Still battling hydroids, anyone have tips?

[jallen18]

http://www.zoxbox.net/images/zoofestation.jpg

It's been a long battle, I've scrubbed, pasted, handpicked with tweezers, plus there's not really anything I can introduce as a natural predator to combat them..

Anyone have a success story they could share? These things are spreading like wildfire, all over my tank now.

[HappySkittles]

whats the hydriod in the pic?
curious to know what they look like exactly since they can be a big problem for what i plan to keep.


there is something you can add to the water (panacure i think) BUT you cant add any inverts to the tank for years D: it will kill em and it stays in the sand rocks ect

i have heard this method to get rid of other things but i dont know how well it will work on hydroids...take fresh water in a siphon and squirt it right onto it...like doing a fw dip without having to actually dip
but like i said...dunno if it would work on hydroids

hope someone else can be more helpful

[soulbereaver]

tagging along, quite curious about this myself... how do you get rid of these pesky sob's??

[jallen18]

yeah, I'm going to steer clear of the horse tranquilizers or whatever it is, doesnt sound like the method I want to use considering the side effects.. the brown hydoids in the picture are colonial hydroids, trying to invade the republic of expensive zooanthids.

[Prodd]

I have this problem myself and was thinking of applying apistasia-x to the problem in the next few days.
I will update here if it works or fails.

[jallen18]

Thanks for keeping us posted!

[Runner]

I have had hydroids live through drying out rock, caulk paste, and even taking a rock out and clearing it totally white with a propane torch (with the torch, they grew back in less than a month). I finally got rid of it by selling off all 100 pounds of rock for $0.50 a pound to somebody who alternately froze then boiled the rock (seems to have done the trick). I sold off all my corals and finally my tank and am done for the time being with a big tank. Perhaps you can do better, though. Yours look to be a different variety that what I had, though, and might not be as tenascious, but I wouldn't count on it.

Right now I manage a 24G nano cube and am happy with it. I just tossed out a very nice zoanthid frag I got from somebody, though, because it had the same hydroid you have in the picture above. And I go over rocks and toss them all if they have a hint of hydroids. Can you tell I am paranoid? :D

And don't get me started on razor calurpa (the scourge of marine plant life)...

I now just have a

[Prodd]

Ok, today i purchased Apistasia-x
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj106/prodd_2008/003.jpg
here is the offender before application
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj106/prodd_2008/004.jpg
Here is the offender immediately after application
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj106/prodd_2008/007.jpg
sorry if the photo's are a bit out of focus, it's a cheap camera. But i thought you'd like some shot's anyhow.
I will update over the next few days to see how it gets on.
fingers crossed.............

[jallen18]

Ive got my fingers crossed as well, lets hope!

[matthewscars]

off topic, what type of Zoas are those in the first post?

[StephenInVa]

The ONLY way I've ever been able to get rid of these things fully is to remove the rock and let it cook in a steamer for 30 minutes.

I did buy a frag a couple of months ago with a single hydriod on it. I pulled it off a few times after it grew back and my six line was pecking the area it was one a minute after I got it out. Not sure if me pulling it off and the sixline pick at it cured it but I haven't seen it in a few weeks so I'm hoping it's gone. It's not the same type I originally had when the steaming of the rocks was the cure. If they are tiny brown ones with stiff clear/brown tubes it seemed when I tried pulling them off it only spread them. They'd always come back in force. If you have them I'd suggest removing the coral from the rock or frag it and steam or boil the rock it's on. Once these things take hold it's a complete PITA.

[Prodd]

update:
Offender has remained closed since application.
dunno if this is good or bad, i will continue to let you know.

[Prodd]

update:
only 2 of the original 30 or so polyps have returned.
elsewhere in the tank where i applied apistasia-x the offenders have disappeared completely.
IMO this is a solution to the problem, even if it takes a couple of applications.

[sassafrass]

On a side note did you know that some scientists consider hydroids to be immortal in that they have no aging gene

[Prodd]

are you saying we need garlic, sign of the cross silver bullets or a stake through it's heart to kill the buggers? lol.

Update: it may take another few applications of apisasia-x to kill all, i was wondering whether a peppermint shrimp will do a good enough job?

[crvz]

I dont think the peps are going to hurt the hydroids. interesting to see the effectiveness of the aiptasia-x products, I'd heard good things about it.

[Diatome]

I have fought my pep over a rock with a pest anemone but he has never even gotten near a colonial hydroid. I have been lucky that they have been away from livestock but I am glad someone tried this.

[sassafrass]

Very funny Prodd ...I have heard that if you put epoxy putty over them it will end their life

[jbc123]

Will coralline take hold on epoxy?

[crvz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13315726#post13315726 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jbc123
Will coralline take hold on epoxy?

yep, over time it will cover the epoxy.

[Reefbox]

I had those hydroids grow like wildfire before. They took over everything. I searched and searched on how to erradicate them and found no answers. It was a good reason to start planning a new tank.

Since i was taking the hydroid tank down i introduced aiptasia into the tank with the hydroids. Eventually the aiptasia took over the entire tank and erradicated the hydroids by eating them. Then had a tank full of aiptasia.

The hydroids really create havoc in a reef tank.

[Prodd]

I too had heard that you can use epoxy putty over the hydroids, and in time coralline algae will colonize over the putty. However the rock is porous, as such i hold the belief that the hydroids will still be in the rock and just find another way out over time.

[Runner]

Funny this topic should come up now, but I just found a few hydroids on the side of one of my rocks. So I took it out and thoroughly gouged out the rock beneath them with a Dremel tool cut-off wheel. I've used this method before and it works. The rock looks like crap afterwords, though. ;)

[alfiser]

I had good luck with apistasia-x without any harmful side effects, IMO, this is the way to go

[mltmtascp]

I've had good luck with boiling water applied directly to the colony with a syringe. Takes a couple of applications but it contains no chemicals and is free. Works on Aptasia also.

[Jay Fortay]

i thought those were a type of macro, I was searching for hydroids because i thought they were a type of jellyfish that I can see in my frag tank. I have those too, and my sea hare demolished them. they came back so time for another sea hare. I got one, but it is the orange spot kind. It won't touch any thing but glass algae :(