Blue Clove Polyps

[Reefer2727]

I was debating on buying a nice piece of rock covered with a colony of Blue Clove Polyps. I have done some research and it looks like these cloves have been known to take over tanks and seem to spread out of control.

Anyone with any experience regarding these things? Will I regret putting a colony of them in my 75 gallon tank down the road?

Thanks

[drtrash]

you will regret it, grow over everything. Looks cool at first then its a pain to get rid of. Same with zenia once it is started will take over.

[fishieness]

just isolate the rock in the sand

[rhdoug]

from what I have read, isolating them does not work because they release eggs/sperm into the water and babies crop up throughout the tank.

[Reefer2727]

I read that somewhere also. I think I am going to play it safe and take a pass on them.

Thanks for the responses.

[liquidfunk]

Ive got this all over my tank, and I agree it cant be isolated like GSP etc.

Now,,, I have yet to see it EVER take over any other coral, it surrounds them, but everything else I have in my tank easily pushes it back out of the way. ricordia, monti (even encrusting), acro, etc have no problem pushing these polyps out of the way. Now, I have zero mushrooms and zoas, as I hate them because they do take over other corals. I got very tired of scrubbing zoas off rocks to keep them off my $100 monti frag etc.

I really like these polyps, but they are like coralline in my tank, covering lots and lots of empty rock surfaces. PM me your email if you like, and I can send you photos.

[mike810]

i just removed two mats of GSP off two of my rocks. I'll never get any star polyps, zoos or shrooms again. They just spread too quickly and are a pita.

[skanderson]

in my tank they are controlled by my angels. i have a few small colonies scattered around in areas that my asfur and regal angels cant get to but they will mow down any that move to an accessable place. they also remove any zoas that i have the nerve to put into the tank.

[Sugar Magnolia]

from what I have read, isolating them does not work because they release eggs/sperm into the water and babies crop up throughout the tank.

There's a video somewhere on here that someone posted of them spawing in his tank. Multiple times. Pretty cool video.

[a9reef]

There's a video somewhere on here that someone posted of them spawing in his tank. Multiple times. Pretty cool video.

anybody got a link?

[ritter6788]

They are not toxic and do not grow on other corals, at least in my tank they don't. I had a patch growing up around a monti cap and the cap just grew over the top of them. I've had mine in my tank for 3 years and they are not anywhere close to taking over anything. They reproduce all the time and new patches will sprout up here and there but they are no worse than coraline algae to me. Here's mine the last time they reproduced.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee283/ritter6788/P2110235.jpg

[Gyr]

I'd be interested to find out if anyone's Blue Clove has become a problem as far as overgrowing other corals. My colony spawned recently, and now I am seeing little clusters of them cropping up throughout my bare rockwork. If they won't overgrow other corals I kind of like the way they look, but would hate to lose my SPS's to them. A few people have mentioned they didn't overgrow their other corals on this thread, but on a different thread someone said they overgrew SPS's.

[ritter6788]

This is the only patch I have that are close to sps but no problems so far. The cap keeps growing and there are a lot more cloves now. I'll have to take a newer pic, this is from a while back.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee283/ritter6788/IMG_0056-1.jpg

[OwenInAZ]

Better than aiptasia taking over the tank :)

I have some blue clove polyps, as mentioned earlier they look nice when covering up bare rock spots. I have a couple encrusting monti's that just grow right up to them, the BCP's don't grow over.

[shrimphead]

seen a thread from someone who let them take over his tank on purpose and they eventually took over every over coral in the tank, all the people saying they haven't got any problems with them maybe thats because you haven't had any problems with them YET
they look really cool though

[ritter6788]

seen a thread from someone who let them take over his tank on purpose and they eventually took over every over coral in the tank, all the people saying they haven't got any problems with them maybe thats because you haven't had any problems with them YET
they look really cool though

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1646211

[Gyr]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Ritter6788, that link to the other thread was cool. I'll get a toothbrush out and knock the new colonies back in a few places, but since my tank is SPS dominant and the BCPs don't seem to bother SPS, I'll probably let the BCPs establish in a few bare rockwork areas of my tank.
Kurt

[feluette]

i have the same experience with green star polyps, those things grows so fast.

[liquidfunk]

I have lots of these blue polyps, every where in my tank. They have not yet made any problems with anything. Even encrusting sps easily pushes them out of the way.

[mario8402]

good luck with that toothbrush.. you will just knock them loose to attach somewhere else ;)

I had a patch that i left on the glass on purpose during a tank move and they were out of water for about 6 hours (in the sun during some of the transport). still alive :)

[Sugar Magnolia]

:lol: Indestructable little buggers huh? Mine have spread quite a bit around my tank to places I never had them before. Apparently they are spawning, I just haven't seen them do it.

[Nanz]

I'll get an updated pic of these in my tank. Al my rock is covered with purple cloves and even the powerheads. I cleaned the powerheads last week but they will grow everywhere.

On the plus side they do look pretty and they wiped out my vermetid snails. They just smothered them.