Mites at Aquatek in main coral tank

[mharris7]

Hi guys,

I was in Aquatek yesterday and since it was posted here that someone found acro mites on a frag from there I decided to take a close look at their frags.

I did notice some mites. I'm not sure they are parasitic acro mites though. I noticed them on the substrate and on the plastic rose stems for the frags that Tim sold them. I didn't see any actually on the corals though.

They definitely weren't planaria. They may also not be "mites" - could be just some small copepods.

Anyway, someone who's had the acro mites might want to take a look the next time they're there and see if they look like the problematic buggers. ;)

-Mike

[captexas]

Did you bring this up to anyone that worked there? I think that would be more appropriate to do first before coming on here and suggesting they have a problem without really knowing for sure.

[Tim Marvin]

The mites are so tiny you can barely see them with the naked eye.... I haven't taken frags over there for over a month because they have been getting some else where. If you can see them that easily I doubt if they are the mites we had to exterminate.

[Instar]

Copepods and young amphipods reside on glass, rocks and plastic stems, parasitic harptacoid (sp?) acro "mites" (the ones we are concerned most with) are relatively exclusive to the stoney sps coral tissue and in the polyps only. They don't eat algae so they don't reside where bacteria and algae eaters do. You would not be able to see mites if they were mites on the substrate. Must be small amphipods or little crabs. Nearly all other species of harpticoid pods are parasitic for something in our tanks, so you would need a microscope and several specimens to identify it correctly.

[JimD]

Can you give us a discription the best you can so we might possibly ID them? You say "definately not Planeria" I assume you know exactly what Planaria flatworms look like? The fact that they werent observed on the coral themselvs indicates a non-parasitic organism. (at least sps). Bringing it up with someone who works there is like talking to a shoe box about physics lol, , theyre not going to admit it even if they know theres a problem, or that tank would be in quarrentine by now. Im gonna try to get by there tomorrow or Monday and see whats going on.
Well hey there Tim! Drinkin a cold one yet? lol

[Nano_Steve]

hey mike,

i was the guy that had posted about buying a frag from aquatek and finding out it later had mites. i didnt know whether or not the aquatek tank was infected or whether it was just the coral frag so i was concious of what i had to say in that regard, i didnt mean to accuse them of having infested tanks i was more concerned about mine :P

the only reason i was able to identify my problem as the mites was from larry's post and incredible pictures here:

http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=4546&high light=mite

these are EXACTLY what i had on my sps frag and after taking it out of my tank and doing what joshua had suggested(using seachem reef dip 2x) i was able to get all of them off and i have not seen a single one since!!! :D

hth, steve

[captexas]

I sent an email to Bruce who is one of the owners of Aquatek. IF there is a problem, he will take care of it.

[Nano_Steve]

good idea chris :D

(sorry for the short post but im trying to get away from my 666 postings quickly :P )

-steve

[mharris7]

I've been around flatworms quite a bit. ;) I haven't seen these mites everyone talks about though - at least not in person. I've seen the pics and read a few articles.... I just thought they were what Steve might have been talking about.

These critters weren't flatworms at all. They were much smaller. I showed them directly to Bruce. They're pinhead size or smaller, and moved very quickly. I don't think they're the Harpticoid mites everyone is concerned about because they weren't on the coral tissue, but they are similar in size and description so I thought they were what steve was talking about.

[captexas]

Bruce informed me they aren't the acro mites everyone is afraid of getting. They are much larger in size and are not destructive, more like some kind of copepod or something else. Hope that helps.

[Nano_Steve]

well whatever bruce told yall he mustve been talking about something else cuz these are 100% the mites that larry was telling us all about. i checked out his thread and did a google search to bring up more pictures and the things i had on my acro frag WERE those little mites ::shock::

they didnt move quickly at all mharris. these things were very slow and they were so small that i had a hard time focusing my eyes to even see them, but their sheer number on the coral was enough to give it a reddish hue under my lighting, thats what tipped me off to their presence. when i took it out to give it the dip the bugs retreated to the polyps just like larry had described in his thread.

i doubt that that many mites couldve come from aquatek without them knowing about it beforehand so thats why im not that concerned about their shop, besides they too have pride in their tanks and i doubt they would allow something like this to go unnoticed the way that aaron assured me by not being worried or anything. im just glad that i was able to get rid of them, like i said that seachem dip is some excellent stuff!

-steve

[StephenA]

I was there last night and they aren't Acro Mites! These pods are running around on the glass, plastic, and substrate. They are much easier to see than the Red Acro mites. We should be careful with post like this! It could hurt business at a good LFS and cause them to become negative towards MAAST.

[mharris7]

I was trying to say all along that I didn't think they were the acro mites, I just wanted for someone else to check it out and make sure. I'm not trying to hurt Aquatek's business - Aaron and Roger are good guys and I don't want to do that to 'em. I posted this in response to Steve's(xien2000corp) earlier post where he commented that a frag he received from aquatek had the mites on them....... If anything I was trying to defend Aquatek.....

[captexas]

I've known Bruce for about 14 years now. He is always truthful with customers and cares about the livestock he sells. I've seen him talk many people out of a fish or coral because they didn't have the right size tank or conditions to care for it.

As Stephen mentioned, you need to be careful what allegations you make towards someone. Aquatek is a business that depends on it's customers and its reputation. If they really had a problem like acro mites they would work to solve the problem quickly, as both would be affected if they didn't. When someone posts a negative comment about someone or an LFS on MAAST or any other website, it gets the attention of 100s of people whether it is true or not. When the allegations are unfounded, they are very detremental to all of those involved, including those making the allegations.

[StephenA]

I've seen him talk many people out of a fish

HE does that to me every week. He claims I'm at my fish quota! He's saved me thousands!!!! in fish I don't need or equipment that I don't need.

[Ram_Puppy]

one wonders if perhaps there were mites in the tank, if Xien is so confident, however aquatek has stumbled upon a natural predator? That is probably really reaching... I wonder if anyone out there is maintaining a breeding population of these things in order to test hypothesis such as this... (I guess feeding them acros could be a bit expensive unless you have a huge collection and are willing to rotate a few in and out... (I wouldn't be. :) )

[RobertG]

On any hand I feel that it was good to let everyone know! At times we get so excited to get something new, & could possibly overlook something so small. I had the Mites, not bad at all. I caught them very early as only had one SPS at the time. I can tell you the treament is scary, everyone here that has had them know all to well. Not to mention the 50% water changes. So Thanks for letting me know. If there is a problem I would hope the guys at Aquatek would let us know aswell get thier tanks treated. Sometimes the right things are'nt done when suppose to, so until then I will be on the lookout. I personally have not been by Aquatek so I dont know what it is we are looking at. I do hope they are not the red mites we all dread! What it sounds like is they are not, Like others that have posted the mites we have had were dominant to the SPS tissue. Not roaming the tank, unless they are just infested I would not think they are the same.

Just my 2 pennies worth.

Robert

[Nano_Steve]

ram_puppy(and everyone for that matter),

i think my main message has been taken the wrong way. im not(and never did) blame aquatek for having an infested tank, i simply stated that a frag i bought from them had the mites and i needed a quick way to get rid of them. to my knowledge, most(if not all) frags that are sold at aquatek are from individuals in the area as trade in's. i never meant for my posts to be translated as saying this was a direct result of aquatek's tanks, not at all, i was concerned about my new frag first and only after i got my problem under control did i call aaron and tell him that since this frag had some on it that the mites may have gotten into their show tank, i never accused aquatek as being the cause for the mites.

anyways, its no big deal since aaron has assured me that they do not have a problem in their tanks and my new frag is doing very well and mite free for almost a week now :D

take kare, steve

[captexas]

Steve - did you notice the red mites before or after you put the frag in your tank? If you noticed them afterwards they could have already been in your tank and simply attacked the new frag as fresh food. Also, as I know you have been adding more SPS to your tank, their population may have simply increased as their food source increased. As far as frags go, Aquatek does get some corals in from customers and they also get them in from their wholesale vendors.

Everyone nees to remember that these mites and other such pests occur naturally in nature. It is when placed in a small contained environment such as our tanks that they become a problem. They could be on any wild coral brought in at any LFS and wouldn't be easily noticed due to the volume that they go through. This is true of any coral you get from another persons tank, even if they say they treated it. It's always a good idea to dip/treat any new coral, fish, and even live rock before it goes into your main tank system.

I agree it is good to get the word out about possible problems, but we should use caution when doing so. Once, I found out the hard way that one LFS had red planaria after buying some live rock there. My tank become infested and I lost some things in treating for them. Turns out the store had been told about the problem and hadn't done anything about it. If I had known, I would have gotten my rock elsewhere for sure.