Black Bugs

[TheShepherdTrio]

Has anyone had black bugs and been successful at getting rid of them? What did you do to get rid of them? They are ravaging our SPS and unfortunately right now 75% or more of our sps have been wiped out, with more that will likely die soon as well. Has anyone been successful at treating with interceptor tablets? We’re devastated with the loss of the corals and hope we can irradiate the black bugs without having to totally restart the tank. Our tank is 210 gallons mixed reef but predominantly sps.

Working in the veterinary industry and having a slew of dogs, I fortunately have interceptor on hand so I’m hoping we can get through this.

 

[vetteguy53081]

These can be a nightmare. The two things that generally work for eradication are Dr. Gs on eBay and veterinarian issued interceptor dog pill crushed and diluted

 

[ScottB]

Sorry to hear. Access to Interceptor is helpful for sure, but I do seem to recall these bugs have more resistance to it. Keep google searching "reef2reef black bugs". I've read threads before but cannot recall how well/poorly it went.

 

[ScottB]

Here is the most thorough of the threads...

Black Bugs - An Acro keepers worst nightmare?

This is going to be a difficult post for me to write, bear with me. Last night after 3 days of research, discussion with other reefers, testing treatments under a microscope, and bringing myself to actually do it; I tore down my Acro tank. Not a hurt acro tank, but a beautiful growing acro tank...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MtnDewMan]

I "believe" I had black bugs a few months back. My SPS was dying just like yours in your pictures.

Complete anecdotal info here: I added two yellow banded possum wrasses. Within a few weeks, SPS death significantly reduced and so far no deaths over the last few weeks. Anecdotal information at best, as I can't say 100% that they were (1) black bugs (2) that the wrasse took care of them.

 

[sculpin01]

Before you do any treatment, you need to know what the organism is. Which means you need to get a coral out of the tank with bugs on it, dip it (I'd personally try KCl at 10 g/L tank water), and then do a microscopic exam of what the "bugs" actually are. Until you know whether they are copepods, ciliates, worms, or something entirely different, you can't know how to appropriately treat them.

And if you do get microscopic images, please post them. There are bunches of cellphone pics of black bugs that provide zero information as to what they actually are. Personally, my bet is that they are some sort of macroscopic ciliate (thus their lack of response to milbemycin) or something completely bizarre that will require an expert ID.