[drchimo]

After doing a dip on one of my new frags, a lot of what were falling off were reddish little guys- first thought was "red bugs" but they seem to move more like little slugs and are about the size of "o" when i took a couple of the dead ones out of the water they were very fragile and almost like disinegrated. Could these be red bugs or am I just being paranoid? If they arent red bugs then what are they?
(My brother took the digi to Canada with him so i couldn't get a pic- i tried with my webcam- but all you can make out in the pic from webcam are little dots in a bowl.)
Please respond asap.
Thanks,
Kelly

 

[Mantis737]

What frag was it and where was it from? I dont wanna introduce anything suspicious, and I picked up a LOT of stuff this time!

 

[speedstar]

i'd guess most likely. I know they are in alot of MR tanks. I'll see if i can find a pic.
bad pic but the best i had. How pig were these? there usually pin tip big

 

[drchimo]

chit chit chit chit chit. well good thing i didnt put the frag into my tank yet- its still floating. But still, if someone could give me more info to help me ID them. I found some pics on the net but they were all real close closeups- which isnt helping.
Thanks for those who commented,
Kelly

 

[speedstar]

If there real small and crawling on the coral; my money would be on red bugs. If you dont have an interceptor dip available. Lugos at 15ml per liter saltwater swishing for only 20sec will usually kill them all, but will brown out the coral for awhile. DOn;t dip much longer because at that dose it is leathal to the coral also.

 

[drchimo]

Thanks speedstar. They are about "o" big. and they were on the LR not the coral itself. and instead of "crawling around" seem to slug their way around. Thats why I am so confused as to their ID- if they are really red bugs or not.

 

[speedstar]

Here is a pic with them cicled at distance. It the were crawling on the rock it doesn;t sound like the bugs and "o" seems to big, maybe some other will chime in good luck. Can you just unmount the frag and remount it on some new rubble?

 

[drchimo]

the LR that its on doesnt have any sps, just softies so is it still possible to be red bugs?

 

[sean]

Is it possible for red bugs to host any corals besides sps, are they known to live on lps or any softies?

Im pretty sure it isnt, but i just wanted to double check for kelly.

 

[drchimo]

ah i feel like such a freakin idiot cuz now i dont think these are red bugs but i still want to be Positive

 

[speedstar]

Ah youll never let your bro take the camera agian will you. I know without an acro as a host they will die they could live on rock skimmer etc till finding acro, but they dont host on the rock. If you can actually see them on the rock I'm pretty sure it isn;t the bugs these are tiny. Could they be some sorta flat worm?

 

[drchimo]

yeah, im thinking now that its something more along the lines of a flat worm. Im going crazy without that digi cam- hes never taking it again. LoL. I'll search the net for flatworm pics...and let ya know. Thanks again speedstar- really appreciate you taking the time to help me out

 

[Dave]

They are probably flatworms.

If they're the size of an "o," they're way, way too large to be "red bugs."

A preventative Lugol's dip certainly wouldn't hurt, however...some flatworms are more of a pest than others.

 

[drchimo]

ya those are probably flatworms, but now i see the ones on the base of the kenya trees- they are smaller and more red- now these- i think are red bugs- im pissed now-not really at the person i got the frag from but that i might have an awesome rock with corals that has red bugs and no spare tank to keep it in if they are red bugs. Thought it was ok and flatworms- which are another pest but not red bugs- but noooooooooooooo, i take closer look kenyas- tinyer red bugs- do red bugs ever live on kenyas?

 

[speedstar]

there has never been a report I've scene mentioning them living on them.

While i'll be dosing interceptor again to finish the treatment. There are plenty of people that have great tanks and TOTM's that have red bug. How bad dangerous they are is often debated.

 

[Planecrazy]

There's a TON of information on the red bugs on RC and Reefs.org They have some great pics to help ID them, but IME, they are very, very small. Think of the pods on your glass but red. Actually, more the size of the period at the end of this sentence. I had them, and I just finished my second dose of interceptor this week. I lost a couple of shrimp that I couldn't catch, but my pistol and emerald lived through the treatment.

My corals looks much much better. I have mostly small Acro frags, so they were pretty irritated.

-Aaron

 

[Newts]

From your discription they sound like flatworms.

 

[drchimo]

yeah the first description are of the flatworms, but then after examining those i noticed a different type of bug- there were 2 or 3 of them on the base of the kenya tree and were so tiny that i wasnt sure if they were bugs at first and had to stare at them for a minute to see if they moved and they sure did. They were crawling around the base. These lil guys were about 1/8 of the size of the flatworms. Flatworms were "o" big so you could only imagine how big 1/8 would be. I doubt i would have seen them if i wasnt observing and looking for more flatworms and also the light color of the kenya made the reddish spots stand out more.

 

[blulegend]

I'll post a pic of mine late tonight after I get home. I originally spotted them in the pics that I took of the new frags for a growth reference.

 

[blulegend]

Here are the bugs:

The frag is beat-up but the big polyp extension is a good sign.