Red Bugs - Planaria

[rodclement]

Hello everyone,

I am seeing a growth in the number of red bugs in my tank and it is unpleasing to the eye so I would like an idea to eliminate them without breaking down my tank.

The tank: 75Gal AGA established for 3 months but with LR and stock from my old 125Gal tank. All parameters are normal and stable with SG at 1024, the tank is filtered by the LR (150lb of it!), a remora C skimmer, and a DYI small AQ refugium with chaeto. I perform small weekly water changes of 5Gal at a time and am considering upping that to 10Gal a change in order to help with the critters. Temperature of the tank is spiking at 80F in the summer, but not higher then that. I also use the water changes to suck all the red bugs I can see.

I have slowed feeding for the livestock in order to attempt to starve the little bugs but I am afraid of also starving my fish and corals! Any ideas are welcomed! Thanks!

Rod

 

[Phyl]

Flatworms (red bugs are a completely different evil) can be tough to eradicate. Starvation helps, reduced lighting helps a lot. Siphon as many out as possible and then when you're ready use as big a dose as you can stand of either of the two popular medications. Blow off the rocks, siphon what comes out into the water column, wait 3 hours and then do a massive water change (you can wait longer if you don't have a ton of them or your corals/fish aren't stressing-- the longer the better).

They seem to gain resistance to treatment if you don't go strong enough at first. That just makes them harder to get rid of. I'd try 6x the recommended dosage. If you have a lot of them your corals may stress.

I stressed out a tang pretty badly once (treated with mega doses of both meds in a desparate attempt to finally get rid of them). It worked really well and the tang recovered. Probably took a couple weeks off his life, but he survived.

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

Do you have Red Bugs and Planaria? Because the treatment is different for these 2 different pests. Planaria can be controlled by manual siphoning, high water flow and strong protein skimming. There are also some accounts of different wrasses eating palnaria. I personally had a six line wrasse that rid my tank of the flatworms. However the wrasses can be hit or miss.
The only treatment for Red bugs is the perscription drug interceptor.

You can check out this website http://www.melevsreef.com/links.html and scroll down to "Reviews, Articles & Solutions" to determine which pest you have and a treatment protocol.



I guess Phyl types faster than I do. :

 

[mr_X]

red flatworms aren't a big deal. red bugs are another story.
the way i removed a massive infestation of flatworms from my big tank was to introduce animals that compete with them for food.
flatworms are ambush predators that eat pods. fairy wrasses, mandarins, and the like are excellent for this purpose.
i put a pair of wrasses in my 195 and within 2 months they were all gone.
read this-
http://macropyga.googlepages.com/

 

[Phyl]

I just can't picture a flat worm sneaking up on a pod! I'll just put that in my "learn something new every day" pile. Very interesting.

 

[rodclement]

So I have red planaria, should I try theSalifert Flatworm Exit as he recomends? Or does anyone have a better solution?

The link to that site was great! Thank you so much, there is so much to learn there!

Rod

 

[mr_X]

I just can't picture a flat worm sneaking up on a pod! I'll just put that in my "learn something new every day" pile. Very interesting.

lol..dunno, but my results with the 2 wrasses sold me on this solution.
i'm actually in the process of doing it again with a mandarin in one of the smaller tanks. i've noticed a 70-80% decline in population in 2 weeks.

 

[rodclement]

I have a Mandarim in there but no effects in my red planaria population has been noted...should I try a kind of wrasse? ANy suggestions other then the six line?

Thanks!

 

[mr_X]

the ones i used were whipfin fairy wrasses. cheap, attractive, and effective IME.

 

[rodclement]

thanks! I will try wrasses!

Rod

 

[magic]

I had luck with a Leopard but it took about a month. I haven't had a issue since.

Bob