Heartworm treatment in our tank?

[ScottT1980]

Well, this is another fad that I have seen gain in popularity within the past couple of months. A number of individuals have been going to the local vet and treating their systems with interceptor, a heartworm preventative for dogs (I think it might also get some intestinal parasites but my memory fails me at the moment). Why would they do this? Well, many have been concerned with the acropora "red bugs" and it was determined that this was an "effective treatment," for the red bugs at least.

Of course, treatment with this drug in our systems is a bit scary, in my opinion, because of potential residual effects. Also, it will undoubtedly take out a pod population. Does it affect corals? Can it be bound in a SB? So many questions...

Here is a thread discussing the topic on RC. The real problem lies in whether or not a colony can be isolated from the system or if the acropora has encrusted and would cause major tear-down to treat a given colony. Borneman has come to the conclusion that perhaps lugols at a concentration of 5mL/liter for ten minutes is good if you can dip the corals. However, system treatments remain the real concern...

I mention in the above thread the use of lufeneron (program) as a potential system treatment. The only rub is that it is a chiton inhibitor and so it would kill all arthropods (shrimp, crabs, pods, etc...). It is a much more benign drug with low toxicity levels and was reccomended to me by a buddy of mine who specializes in invert medicine (although, it must be understood that this field is VERY new and the knowledge base is minimal).

Anyway, I wondered if anyone has thoughts on this or if anyone here has attempted using interceptor in their tank. I know of a few and would love to hear some anecdotal experiences...

Take er easy
Scott T.

[mps9506]

Scott,
The thread in the RC chem forum is great, I've been following for a while.
I have noticed red bugs in my system on a few acros, nothing "infested" so far. My personal plans as usual, wait and see. I have no plans on giving away frags to people that are totally worried about getting the bugs.
Anyways, Right now my plans are to wait until my tank is prety much stocked all the way, and follow the interceptor treatment, probably at least 6 months away. I already have several colonies that are encrusted on large rocks, the dip just isn't feasible.
Although anything new brought into my tank after that point, will be dipped with the lugol's dip per Borneman's experiment, of corse that will be after he does some more follow up on it
I'd be suprised if something like this became a "bandwagon" type thing, as it isn't that pleasing to remove or kill your hermits, kill your amphipod population.
Mike

[mattie]

scott as ya know I just treated my tank for red bugs about 1 week ago
as for the condition's leading up to the event 75% of the acro corals had them now they were not in huge numbers but they were noticebly growing in population at first there were no changes to any of the corals but as the amount of bugs increased first i noticed that several of the polyps would be closed and there would not be full polyps extension at night which there was previously. what had prompted me to go forward with the treatment at the time was a green slimer acro was turning brown/red and all the polyps around the base had closed up and would not open for several days maybe 2 weeks and a tri color coral was not opening up either.

in the past i had contacted seachem about the issue the said dip the corals it didn't work some fell of but stayed alive for hours in container filled with iodine....i was told that a mandarin would eat them NOT true....

since i have 2 dog's i got a pill and asked the manufacturer about the formula to find out if I could use a smaller pill and i discovered that all of the Interceptor pill's carry the same amount of active ingrediant per MG of wieght so I used a smaller pill

I did not follow the direction's exactly... I did guess total water volume and I did attempt to add exactly 25mg of pill per 10G of water...... but for my mandarin I turned off the sump during the treatment and did not turn it on untill after a 40-50% water change becouse it was not worth starving a fish out( he's a picky eater and has grown alot in 8 months)
I was scared to death that I was doing this treatment I have 30-40 different corals plus a few clams. a few hermits and an emerald crab that if he died i would not be said aka. Godzilla
I treated the tank last monday after I went to the movies and hung out at the Lfs and was worried to come home. but when i did about 5 hours later everything looked fine and there were almost no bugs to be seen I got out the turkey baster and tried to blow away the bugs to see if they were dead they normally cling for life and poof they blew away like dust nothing looked ill... I did lose 2 blue leg hermits and a red leg hermit and 2 red leggs survived.... but i have always had bad luck with hermits anyway...the next day the polyps were out all the way on all the corals minus the green acro but 3 days later the polyps that were on the bottom started to come out and just yesterday the tip statred to change color so i feel surprised and confident that everything will be fine..
as for the pods my sump/ fuge is still filled with them and i am waiting to see if the bugs come back I will have a better idea in a few weeks.... what i read about why it works is that interceptor cures mange on dogs mange is from small arthropds which are directly related to these red bugs it is all in detail at RC which i thought was very interesting
hth
Matthew

[ScottT1980]

Thanks Matt, I knew you had treated and will be very interested to find out if you notice any long term effects from the treatment. It sounds good thus far...

Take er easy
Scott T.

[NaH2O]

I found this interesting. I am curious to the long term effects.....any residuals and where they would remain. Although, I am figuring a one time treatment may not be as bad as continual useage, but who knows. If the sand bed holds it...what would that do to critters living in the sand? Commensal crabs will be lost as well. Hmmmmm.......

[ScottT1980]

FWIW, the active ingredient is Milbemycin Oxime (MOX) and I did confirm that it is also antinematodal. Therefore, system treatment could potential take out a large majority of your smaller sandstirrers (pods and nematodes). Matt, obviously you didn't see any immediate problems. I was wondering if an ammonia spike might occur...

I think it is going to be very difficult to find a drug that will specifically target only the pods on an acropora. I am hoping that perhaps the MOX might provide the best case scenario for system treatment.

Pretty cool stuff...

[reefrunner]

I have been waiting for one of the aquarium chemical companies to find out exactly what it is about the interceptor that it is that kills the bugs, and market that at a more precise dose with a nicer margin for error, but I'm sure that will be a few years from now, if ever.