brown hydroids, need help!

[simplereefer]

I guess I celebrated too soon. The hydroids disapeared only to make a come back after a few days. The kalk paste worked but
did not totally destroy them. Anyone have a plan B?

 

[NicoleC]

It's like any weed, you have to keep going after them. Just go pest hunting once a week and some will eventually vanish and some will just stay under control.

 

[simplereefer]

Looks like another thing to be put on the reef maintenance calender. Thanks.

 

[jrthomas40]

is it possible to get a pic?....if they are not to small...i may have the same thing but mine look like anemones but not aptasia or majano

 

[Reefbox]

hydroids are nasty and you probably won't eradicate them. They take over.

After I got hydroids it was then that i realised quarantining really is important.

 

[NicoleC]

There are a lot of things you could call a hydroid, not all bad. In the hobby, generally they are referring to a small colonies of creatures with a soft brown tube that sticks up and a retractable brown head up to 1/4" in diameter. There is also a free-swimming stage, which is the actual problem, but you can't attack them.

They are very common and as far as I know there's no sure-fire way to eliminate them completely, but it's not hard to keep them under control. There is no reliable natural predator available in the hoddy that I know of. If you have a very large tank, though, you really want carefully QT your live rock before setting it up, for these and other pests.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

There are various types of hydroids as Nicole pointed out. Some are common and some not so common.

CRA have had this type of hydroid in their large tank. These guys are hard to eradicate:

Here's a nudibranch that eat the above:

Unfortunately, CP Farms in Japan is the only place that carries the above nudi at the moment. They started carrying them last October after a magazine published about it and consequently some hobbyists started asking for them.

There may be other nudi that eat other hydroids if we look hard enough...

Tomoko

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Another picture of the same nudi. Rather pretty thing, isnt' it?

 

[jrthomas40]

yeah that is not what i have....mine are polyps...kinda like a sunflower or something

 

[WickedReefer]

Great now I have them...all this time I thought they were just little feather dusters

 

[NicoleC]

Great pic, Tomoko.

There's a nudi for everything, but the problem with biological controls is they inevitably don't get them all before the predator starves, and then the problem comes back. Rinse and repeat.

 

[simplereefer]

This is an update on the kalk paste method that NicoleC talked about earlier in the thread. It did eliminate some of the hydroids but not all of them. But still it did get rid of a percentage. I'm just going to dose again and little by little try to knock them out. The kalk is the only thing that i have tried that has removed even a percentage of them. I have not tried natual predators like the nudibranch yet.

 

[simplereefer]

What is the name of the nudibranch and are they harmful to any other reef inhabitants?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

The scientific name of the nudi is Pteraeolidia ianthina. You can read about it here. It is not harmful to other things just like most of nudis which have very specific food requirements.

As Nicole pointed out, nudibranch is not a perfect biological weapon against our pests. I have tried a number of the blue velvet slugs in my 15 gallon reef in the past to eradicate the red flatworms. Mandarin goby kept them in check, but they weren't the answer, either. The red flatworm disappeared all on their own. Dorabellla sea hare on the other hand worked fantastically well for Dyctiota macroalgae in my 29. Then I had to feed other algae to keep it alive. It turned out rather difficult since it was big and had voracious appetite.

I love pretty nudibranchs but unfortunately they are so picky that they don't make good pets.

Tomoko

 

[Reefbox]

very intereting to learn about the hydroid eating nudi. thanks

That brown hydroid is the one that took over my tank.

I researched natural hydroid predators a year or so ago and found no data.

 

[adamPL]

Guys, I was looking for some info time ago, but didn't find solution, just kalk paste.
Where we can get those nudis???

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I have no idea if they are available in the U. S. Their habitat ranges throughout the tropical and subtropical Indo-West Pacific.

Tomoko

 

[slow_leak]

If not available in US do they at least have a full description or hobbyist name?

I have battled this problem for years.

The only solution that controls them is to turn off lights for three days a month. SPS will fair fine but zoanthids do not fair well with this system. Hydroid will appear as black grey twigs only to regenerate weeks late.

 

[slow_leak]

Never mind I read further back in posts for scientific names. Thank You!!

Some one last year hinted they were trying to get import permits but I never heard anything that came of it.

Does anyone know what the import restrictions would be?

 

[maverick24]

i have had sucess with some pepermint shrimp, but its hit or miss. if you can get a hyperdermic needle and inject in their foot with joes juice or kalk. that has always worked for me.