Red bug fyi

[monkeyreefer]

Not sure if many of you knew this, but there are 2 kinds of red bugs. One of them is the dreaded parasite of our beloved acros which no sps keeper wants. The other is a harmless scavenger, and a great source of food for mandarins

I stumbled across this info by accident after nearly having a heart attack. I was downstairs checking out my tank, enjoying all of the growth i have been seeing, and noticed some little red spots on the front of my glass in the sand. Upon closer inspection, my sand had literally thousands of these littl red bugs. My first though was F@#K ME, I AM SO SCREWED. Started doing tons of research and came across an article on the other forum explaining the differences between the two.

The parasitic red bugs will only be found on acropora (i have none on mine) they will not live in the sand like the benifical kind. Hopefully this helps people.

[pito]

Gotta link to the artical?

[mg]

Yes link would be nice!

[Wiskey]

I would also like to see the article

Thanks,
Whiskey

[gwaco]

the ones that we don't want you won't find crawling in the sand or on the glass ! they stay on the host , only time they will move is to another host . regardless if i saw them on the sand or glass (the so called good ones ) i'd still nuke the tank . after dealing with them in my old 75 gal , i decided then that the 180 would be set up so nuking wouldn't be a problem , hence i have no crabs , no shrimps , any type of crusty and no-one in this tank seems to miss them . as the saying goes "you can't have your cake and eat it to " so if you plan on an sps tank you might as well plan on you will eventually get redbugs to ( thou some may never see them ) and what your gonna do about them .

[Mike O'Brien]

Here is a pic

OK here it is, the parasitic red bug is on the left, an extremely similar amphipod is on the right, they are also found on acropora, but are harmless.