Red Bug Dip/Bath Treatment

ReefingDreams · Feb 1, 2024

Last weekend I purchased 5 frags from a vendor (who will remain unnamed) at a frag swap. Before I add anything to my system, I always do a very in depth inspection and dip. Luckily I caught a red bug infestation before I added them. I've added a video under white light in case this helps someone in the future with ID. I set up a temporary quarantine tank to house the frags until Interceptor arrived (today). Ideally, I want to break down this tank as quickly as possible, but I want to balance that with a zero chance of adding any red bugs to my system.

I understand red bugs are live bearers, so at least I don't have to worry about eggs. It looks like a normal in-tank treatment of Interceptor is:
• 3 treatments 2 weeks apart
• Turn off air to skimmer for 7 hours
• Take activated carbon offline for 24 hours
• Do 10% - 20% water change after 24 hours
• Pull all hermit crabs, other crabs and shrimp

Obviously, I'm not needing an in-tank treatment. Would a single treatment/bath at a certain mg/L dosage for a certain duration be effective at eliminating them? Any advice on this is appreciated.

As a side note, PolypLab Primer (KCL) had a near zero impact as an experiment. I also have Revive, CoralRX, and DipX on hand, but I don't see those as 100% effective solutions. I don't like the off-label use of Bayer for health concerns. All of this is why I went with Interceptor.

Epic Aquaculture · Feb 2, 2024

ReefingDreams said:
Last weekend I purchased 5 frags from a vendor (who will remain unnamed) at a frag swap. Before I add anything to my system, I always do a very in depth inspection and dip. Luckily I caught a red bug infestation before I added them. I've added a video under white light in case this helps someone in the future with ID. I set up a temporary quarantine tank to house the frags until Interceptor arrived (today). Ideally, I want to break down this tank as quickly as possible, but I want to balance that with a zero chance of adding any red bugs to my system.

I understand red bugs are live bearers, so at least I don't have to worry about eggs. It looks like a normal in-tank treatment of Interceptor is:
• 3 treatments 2 weeks apart
• Turn off air to skimmer for 7 hours
• Take activated carbon offline for 24 hours
• Do 10% - 20% water change after 24 hours
• Pull all hermit crabs, other crabs and shrimp

Obviously, I'm not needing an in-tank treatment. Would a single treatment/bath at a certain mg/L dosage for a certain duration be effective at eliminating them? Any advice on this is appreciated.

As a side note, PolypLab Primer (KCL) had a near zero impact as an experiment. I also have Revive, CoralRX, and DipX on hand, but I don't see those as 100% effective solutions. I don't like the off-label use of Bayer for health concerns. All of this is why I went with Interceptor.

Hello, we use Interceptor as part of our coral QT protocol when we receive new livestock. We dose 1 large pill (23 MG) per 100 gallons to the QT tanks. Interceptor is very gentle on corals so it's no problem to leave it in the QT tank. We dose once a week for three weeks. More than likely you would be OK with doing one dose for 24 hours, but it sounds like you are a cautious person (which is good in this hobby!) and if you can do the full 3 weeks you will sleep better. That being said, even if you get them in your DT, dosing Interceptor to the DT won't harm any corals, it will kill pods, shrimps and crabs so best to remove what you can before treatment. It's good that you don't rely on Bayer for this as it does not effectively kill Red Bugs, White Bugs, or Black Bugs, despite what some people say. Also it's kind of you not to throw the vendor under the bus as they may not be aware of the issue. I would recommend you contact them to let them know if you haven't already so that they can correct the problem.

ReefingDreams · Feb 2, 2024

Epic Aquaculture said:
Hello, we use Interceptor as part of our coral QT protocol when we receive new livestock. We dose 1 large pill (23 MG) per 100 gallons to the QT tanks. Interceptor is very gentle on corals so it's no problem to leave it in the QT tank. We dose once a week for three weeks. More than likely you would be OK with doing one dose for 24 hours, but it sounds like you are a cautious person (which is good in this hobby!) and if you can do the full 3 weeks you will sleep better. That being said, even if you get them in your DT, dosing Interceptor to the DT won't harm any corals, it will kill pods, shrimps and crabs so best to remove what you can before treatment. It's good that you don't rely on Bayer for this as it does not effectively kill Red Bugs, White Bugs, or Black Bugs, despite what some people say. Also it's kind of you not to throw the vendor under the bus as they may not be aware of the issue. I would recommend you contact them to let them know if you haven't already so that they can correct the problem.

Thanks for the feedback! I contacted them as soon as I found them.

ReefingDreams · Feb 3, 2024

Epic Aquaculture said:
Hello, we use Interceptor as part of our coral QT protocol when we receive new livestock. We dose 1 large pill (23 MG) per 100 gallons to the QT tanks. Interceptor is very gentle on corals so it's no problem to leave it in the QT tank. We dose once a week for three weeks. More than likely you would be OK with doing one dose for 24 hours, but it sounds like you are a cautious person (which is good in this hobby!) and if you can do the full 3 weeks you will sleep better. That being said, even if you get them in your DT, dosing Interceptor to the DT won't harm any corals, it will kill pods, shrimps and crabs so best to remove what you can before treatment. It's good that you don't rely on Bayer for this as it does not effectively kill Red Bugs, White Bugs, or Black Bugs, despite what some people say. Also it's kind of you not to throw the vendor under the bus as they may not be aware of the issue. I would recommend you contact them to let them know if you haven't already so that they can correct the problem.

Seeing as all Interceptor are flavored tabs and I'm needing to treat only 10 gallons, it's apparently not advisable to cut the tabs. This is due to the active incredient not being evenly distributed throughout the full chewable tablet. My initial plan was to crush and distribute by weight. Any concerns with greatly overdosing in the 10 gallons at 10x the strength that's recommended? Might this extreme dosage for 24 hours negate the need for additional treatments?

Alternatively, if 10x strength is too high of a dose, I could dissolve in a liter of RO and add 100mL to the quarantine.

Either way, this seems wasteful.

Interested in any thoughts.

ReefingDreams · Feb 3, 2024

Found this really cool video of a timelapse during treatment. Appears to show the coral consuming the redbugs as they perish.

Reefnjunkie · Apr 25, 2024

Epic Aquaculture said:
Hello, we use Interceptor as part of our coral QT protocol when we receive new livestock. We dose 1 large pill (23 MG) per 100 gallons to the QT tanks. Interceptor is very gentle on corals so it's no problem to leave it in the QT tank. We dose once a week for three weeks. More than likely you would be OK with doing one dose for 24 hours, but it sounds like you are a cautious person (which is good in this hobby!) and if you can do the full 3 weeks you will sleep better. That being said, even if you get them in your DT, dosing Interceptor to the DT won't harm any corals, it will kill pods, shrimps and crabs so best to remove what you can before treatment. It's good that you don't rely on Bayer for this as it does not effectively kill Red Bugs, White Bugs, or Black Bugs, despite what some people say. Also it's kind of you not to throw the vendor under the bus as they may not be aware of the issue. I would recommend you contact them to let them know if you haven't already so that they can correct the problem.

Out of curiosity/clarification are you folks dosing the "new" chewable interceptor? I ordered Milbemycin Oxime which is the active ingredient responsible for killing these pests but it was far from cheap. Back in the good ol days where one could get the OG interceptor for a few frags or a little cash.

TIA