found those white bugs on acros!

tokigami · Sep 3, 2019

Hey all just a quick update. i dosed 4 pills of interceptor Plus for Dogs 8-25 Pounds on my 400 gallon tank and it has now been 24 hours.

this dosage must be way to weak for my system because it didn't kill any of white bugs and did not even kill any of my pods.. i guess the dosage is too low. i will order the large dog breed and use 4x the dosage and hopefully it works.

david p. · Sep 3, 2019

tokigami said:
sorry for the crash and thanks for your reply..

can i ask.. what was your interceptor dosage. I know you mentioned 1/3 of a pill but how big was the pill and how many gallons do you have?

Hi, i used 1 pil that i split in 3, 1/3 per treatment. I have approx 110-120 gal. i'm on the low end for the dosage vs recommanded, but it worked.

ScottB · Sep 3, 2019

Sorry to hear of the crash @david p. but glad to hear you are back up now.

I never saw an ID on those bugs and they are totally new to me. I would've guessed they were a pod (at least until your video showed them entering the polyp).

tokigami · Sep 3, 2019

david p. said:
Hi, i used 1 pil that i split in 3, 1/3 per treatment. I have approx 110-120 gal. i'm on the low end for the dosage vs recommanded, but it worked.

did you remmeber if you used the small, medium or large dog size pill?

david p. · Sep 4, 2019

tokigami said:
did you remmeber if you used the small, medium or large dog size pill?

you can look online for the info for each pill effective dose and adjust accordingly. i don't remember

tokigami · Sep 11, 2019

Hello everybody i am happy to say that with all your help i was able to eradicate white bugs. Thank you all very much

the dosage i used was 4 large interceptor spectrum pill for a 400 gallons system

i dosed it for 24 hours and it seems to have killed all the bugs as i cannot find now. i will also Dose another 2 times every 7 days to be sure.

i noticed that it did not kill the bugs and the pods for a good 14 hours. after 3 hours all pods and white bugs where alive. it actually took the full 24 hours. also i have had 0 effect on sps corals and they seem to look better after the treatment. the only thing that looked ticked was the mushrooms for some reason they got ticked but fully recovered after the water changes. I also took my skimmer offline for the 24 hours.

I so happy this worked because no dips work. even tried potassium chloride 6 tablespoons for 20 minutes and it didn't kill them.

thank you all again!!!!!!!

Hersheyb · Sep 11, 2019

wow didn't know these things existed, they certainly move like red bugs, good info.

EpicWin · Apr 15, 2020

Ugh. I just found these on my acros

Rickyrooz · May 17, 2020

Just found these in my tank. I tried Interceptor twice as an in tank treatment and it did nothing to them (granted the first pill expired in 2016 and the second pill expired in 2007). The first treatment I used was 1/2 large chewable tablet per 100 gallons and the second treatment the following day I used the original non-chewable 1 tablet per 100 gallons. Today I just dosed two tablets of milbemycin oxime/lufenuron which expire in May of 2021 and will update my findings tomorrow. I dosed around 5pm today and as of 10pm the white bugs are still moving around. They are definitely more active at night and when just the actinic lights are on. I have Dr. G's Coral Dip on order and will be dosing that as well when it arrives this week.

Rickyrooz · May 17, 2020

Rickyrooz · May 17, 2020

monti mike · May 18, 2020

@Rickyrooz did you add anything new that the bugs snuck in on? I’m dealing with some mysterious black slugs myself. Good luck beating those things.

Rickyrooz · May 18, 2020

monti mike said:
@Rickyrooz did you add anything new that the bugs snuck in on? I’m dealing with some mysterious black slugs myself. Good luck beating those things.

One is on a TCK coral I have had for two years and another is from a wild coral I got last summer. Both were dipped but from my research the dips do not affect these bugs.

Rickyrooz · May 18, 2020

Well it gets worse, 12 hours after the large dose of Interceptor (2 pills for each tank) I no longer see the white bugs on my acro's. Now I see Black Bugs! They are still moving after the Interceptor treatment. I am wondering if the white bugs are babies to the black bugs and will change when they turn into an adult. I will continue to dose Interceptor once a week until I no longer see the white and black bugs. I am hoping the adults life cycle is not too long and the Interceptor will continue to kill the smaller white bugs each week as they hatch.

You can see what looks like black and white banded copepods around the base of the acropora. I am not 100% sure they are "Black acropora eating bugs" but they are still moving around the coral. They do look a bit different than the Google images I could find on Black Bugs.

Now for the good stuff, you can see the corals are cleared of the White Bugs. 4 times the recommended Interceptor dose seems to work well for this variety. The 1 and 2 times dose did not make a dent in their population.

ScottB · May 18, 2020

How does one differentiate these bugs from pods?

Rickyrooz · May 18, 2020

ScottB said:
How does one differentiate these bugs from pods?

I assume these are bad bugs because they are at the base of the coral as well as moving on the tissue.

Sweet Reef Corals · May 18, 2020

ScottB said:
How does one differentiate these bugs from pods?

Actually, they ARE copepods. Parasitic copepods...

david p. · May 18, 2020

Rickyrooz said:
Well it gets worse, 12 hours after the large dose of Interceptor (2 pills for each tank) I no longer see the white bugs on my acro's. Now I see Black Bugs! They are still moving after the Interceptor treatment. I am wondering if the white bugs are babies to the black bugs and will change when they turn into an adult. I will continue to dose Interceptor once a week until I no longer see the white and black bugs. I am hoping the adults life cycle is not too long and the Interceptor will continue to kill the smaller white bugs each week as they hatch.

You can see what looks like black and white banded copepods around the base of the acropora. I am not 100% sure they are "Black acropora eating bugs" but they are still moving around the coral. They do look a bit different than the Google images I could find on Black Bugs.

Now for the good stuff, you can see the corals are cleared of the White Bugs. 4 times the recommended Interceptor dose seems to work well for this variety. The 1 and 2 times dose did not make a dent in their population.

not sure if they are the same. Your coral does not seem in the same condition than what i could see on my acros. The bugs were living in the polyps and the corals was really stressed, you seem to have more PE and more white bugs than what i had, with that amount of the one i had… acros would have been dead a long time ago. The flesh looked like it was starving and losing colors.

Rickyrooz · May 18, 2020

david p. said:
not sure if they are the same. Your coral does not seem in the same condition than what i could see on my acros. The bugs were living in the polyps and the corals was really stressed, you seem to have more PE and more white bugs than what i had, with that amount of the one i had… acros would have been dead a long time ago. The flesh looked like it was starving and losing colors.

Thanks, did the Interceptor work immediately or did it take two or three treatments before they started to die? The White bugs died after the first treatment but did not make a dent in the black bug population.