Hydroids

[showjyr]

Growing on the base of a small frag there are several tiny stalks. They are about 1/4 inch tall, nearly transparent, and look like a little bulb at the end of a hair thin stalk with tiny sweepers sticking out. I can't get or find a good pic anywhere.

How do I get rid of them?

 

[jeasko]

try here

http/www.xtalworld.com/Aquarium/hitchfaq.htm

they have a pic and a link to another artical that may be of use to you

 

[showjyr]

Thanks I checked it out.

I also discovered that they don't like boiling RO squirted from a syringe.

 

[showjyr]

Damn.....I seem to have some nestled right in the middle of my favorite zoa colony and they are causing some of the polyps to partially retract.

Any advice on getting rid of these stupid things?

 

[Musho3210]

screwdriver.... I dunno anything that eats it or any chemicals that kill it (and if there were chemicals, i wouldnt recommend them) Try some physical removal, outside of the tank.

 

[Lynden]

Yeah I've heard of how bad those can be... I had some on a small pebble. They never did spread to other rocks, and small frags were often in contact with the colony, but no damage. Unfortunately I lost the pebble somewhere in the tank. Before that they made an awesome living exhibit for biology class... for looking at under a low-power microscope. Very cool.

If you want to get rid of them, simply breaking the tubes may help. To be honest I have never tried it. I can't see how boiling water would work as its temperature would fall very quickly on the way from the pot to the hydroids.

P.S.
of course assuming what you have are tube hydroids.

 

[showjyr]

Err.....I can now count them on 4 frags It's a little late to start pulling things out of the tank tonight but I'll try some things tomorrow. They are gonna be way more difficult to get at because they are in the zoas.

Boiling RO worked well. I took the frag out of the tank. Super heated a very small amount(RO) in the microwave, sucked into a syringe and blammo....they were dead. It was hot enough to turn a section of coralline pure whit within about 10 minutes. Wish I could do that with the rest.

 

[Lynden]

Hmm... keep trying. In my experience they don't seem too prolific.

 

[showjyr]

I'll see tomorrow after work. Probably going to have to get out the tweezers or forceps and go to town.

 

[showjyr]

I did some weeding tonight but the little runners that they grow on are so small I can't get them.

Nothing eats these freakin things....peppermint shrimp?

 

[showjyr]

What the hell!? These things are already growing back. I've spent hours looking for a way to get rid of them but can't find anything. Someone has to have had these before. I'm getting desperate.

 

[SkiFletch]

Might wanna try cutting the frag off the rock and breaking out the blowtorch?

 

[showjyr]

None of the frags are really connected to the rockwork. They are just on their own little rocks. The problem is that at least 5 of nine frags have them. One particular nasty bunch is keeping about 5 Eyes of Rah zoas closed.

 

[rhysiboy]

please please please do not try manual removal. I can remmber when i first started i had some issues with them and tryed to mash them up and i enede up with loaads I've had some experience with both the white stringy ones and the browny polyps lookin ones (the names of um elude me at this time of the night lol) and really the only thing that seems to work is time. I think they come in cycles really, but thats not exactly helpful for your corals. My other suggestion is take the rock out, get a soldering iron and melt the b*****s.

 

[showjyr]

Thanks for the advice, it's nice to know that they seem to cycle out. I took out all 9 frags and one rock today and removed around 40 to 50 of them with tweezers. What a PITA that was!

If they come back bad I'll try the soldering iron