a 20% water change and added some carbon. Plan to do the second treatment in 1 week. Has anyone forgone the water change and carbon. The medication seems to be harmless to most of the tank and seems to kill everything that it is going to kill in the first couple of hours. Is there any reason not to leave it in the tank to keep on killing any emerging eggs of those damned bugs?

 

[DustinDorton]

Someone on the other board didnt change his water afterwards. One of the initial volunteers didnt either. You dont have to do it, but I would suggest that you do.

 

[tangir1]

Does anyone in SoCal area able to get the med from vet? Or I just need to walk into a vet. clinic and talk to them? :?

 

[DustinDorton]

Just walk in and ask. Print out the directions, that seems to be helping some people. While your at it, see if you can get them to grind it up and measure it for you!

 

[tangir1]

Do I really need to get the Interceptor for the BIG dog? There is a version by the same manufacturer with 1/10 of the active ingredient... that will make my life *slightly* easier if any one of you had used it and found it to be the same... TIA.

 

[DustinDorton]

It depends on the size of your tank.

 

[tangir1]

It is only a 25 gal...

 

[adminrxb]

I called http://www.canadapharmacy.com and spoke to a lady. She told me that they don't carry the medicine. This board reports people ordering from this place. Its not listed on their site either. She was recommending other medications which I ofcourse declined. Can someone please help?

 

[DustinDorton]

Try your local vet, one of them will sell it to you. Print out the directions posted on this board and take them with you. That has worked for a lot of people.

 

[Len]

adminrxb,

 

[mer]

treating earlier this evening. Just finished doing a water change and adding some carbon to the sump. I did lose some hermits and a few acro crabs, but it looks as though all the red bugs are gone.

i'll update in a few days about polyp extension and overall tank health.

 

[mer]

looks like the bugs are still nowhere to be found. polyps extended on some corals that haven't opened in several months. did lose my commensal sps crabs.

 

[liquidfunk]

ive read the bulk of the threads here and on the other forum, but i have been unable to learn yet what the life expectancy was in a non acro tank.

Ive got a softies nano, and I am considering catching the shrimp and hermits and moving them too the nano.

Should they carry bugs to the nano, has there been any results as to the length of time they would survive without an acro host?

If I left the shrimp/crabs in the nano for 2 weeks, whats the vote on the safty of returning them? Also, I would pull some sand etc from the nano as well to help bump the pod population. This tank has not had any acros in it ever.

Thanks for your time and effort Dustin

 

[DustinDorton]

It sounds like they would starve in less than a week. I would leave them in there for a month or two just to be safe.

 

[PlaneCrazy]

Have there been any follow ups done on this procedure? I.e. -- from the initial "research group" has anyone had the bugs come back or had any other problems? I need to do this to my display tank, and I've seen many, many short term success stories but no longer term stories at all.

Also, I'm curious why you (Dustin) decided on the dog meds rather than the crustacide (Dylox I think it was). TIA.

-Aaron

 

[DustinDorton]

There havent been any new developments. There has been a lot of discussion on reefcentral though. So far no one that treated 3 times has reported the bugs surviving.

I used interceptor because it was easier for me to get than dylox. I just got lucking picking a winner so quickly.

 

[NaH2O]

It sounds like they would starve in less than a week. I would leave them in there for a month or two just to be safe.

Thank you to everyone that has been sharing their experiences. I have a question about the above quote. I noticed the red bugs today on 3 tri-color frags I introduced to my tank a week ago. My system is new and I only have 4 acro frags mounted on rubble pieces, which are easily removed. Could I simply remove all 4 acro frags and keep my tank Acro free for a couple of months? The above post is from July, so I am checking to see if there has been any more information about the life-cycle. Since there haven't been any Long term studies on the effects of Interceptor, I would hate to dose if I don't have to.

Thanks in advance!

 

[DustinDorton]

Nikki, that should work fine. What are you going to do with the corals you take out though?

 

[NaH2O]

Thanks for your time, Dustin. I am actually not sure. I will be setting up a QT in the basement, and thought of treating them there, while the main tank is acro free. I have been in the process of setting up a frag grow out tank, so this will help me speed that up. I will be QT any new arrivals, which I wish I would have done already. If I can avoid using the Interceptor in the main system, I would prefer that.

Thanks, again