Hydroids

[SRVDVM]

How can I get rid of hydroids?
Is there anything that eats/kills them?

[TippyToeX]

What kind of hydroid?

[doody]

Not to steal the thread, but I got some that have tubes like a feather duster but are more like hair at the ends. They are brown and contract into the tube like feather dusters. At least I was told they're hydroids. I just cant find out how to get rid of them and they seem to be multiplying quick.

[doody]

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/picture_pages/faq_hydroids.html

Kinda like these.

[TippyToeX]

Robert, those are just nasty to have. :( You will need to remove them by hand. I have never heard of any creature eating them.

It sounds drastic but I'd pick your rock clean of them. Then get strict control on your nutrients. That is what they feed off of use to thrive.

[sivad]

Was just browsing here.... Darn the luck. I have those too, just like the pic in Doodys link above. And I thought they were pretty, Doh! Is it necessary to remove the rock from the tank before picking off?

[captbunzo]

Why are these so nasty? Please explain.

I have had several "colonies" for 6 months in my tank without any trouble.

Thanks!

[sivad]

Searching Anthonys replies on Wetwebmedia an I believe he suggested: ....some manual extraction may help as with a tooth brush tied to the end of a running siphon to scrub and suck the pest out without spreading it... and ...... They will sting corals and clams and are invasive as you have noticed.....for hydroid Myrionema.

Based on pic in link above, guessing its hydroid Myrionema. Wish I could find more/better pics

[SRVDVM]

I do not have pics but mine look like the picture in Sprung and Delbeek (can't remember if it is vol 1 or 2)
That is how I found out what they are. The darn things are speading. I pick them out manually but they come back.

I can not take the rock out as the rocks are at the bottom of the pile. So far they have not caused any problems with coral but they have not gotten real close to any...yet

[doody]

Originally posted by TippyToeX
Robert, those are just nasty to have. :( You will need to remove them by hand. I have never heard of any creature eating them.

It sounds drastic but I'd pick your rock clean of them. Then get strict control on your nutrients. That is what they feed off of use to thrive.

Well that stinks as two or three of the rocks that have these are structual portions of my aquascape. But its only a 29 and I'm broke. So since I can't buy anything new, I'll play with what I have and take the time to remove them. I'll actually remove the rock from the tank to do this as I hear these lil basterds can spread quicker if you remove them in the tank without some sort of suction devise to suck out the hydroids. I'll do it during a water change. This way I can do it in actual tank water in a seperate container.

[sivad]

I think of read somewhere of using concentrated kalk water to kill them... but if its the case, I am not sure of how to apply it... perhaps injecting the base of the stalks as with injecting aiptasia with kalk? If someone can validate/elaborate this as an option to the scrub/siphon method, it may save you the trouble of removing inacessable LR.

[-=DieselDave=-]

I have tried making a kalk paste and covering them, it did nothing. I ended up removing the rock, it also had Zoas, SPS, and some Xenia on it, I used a soldering torch that had a very focused flame and burned them off.

[captbunzo]

You might try Joe's Juice. I have both some JJ and some hydroids. I will give it a try and report my results.

Perhaps I will do a water change as well. :)

[Large Polyp Dave]

oddly enough my flame angel ate all of mine. i used to have a very serious problem with them. i'm 100% sure it was the angel too. i used to watch with glee as he swam around devouring colonies of them

[doody]

Well, I'd love to have a flame angel, but am afraid I can't have one. I got a 29 with two percs and a purple firefish. Would that be too much of a bioload? I thought they eat corals too, or is it just certain types of coral?

[bond007069]

hot kalk solution worked for mine..... injected with a syringe

[doody]

Where did you inject them? In the base of the tube or in the opening of the tube?

[bond007069]

all over...........yeah baby

[JonK]

I never had any luck using Kalk paste to kill them. Sticking to the dwarf angel idea, I had a Coral Beauty that ate them as well.

[wld1783]

I have them too. Some are evil, some are just a nuisance. The ones I have are touching several SPS at the bases. Over one year and the SPS are still thriving.

I have had luck with kalk past but they just come back and the Kalk bleaches the bases of the SPS:(. For mushrooms and zoos the leave the reservation vinegar works best.

Has anyone else had luck with a "reef safe" angle?

[Jon Lazar]

How about covering them with a blob of two-part underwater epoxy?

[djultra]

These are the ones I have

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/64638mini-hydroids.jpg

They also look like

Seaweed Bryozoan - Caulibugula dendrograpta
Class: Bryozoans
Gymnolaemata
Order: Cheilostomata

I have had not luck removing them.
You scrub them off they just spread

[captbunzo]

If you are talking about the green things, those are green star polyps. NOT the same *** hydroids. They will spread and sting other things, though... ;)

[djultra]

Not the star polyps, here is a closer shot

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/64638mini-IMG_0188.JPG

[captbunzo]

Nice shot of them...

[aquaforlife]

Holy crap... those are hydroids? I've been watching that stuff take hold here and there in the 240gal display tank at the LFS I work at for months... now I finally know what it is! thanks djultra.

Jared

[djultra]

That is what they have been called on other forums. All I know is once they take control of your tank they are hard to get rid of.

[marcusbigdady]

did anyone have luck ridding the take of these things.....

[Sullyman]

How about these brown weeds?

[Sullyman]

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c121/sullyman5004/P1010003-2.jpg

[reefnewbie54321]

keyhole limpets ... they will control hydroids.

[marcusbigdady]

your joking about the keyhole limpets!aren't you

[Eve]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7790979#post7790979 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by marcusbigdady
did anyone have luck ridding the take of these things.....

This is what most of my rocks in the left 1/3 of my tank looked like before I decided that I just couldn't ignore it anymore - that it really would continue to spread and take over the entire tank. I finally bit the bullet, tore down that part of the tank and removed the rocks the hydroids were on - which was a LOT of rock. There were some places where I couldn't remove the rock (a little sprig of hydroids on a rock at the bottom of a large pile/formation). Those I covered with a piece of pond liner held down by a rock. If you cut off the light for a couple of weeks they will die but that's not a practical solution for an entire tank.

In my research there was a place that raised seahorse fry and their tanks were infested. They emptied the tanks and ran HOT water through them for a few days but even that didn't kill them all.

Every now and then I'll see a new sprig pop up, but I jump on it right away.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c173/eve9489/bralgaerock1.jpg

[reefnewbie54321]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7800136#post7800136 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by marcusbigdady
your joking about the keyhole limpets!aren't you

Why would I be joking??? I had some hydroid issues in my seahorse tank and on a seahorse forum some one reccomended I try them. I added a dozen to a 20g tank with a huge hydriod problem and in a week it was cleared up and then I had a die off and only 4 limpets were left and still lived in the tank till it was torn down.

[captbunzo]

I am anxious yo try some limpets on my hydroids. :) They are at least worth a try...

[Eve]

Do you have a pic of the type of limpets that are supposed to work?

I have some in my tank - black fleshy and round (or oval) but they have what looks like a hard gray "cap" on top of them. I thought I read somewhere that some limpets feed on coraline algae? I really wouldn't care if they took out the hydroids, but it would be good to know if there are good and bad ones.

[captbunzo]

Bad? I think that is a bit of am overstatement. Feeding on coralline algae will probably help it to spread around your tank as the coralline is disturbed and released into the water column.

[reefnewbie54321]

This isnt where I bought mine ... I got them from another reefer for 40.00 a dozen.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1752

[Sullyman]

Can anyone ID the brown things in my pic?

[Eve]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7805023#post7805023 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by captbunzo
Bad? I think that is a bit of am overstatement.

Could be :-)

My question though (for anyone) - are there more than one kind of limpet and if so, are they reef safe?

[LFS_worker]

the natural predator fir hydroids is a nudibranch that is loosely called a sea dragon. and to my knowledge there are about 3 different ones that will eat it. I dont believe that A.stephaesa(spelling?) or berghia will eat them.

You can setup a quarentine tank frag all of your nice corals and add a nasty butterfly like a false Facula also.

Brian

[Bas Arentz]

this hydroid is myrione that's for sure, some species of filefish eat them, but most of them eat some species of corals to and if they really eat de hydroid is depending on the individu itself.

i woudn't wast time and remove them by hand!

[Bas Arentz]

myrionema offcourse :-)