Digitate hydroids help?

[LamboBoy]

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

LMK how your battle goes, if there is anything that will eat these things. I think I have the bad ones, the ones that are white and shoot up like a stalk.

I really don't want to take out all my LR since it's really hard to do, have to use extension arms since my tank is 42" high.

Some invert or fish must eat these things....

 

[LamboBoy]

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.

Man.... I'm praying that you are right. I have a 6" Crosshatch Trigger coming out of QT in about a month, by then my tank has been fallow for 9 weeks so I'm hoping to put him in the DT. Hate to see these things sting the Trigger. How dangerous are these things against bigger fish like Triggers, large Angels, Tangs and large Wrasses? Since fish goes to sleep in caves, by the bottom of the tank, won't these Hydroids sting them while asleep?

 

[greech]

To my knowledge the digitates never stung any of my fish. Never saw a mark/blemish and never observed an unwillingness to go into the rocks at night when the digitates were out in full force.

 

[LamboBoy]

To my knowledge the digitates never stung any of my fish. Never saw a mark/blemish and never observed an unwillingness to go into the rocks at night when the digitates were out in full force.

That's good to know.... thanks!
My Crosshatch is going in as soon as he is done with QT.

 

[eXcite95]

i have both colonial and digitate hydroids at the moment:furious:..these guys came in on a acan frag i got in a raffle 7months ago and man i really wish i picked up the gift card instead because i can now see atleast 50 or more of the digitate hydroids stinging all my zoa and paly frags and i have like 40 differnt frags in the tank and 75% have one of these buggers on them.. as for the colonial type i have resorted to manually removing them with tweezers but its hard to remove the whole thing with out tearing into the tissue of the paly or zoa...i just got a mystery wrasse a week ago and im hoping he will rid my tank of theses guys . he already rid my tank of at least 100 plus little white snails.. dont think they were pyramid snails but he ate them all so im thinking if he gets hungry enough he will go after the hydoids...keeping my fingers crossed.. good luck with your hydroid problem guys :beer:.

nick b

 

[Jstdv8]

I had hundreds of the long white stringy ones. now I only have 30 or so, ive never done anything to them. I think as your tank becomes more mature they lose out on nutrients or something

 

[LamboBoy]

I still have quite a few of these Digitate Hydroids in my tank but they seem to have gone down in numbers. I added my Crosshatch pair into the DT and they don't seem bothered by them.

I even squeezed a few of them with my fingers and no sting at all, I'm taking about the ones that looks like white strings moving with the current.

 

[eXcite95]

dont want to jinx it but looks like the digitate haydroids numbers are diminishing. i have only been feeding pellet food to cut down on nutrient levels so its either that or my mystery wrasse that i added a month ago has been having a field day on these guys. either way im happy that they are not in my tank as much.

nick b

 

[Briniel]

I have the colonial type (the fluffy brown ones, excactly like in the pictures posted) in my tank on two or three stones. I covered the majority of them with reefbond and so far it looks good. There's still small patch I missed that seems to have smaller polyps (or they weren't fully extended) but my anemone is currently running around the tank and is excactly at that spot. Let's hope they don't like it
I'll report whether they come back. I really don't want to take out the stones if I can help it.

 

[LamboBoy]

After I added my Crosshatches and them my Blueline pair, most of the hydroids are gone. I don't know if any fish are eating it but the numbers are down big time.... thanks God!!

 

[zhewitt04]

Had the same promblem did a water change woke up no hydroids! Literally overnight....DEAD!

 

[Steve-H]

Hope this helps - I had colonial hydroids which thankfully I caught in time and smothered with epoxy. For you guys - it seems this maybe a better solution:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteraeolidia_ianthina

I have seen some suppliers on the 'web.

 

[Briniel]

The reefbond method works quite well - just cover up the spot where they are with lots of it (you can try to sculpt it so it looks more like rock and less like cement). You have to be very generous, they recover from the tiniest bits.
What also works well is to smother them with 20% sodium hydroxide solution. Just watch your water params afterwards.
I still have two spots with just a few polyps that I will kill today, we'll see whether they'll come back... :uzi:

 

[Anarchy bananna]

I’m about 4 days into a 5 head rainbow acan mini colony dying and tonight just as the last 6% of tissue remains on the now white skeleton, I have noticed (to what I think is some kind of vary small hydroid) covering all of the rock surrounding the dead acan, and more by were my RTBA used to stay. id say iv'e got 40ish. they are small when open about 3-4mm In diameter, they are white but nearly clear at the same time. they are spred apart but are taking over slowly. I’ve got my calcium at 500+ and my dkh is 10 P.H. is 8.2 and I feed my reef a lot. I’m going to cut back now, but has anyone tried super glue? And has anyone had luck with sea slugs? And if so where can I get one!?!? I don’t want to lose anymore coral. And has anyone tried coral dips?

 

[Mr. Brooks]

Reviving an old thread. Does anyone know if a bayer dip will kill digitate hydroids at all stages of life? Trying to avoid transferring digitate hydroids from one tank to another on a bunch of frags.

 

[dja1980]

I use Bayer as well, but I can't speak to whether or not it will take care of hydroids. However, I did start a treatment called Hydroxs about a month ago that seems to have taken care of the problem (knock on wood... as I think it's still too early to call it 100%). I had the colonial type as well as the branching type... the treatment is supposed to work on all types. I did the in-tank treatment, but they also have a dip method as well... might be worth checking out. Here's the link to my progress...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2568141

 

[uyhujb]

Most tanks go thru a period of these things in the first 6 or 9 months and then they will be gone forever

 

[dja1980]

I wish that was the case for me... I first posted on this thread back in 2009 with a small patch, and then again in 2010. If you look at the thread I linked to, you'll see what this eventually turned into for me!

 

[impur]

Not the case for me either, I had them for at least 4-5 years before I decided to eradicate them with Hydroxs. I just got tired of having to deal with them, cut them off, super glue over them. Nothing worked, including Bayer, except Hydroxs for me.

 

[sheldy]

Try peppermint shrimp

Try peppermint shrimp

I just purchased a peppermint shrimp for clearing out Aptasia. The first thing he did when I put him in my tank was run to a digitate hydroid and murder it. He essentially rolled it up into a ball then ate the entire thing. I may have gotten lucky with mine, but they are so cheap its worth a try (Typically $6-$10 at LFS).