digitate hydroid problem.

[silenceisgolden]

i tried posting this in new to the hobby, with no avail, so i thought i'd try here.

i'm having problems with tons of digitate hydroids, and some of them are underneath ric frags. (would a freshwater dip kill them without harming the rics?) some of them are impossible to get to since they are deep within crevices of larger rocks. i've scratched a bunch off manually, but nonetheless, it seems to be neverending. has anyone had luck with peppermint shrimp? any alternatives? i've also heard that keyhole limpets would kill em, but they seem to be dangerous to my corals... any help would be much appreciated.

thank you!!

 

[Plankt0s]

I have had luck with plugging them up into their holes with two part putty (plumbers putty) they sell it at pet stores, I think it is made by two little fishes.

FW dip probably wont kill them but its worth a shot, it wont kill the rics as long as you only do it for a minute

 

[silenceisgolden]

so i should 'dip' them for 60 seconds? or shorter?? i'll try the putty. i have epoxy that i glue rocks together with that might work. i am pretty sure they are stinging anything in its path. i now have two peppermint shrimp that i'm going to try out. let's see how that goes... some say it'll help, some say it won't, some say that it depends on the kind of digitate hydroid... but they're the most damaging hitchhikers that i've had so far.

 

[Chad Vossen]

if someone comes up with a solution to these hydroids, id love to hear it. some times after the lights go out, i take a scissors and cut every hydroid i see stretched out. i don't know if im actually killing them or propagating them, but cutting them makes me feel better. my corals dont show much polyp extension at night either, but daytime they look fine.

 

[silenceisgolden]

tried it. (pep shrimps)

tried it. (pep shrimps)

the peppermint shrimp don't seem to really help, unless the hydroids are in their way. the shrimp seem to have this tendency to pull things out of the rock (looking for food?), and that's might kill em... but so far, the population has not decreased after a week - other than me burying them or pulling them off individually with tweezers. if you can bury them though with sand, they do seem to migrate upwards from rock to a small piece of sand, which is then easily removable. the ones stuck in the crevices are a killer.

 

[stugray]

The only way I have been able to kill them is covering with sheets of epoxy sticks. You can find these at HD in the glue/paint section, or order online.

I thought of another way, but havent tried it: What if we could find a way to hold a piece of saran-wrap over the hydroids, then inject Hydrogen Peroxide through the plastic?

There was a previous thread about the use of H2O2 for killing aiptasia, but with the search engine problems there's little use in looking for it. Randy even said that it would be OK to use with some caution.

Can anyone think of a way to hold down the edges of the plastic wrap? I am imagining the tents put over houses for extermination of pests.

Stu

 

[Agu]

Epoxy has worked for me. To hide the epoxy I've pushed pieces of shell into the epoxy flat side down.That also covers any hydroids that you didn't get covered with the epoxy.

In extreme cases I've removed a piece of rock and let it dry out followed by a fresh water soak. It becomes base rock but that beats the alternative.