Button Polyps spreading- good or bad?
 

Well, I have button polyps that are very, very healthy. So healthy they are growing all over. They are spreading to many other rocks and even growing directly in the sand.

Is this a problem I should be aware of? Or is this just a preference thing? Is there a way to control the growth? And finally what do I do with the ones I don't want? I don't want to injure any but there are some on rock I have planned on putting other coral on.

Sorry for so many questions but I am new and don't want to injure any polyps.

Any help is welcomed!

Not a problem really. Eventually all corals start to take over. Just trim them back how you want and take the rest to a LFS or trade them locally.

Agreed. Polyps are beautiful, but do need to be controlled if you want lots of corals.

Some call them "texas trash palys" but just be weary, once they start taking over it can be almost impossible to get rid of them.

Yup. Be thankful those are at least decent looking though. Not just a doodoo brown blob.

Not any way to control growth unless you do it by reducing nutrients and supplemental minerals which is not really recommended. In other words, if you give it just enough of what it needs to survive, it will still look nice, but not have enough energy to propogate.

I should have said that you want to make sure that you really like something before it spreads too. If it doesnt bring you joy, axe it.

+1 on controlling these - if you don't like them. They will spread and inhibit other corals. Just a note of caution, palys can sting you too...wear gloves and make sure your eyes are protected if you start trimming.

Paly's don't sting, they are toxic.

Palytoxin is very dangerous, there have been a few close calls posted through the years.

I got quite sick twice due to these pallys. It starts with a strong metallic taste in your mouth and not long after I got chills, hot flashes and severe nausea. I removed the rock from my tank and will never have them again. Be careful.

So if I want to remove should I remove the rocks from the water instead of trimming in the water?

DONT TRIM IN THE WATER (ever). You are going to want to frag that with all the proper safety equipment while being mindful of cross contamination. That looks a whole lot like Palythoa toxicus, I would treat it like it is regardless. Having been poisoned once, I can tell you that it is no fun; the heart palpitations are the worst part.

I wouldn't worry about injuring the polyps, they are very resilient.

To frag, You are going to need: latex disposible gloves, face shield, apron (coveralls will work) scalpel or exacto knife, ziplock bags, super glue, rocks/frag pegs, Tupperware container, fraging area like your bathtub/shower (i like the shower for ez cleaning).

Open all the bags and situate them so you can reach in without touching the bag.
Open your super glue and put it in a bag so you can use it without touching the glue container
Wear all the saftey gear
Fill tupperware container with water
Take out the paly-rock and put it in the tupperware container
Do your fragging
Put your knife in a ziplock bag (don't close bag yet).
Put tools that you have touched with dirty gloves into bags (leave bags open, and avoid touching the outside of the bag).
Rinse frags off in tupperware container.
Dispose of water in tupperware container (the toilet is a good option)
Put frags in tupperware container
Return frags to tank
Put tupperware container in ziplock bag
Dispose of gloves
Take superglue out of bag
Close bags containing tools
Take and wear a clean glove and throw away the bag that held the glue
Dispose of glove
Label bags and store
Wash hands/forearms with hot water + soap for 1-2 min.
If you fragged in the shower/tub run hot water and apply bleach to clean

I think that just about covers how I avoid cross-contamination when fragging zoanthids (minus the actual fragging bit).