Help with identification

[aklausing]

I'm fairly new to the hobby and have been getting tons of information reading this forum. I have a 28G JBJ Nano Cube setup for going on four months. I bought a hammer from someone tearing down his tank and the frag disk had a few of these (see attached picture) on it. The few have grown to many in a little over two months. I initially didn't think I needed to be concerned, but now I'm wondering if these might be some kind of pest anenome. Can anyone help me identify?

 

[MarineFishGuy]

While not entirely a pest, they will continue to spread.
I started with 15 on a rock and within a year they had covered the entire rock.
They can be invasive and cover smaller corals in some cases.
They typically only spread to areas they are in contact with.

Personally I would remove them now while they are manageable. I ended up moving that rock to my Refugium. The chaeto smothered most of them.
Kalk paste did not seem to really affect them.
I have a few showing back up in the display, they were in a small cave on a rock that was adjacent to the original.

I plan to get in there with a siphon hose and scalpal to get them out.

 

[aklausing]

Being new to the hobby, I really enjoy seeing the corals grow and propogate, so I hate to have to remove anything. But, seeing how fast they are spreading, I think I'll take your advice. Wish my zoas and mushrooms would propgate this fast.

 

[MarineFishGuy]

It is really too bad, if they had more color to them, they would be a gold mine.

I felt the same way when I first saw them. They came on a "Premium" piece of live rock.

 

[zeppelin]

Those are called palythoa commonly, although there has been some recent discussion in the zoanthid forum as to what an actual palythoa is. A few of us in the club have had them, and affectionately refer to them as the 'Sgt. Slaughter' paly because of the camo coloration. I think our past CORA President Szwab coined the name, at least with ours. An option with them is to isolate the rock away from the general rockwork, if you can. This will allow them to grow on the piece they are on without spreading as easily to the rest of the rock.

BTW, Welcome to CORA.

 

[RokleM]

Given the way your frag is setup, you should be able to easily remove the hammer from the polyps.

A dremmel with a diamond wheel is perfect for this task. Irritate the polyps and the hammer so they close. Put on eye/mouth/hand protection. Take the frag out and cut through the "stem" base of the hammer right near the rock. You only have to go part of the way through with the dremmel, and the rest should snap off clean. Ensure no polyps remain on the stem. Re-glue on a new frag rock. Relocate the polyps to a safe, but isolated area like zeppelin said.

A lot of people try bone cutters and other ways of cutting euphyllia, and it just doesn't work out well. The stem skeletons just crush and break under pressure instead of cutting clean. That's why a dremmel works perfectly.

You get to keep the polyps as you'd like, and keep them away from the hammer :thumbsup:

 

[RokleM]

Old thread of porky going to work on a larger porkyspawn colony:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1073223

 

[aklausing]

Removing the hammer from the disk leaving the polyps behind is a great idea. I really hated the idea of discarding the polyps.

I already fragged a couple heads off a couple weeks ago to allow some of the underlying new heads to get more light. First attempt at fragging led to some anxious moments, but all frags have survived, main colony survived and everyhing is growing.

Thanks again for the advice and the link to Porky's adventure. I'm sure I'll have some further questions regarding some of my other corals in the near future...

 

[MarineFishGuy]

A Dandelion by any other name would still spread as quickly...

They did fluoresce slightly under heavy actinic, but always looked drab under normal lighting.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.
If Larry or Erik want some of their own, I would be glad to gift them to you.
Tis the season after all.

 

[porky]

IMO, It's a cool coral for a newbie. I know how it is when you're new and you just want something, anything, to grow. Everyone warned me about adding yellow polyps to my tank as they would eventually "œtake over" but it never happened. I've controlled them by selling frags and they're still alive in my tank today.
If you don't control them, eventually they will have taken up valuable real estate and as you are able to keep more advanced corals you'll find yourself wanting to that space for something a little cooler. Eric's idea of separating them is a good one!
Good luck and do try and make it out to a CORA meeting. Great group of guys who are very well informed; great opportunity to meet some like minded folks in your own backyard.
Have a good one!

 

[MarineFishGuy]

You know what I say to these little Palys:
Good Riddance, If they can't come in and be part of the community by contributing something then I don't want them to be part of My Reef!
I tried to befriend these guys and have them behave based on the honor system, but they turned out to be more evil than I could have imagined.
Stinging my SPS and smothering my zoas.

Better to kick them out now before they take hold and force you to tear the tank down to get rid of them.
I was lucky in that we were moving and I was able to remove the rock they were on.
I was unlucky in that a few had escaped detection and are now in my 210g. I saw last night they had stung and killed a large branch of my German Blue Digi.

If you want some Palys that look nice (Dark Green) and do not spread like wildfire I would be glad to gift you a half dozen.

Obviously it is your choice, but I am jut trying to help you avoid the mistake I made.

 

[columbusreef]

I agree Remove them. I received them on a rock I purchased when I 1st started. I thought they were great then. However, 1.5 years latter they were everywhere!
Finally about 3 months ago while removing my sand bed I took every rock that I could find with them And either discarded the rock from my display or manually removed the ones from the rock I wanted to keep.
Even after doing all of that I have 3 or 4 small spots starting back up. I am going to start going in with a scalpel and siphon these out before they get a chance to take hold again.


Just my .02 worth

 

[oldreefer76]

There are many corals in this hobby that many consider pests and almost all can be controlled with proper placement and monitoring of there growth to keep them in check, if placed properly those palys could be grown on the back glass of the tank and make a cool looking back drop to the display imho aiptasia and majanos pose more of a risk to your tank than a coral you can frag and control

 

[matrixpb03]

Get rid of them while you can.
Anyone that says they are controllable has not had them in their tank. Or have not had them for a few years. You would be trimming them atleast every two weeks just to keep then some what under control.
Yellow polyps dont even come close to these.

 

[MarineFishGuy]

Mojanos and Aptasia are a pleasure to deal with compared to these.

You can nuke Aptasia and Mojanos with Joe's Juice or Kalk Paste, usually on the first try.

However these were unphased by either of those even after repeated attempts and Peppermint shrimp have no interest in them.

To me it sounds like most of the people advocating keeping them are those people who have never had to deal with them.
:uzi:

 

[zeppelin]

I have a patch of them in the 300. Have had them for about 3 years now. They are on the main rocks too, not off on any island. When they start to spread more than I want them, I just hit the edges with kalk mix and kill off both edges of the polyp group and they are good for another 6 months. They are not that difficult to control.

 

[MarineFishGuy]

In this photo you can't even see them, there are about 15-20 at the top of the reef in the center.

7/22/2007

In this picture you can see they have spread all the way down the front and under the ledge in the center of the tank. They also spread around the back of this rock and onto other rocks.

01/3-/2008

That was six months of growth for me.
In the end, I had to move the Pink Zooas up top and the Tri-color acro next to the cabbage.

Kalk Paste in a 28g tank is going to have a much greater affect on water chemistry than your 300g tank Larry.

Maybe it was the water getting too hot during the summer that helped control them for you. How is that half bleached fungia plate recovering?

 

[Crawf71]

I agree get rid of them. I am struggling trying to get rid of the same ones myself. Not sure how but they have popped up in a couple of different places. The worst part is I don't even know where they came from.

I know its cool to watch stuff grow, my favorite part of the hobby, but these will just get annoying.

 

[zeppelin]

You've definitely gotten plenty of opinions both ways. Good luck with your decision. Be sure to pop over to the home CORA site if you need anything. The 2010 membership drive is in full swing. Let us know if we can help you with anything further. :beer:

 

[aklausing]

Well I've gone back and forth and have decided I'm going to scalpel them off and discard. I think I'll be much happier in the end adding a couple zoa colonies.

I have some for the dark green palys that hitch hiked in with my live sand from Reef Systems. They are growing nicely on one of my rocks, but they do grow much slower than these guys.