Digitate hydroids help?

[ILoveReefer]

They are not worms. Joes juice and aptasia x aren't made to combat hydroids. They may work a little but it's not worth the cost. Kalk paste is worth trying but in my experience removing the rock and cooking it is the only way to totally remove hydroids from a rock. Downside is you kill the rock at least temporarily.

 

[Bofa]

The problem is my Hydroids are attached to coral and I don't want to kill the coral....Is Kalk paste the only thing that will work? Anything that eats these Hydroids? They sounds like computer robots...ahahah

 

[sdc19982002]

I had them bad in my tank for about 4 months, and then the dissapeared. give it a little time and they'll go away. I had alot on my zoos and they never effected them.

 

[ILoveReefer]

To my knowledge nothing eats hydroids. Most seem to have little to no effect on corals. But there are so many different hydroids and so many different corals it's hard to say what the reaction will be until it happens in your tank.

 

[Bofa]

Ok thanks guys.... How do they just go away? Something must kill them

 

[jgsensor]

Don't wait and hope they go away, must likely you will end up with a nightmare infestation. That's what happened to me. I have a 375gal tank and it was covered with these things in a short time. If you have had them and they just went away you were lucky. Mine survived tank crashes, hypo and extreme temps. Get them out now.

 

[Bofa]

How do you kill them if they are on corals?

 

[jgsensor]

Carefully! I had some attached to a leather and some monti caps, I just used a soft toothbrush and scrubbed them off. Basically just mutilated them, but it didn't seem to hurt the coral. It may be hard if there attached to some soft corals though.

By the way, if you haven't found out yet, don't touch the hydroids they have a sting that you wouldn't believe. Make sure to wear gloves if you are around them.

 

[reef2]

someone on my local forum had luck with a silver scat eating the digitate hydroids in their tank.

 

[thincat]

My guess would be nutrients in the water. No extra food......gone!

 

[dja1980]

I've heard that there's a nudibranch that eats these. I've got a small patch of the ones pictured in this thread as well... looking for advice to get rid of them.

 

[LamboBoy]

My tank at this moment is going fallow, in it's 5 week. I noticed this hydroids in my refugium, and now they are in my DT. There are quite a few of them.
Here is a close up pic of it below.

How do I get rid of it?
Do they go away by themselves?
Is there any fish or inver that eats these things?

BTW, the tank is 42" high so there is no way I can get to them unless I take out all the LR, which would totally suck.

 

[Bofa]

Hey Lamboboy ...are those hydroids? My hidroids were a brown color and were in a big group.

 

[LamboBoy]

Hey Lamboboy ...are those hydroids? My hidroids were a brown color and were in a big group.

That's what I have been told, Digitate Hydroids.
Have been told to leave them alone but it's been a month and they are multiplying.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[greech]

There are many, many types of hydroids. I have had both colonial and digitate. The colonial are those that grow in a cluster like zoanthids or button polyps. They usually have a hard tube where the hydroid extends out of. I only had them on one rock and noticed them soon enough to remove the rock. Prior to removing the rock I smothered them with Aquamend puddy which killed the colony but more patches started on that rock and I just pulled it.

The digitates are the threads that whip around in the current. I had a huge bloom of these about 4 months into my tank. Started out with a couple and then they took off. I drove myself nuts trying to find ways to kill them but nothing worked. Lots of people said they will die off on there own and sure enough they did. Every once in a while I will see one but it will be gone before I even remember to look for it again. I have read they sting but I never saw any problems even when they were thick in my tank. My advice with these is don't waste your time trying to battle them.

 

[Bofa]

LamboBoy ---- You can try all the methods in this post but none of them worked for me. I found I had to remove them manually.

IF they were on a rock I would get

http://aquaterras.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=344

those cutters and cut a small piece of the rock where they were on. Those cutters will cut any kind of rock pretty easy. If there was a rock I could pull out then I would get some sand paper and sand them off the rock. Even after removing them all I would still see some appear but then I would cut the rock where they are growing immediately.

These things grow pretty fast and everyone told me they would die but mine didn't after 8 months. I hear they can live with no light too.

good luck...this is the only thing that worked for me.

 

[dja1980]

I've been living with these for over a year. I finally decided I've had enough and started pulling apart my aquascaping a few months ago. I first soaked the affected rocks in RO/DI water until all the death fell off, then dried them out. I figure if I do a few rocks at a time, I can avoid a cycle. I haven't put them back into the display yet, but I guess we'll see if it works!

 

[impur]

They do not just go away. I have 3 types in my tank. One digitate has been in my tank for over 5 years now. Luckily its on the side of a rock and doesn't hit anything. the clumps of brownish ones are simple to kill, just cover them in epoxy or a bunch of kalk. But again, i've got clumps in my tank over 5 years old. The bad ones are the white ones that grow along rock then shoot up a stalk with a polyp looking thing on the end. They are impossible to kill, grow incredibly fast, and can go toe to toe with any coral. I'm going to go extreme soon with limpets, nudis, and butterfly fish hoping for something to kill them. I expect to lose some corals in the battle too

 

[sdc19982002]

I had some for the first 8 months or so and havent seen them in the last year and a half.

 

[noahm]

There are many, many types of hydroids. I have had both colonial and digitate. The colonial are those that grow in a cluster like zoanthids or button polyps. They usually have a hard tube where the hydroid extends out of. I only had them on one rock and noticed them soon enough to remove the rock. Prior to removing the rock I smothered them with Aquamend puddy which killed the colony but more patches started on that rock and I just pulled it.

The digitates are the threads that whip around in the current. I had a huge bloom of these about 4 months into my tank. Started out with a couple and then they took off. I drove myself nuts trying to find ways to kill them but nothing worked. Lots of people said they will die off on there own and sure enough they did. Every once in a while I will see one but it will be gone before I even remember to look for it again. I have read they sting but I never saw any problems even when they were thick in my tank. My advice with these is don't waste your time trying to battle them.

I had the exact same experience w/my digitates. One day I just noticed they weren't there any more after being pretty thick. I would watch them literally lay and bounce into all kinds of corals with no problems. There must be very different habits from species to species, or else a lot of misinformation out there.