How to get rid of colonial hydroids?

[Mortie31]

Hi All
As the title says really, I have an SPS tank that is suffering with a colonial hydroid issue, unfortunately before I knew what they were I tried scraping them off my live rock, which has spread them around the tank. Does anyone know of any way of getting rid of the blasted things, I've tried covering them with miliput which works for awhile but they eventually overgrow it, the only thing I've seen that holds them back is aiptasia, but I don't want that issue either. Help will be appreciated.
Cheers Paul

 

[Sapelo]

My filefish eats them. I am not sure if this is normal or not. He's a strange filefish.

 

[Mortie31]

My filefish eats them. I am not sure if this is normal or not. He's a strange filefish.

Thank you, any one else experience this with there filefish?

 

[GroktheCube]

Fenbendazole will kill them, along with most worms, some soft corals (Xenia and such), and sometimes turbo snails. Not exactly a great solution, but I guess last ditch it could work?

 

[Sk8r]

If you can free the rock, and if you are sure it has no other life in the area, you might TRY holding that particular area of the rock (out of the water) in a pure hydrogen peroxide bath for 30 seconds, then rinsing it in tank discard water, and replacing it in the tank. If you have sps, be careful, because that rock will bubble oxy after, that could burn, but in general it's safe. Wear mask and goggles or glasses: marine rocks can have other life on them you don't want to inhale. I know that worked for xenia: I did scrub them off with a toothbrush: and with unwanted algae type. Take breathing hazard seriously and wear gloves and glasses or mask.

 

[Mortie31]

Thanks chaps, unfortunately I cannot get the rocks out and the system is mainly SPS which are well established, so the peroxide is out, and I Don't really think I want to go the chemical route due to my SPS colonies. It's looking like they have no natural predators, I was hoping some one new of a nudibranch or something similar that ate them. maybe a few others will have had success with filefish as that may give me confidence to try even though I'm reticent as I have acans etc, which is why I havnt tried one for the aiptasia I have as well.

 

[cheezybuda]

When I had them a long time back, I started feeding them to my fish...an ocellaris pair and a scooter dragonet. They developed quite the taste for them and never had a problem again.

 

[KSU_WILDCAT]

I'm having the same issues and it's not getting any better. Removing the rock is not an option for me either. I feel pretty helpless.

 

[FishN00b83]

I didnt know that these things were a problem. Ive had a little colony of them on one piece of rock for YEARS. They have never spread or caused any issues, I always thought they were green feather dusters. I guess I'll get rid of them when I put the LR in the new tank.

I have read in a few places that kalk paste will kill them

 

[Rutrag]

IME, kalk paste more stuns them and they come right back. I have them in my 90, and they seem to have stopped spreading. At one point, I was going to try a Klein's butterfly since I had read they would eat them. The risk is what else it might have eaten. I never found out for sure as the one I got didn't make it through quarantine.

 

[Mortie31]

About 2 months ago I bought a pearl scale butterfly, that has happily munched its way through 90% of the hydroids, a couple of months before that I tried an Hawaiian four spot butterfly but it didn't touch them. So if anyone else is suffering with these over growing everything maybe worth giving a pearl scale a try and the double bonus is both fish look stunning and haven't eaten any corals, they do mouth them constantly but do not do any visible damage... So far only trade off is SPS polyp extension is vastly reduced, I personally don't mind this.

 

[jraker]

You could try covering The entire colony with some coral putty

 

[Mortie31]

You could try covering The entire colony with some coral putty

I've fortunately solved my OP issue by adding the pearlscale, I wanted to update the thread so people learnt of an alternative to manual removal or covering with paste etc