Hydriods on new coral and how to remove

sps_addict

sps_addict

New member
Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone knows how to remove hydroids from an acro. I noticed today that the new acro I purchased has a bunch of hydroids on it. See Pic

hydroids.jpg


How do I go about killing these things? This coral has been sent to solitary confinment until I find a way to remove them.

Thanks,
Steve
 
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Hey Steve, I have a very similar frag that had something much like that, except each of those hydroid like things were coming out of the coralites...I never thought that they could be hydroids. It looks like yours are attached to the tissue of the coral.

It seems there have been a lot of maricultured corals with this coming in recently. I'd be interested to hear what other people have to say about this.

Beautiful frag btw!
 
Actually I just checked my coral that had those and I see that they aren't just on the coralites....very interesting. They are going crazy right now too because I just had pod spawning event with little guys swimming everywhere.
 
@ Kurt : I checked after I read about it in the coralites and yup, they are in there too. No wonder I don't see any PE at night. I bet they are going crazy, mine are too. I caught a bunch of the little hydroid jelly (spawning version) floating in my WC. Used a turkey baster to suck those out, but still these things are relentless. I posted in another site and was told they are the hardest thing to kill. This is what I was told on another site.

1. Pull the object out and cover it with Kalk paste
2. Heat up the kalk paste and pour it on hydroid.
3. put the object in boiling water.

Those options would leave me with a dead coral. There must be some other method, like a specialized nudibranch or something. A 20 minute Iodine dip definitely didn't work b4. Might try the coral disinfectant tomorrow night.

@ Tony : Yup, it's an awesome piece non the less though :D Bummer I picked one with them on it.
 
I still have my piece in my main tank. It has great PE and is one of my quicker growers...do you think I have cause for concern with these guys spreading? it defnitely hasn't gotten worse as far as I can tell. I haven't seen any spread to other corals yet and I have had this particular one in the system for over 2 months now.

I am near positive that this is a maricultured coral coming from Walt Smith's farm either in Fiji or Solomon islands. I think people have started to refer to it as "ultimate staghorn".
 
Hmm..I'm not sure if there is anything to be concerned about, but I did recognize them off the bat when I saw them. It will spread (might not be to other corals, but also to rocks), but if yours is doing fine then I'll just keep an eye on it for now and see how it does with them on it.

I can see why they would call it the "ultimate staghorn". It is an awesome coral. Any pics of yours Kurt?


Update: Someone replied to my other post saying that they are digitate hydroids. So doing some reading I came across this site
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/june2003/invert.htm :

This causes me some concern :

"This Candelabrum sp. hydroid holds no candles per se, but it is a little firecracker! It has capitate tentacles that pack a powerful sting, and it uses them to snare small crustaceans such as copepods and amphipods. It also can catch brine shrimp or flake-food particles. The prey is captured both from the water column and from the adjacent rocky substrate as the polyp often extends out into and onto them. The powerful nematocysts are used not only for food capture but also for defense. This was manifest in the disappearing mushroom anemones. Considering its ability to proliferate in an aquarium and its stinging capacity, this creature qualifies as a new pest to be avoided, among the ranks of Aiptasia or Anemonia manjano anemones, or the zooxanthellate hydroid Myrionema (Sprung, 2001). However, this creature is so fascinating to observe and obviously easy to keep that I have to add it would make a great display on its own in a small aquarium."
 
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There seem to be different types of "hydroids".

My tank, starting on the left side moving towards the center, was over-run with the the brown flower-type but they were NEVER on any corals - they always spread and covered the rocks. Someone on WAMAS (local reef club) suggested that I check the seahorse forum because many seahorse keepers - fry raisers - have a huge problem with hydroids in their tanks. They sting and kill the fry. When I read their posts, I noticed that their hydroids looked different from mine. Their hydroids seemed to be whiteish but still with the flowery top. One article about them by a company that raises seahorse fry said they tried removing all the livestock and then running hot water through the tanks for weeks at a time and still some survived. The only way I got rid of them - again they were only on rocks - was to remove the rock and boil it. I still see some occasionally trying to hold on in the tank but if I can't remove the rock I put a good layer of kalc paste on them and then cover them with a custom-cut piece of pond liner to keep them in the dark until they die. Takes about a week before that happens. Just last night I noticed a small patch on a rock. I pulled out that rock - covered the coral to protect it and dipped the hydroid end of the rock in boiling water and then put it back in the tank. Kalc paste alone doesn't kill them. I think I'm winning the battle in the big tank.

The battle has been on for a few weeks now in the smaller tank :-(

I can't imagine what you would be able to do if they are on corals :rolleyes:
 
I'm glad to hear that yours just went away. Gives some hope :D

I tried Shimek's "cultivate a mellow attitude about these small epizooics" but that didn't work for me. When the hydroids totally covered rocks (think brown hair algae) and continued to spread, I couldn't stand it anymore. If they totally covered corals like they did my rocks ........... don't even want to think about that.
 
@ pk1: Thanks for the info, I guess I will wait it out and hope it disappears then :D

@ Eve: Yeah that was what I was afraid of. I've had my encounters with the 2 types of hydroids about 3 years ago. It wasn't fun at all. One type I thought back then was some sort of feather duster and the other was this type which looks like it's fishing.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7075225#post7075225 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sps_addict

@ Eve: Yeah that was what I was afraid of. I've had my encounters with the 2 types of hydroids about 3 years ago. It wasn't fun at all. One type I thought back then was some sort of feather duster and the other was this type which looks like it's fishing.
Click to expand...

I have the type that looks like a featherduster, how did you get rid of them?

The only way I have found so far is let coral incrust over them. :rolleye1:

Thanks,
Whiskey
 
Eve and whiskey I believe that you are referring to a different type of Hydroid than the one mentioned above by Steve. The Myrionema hydroids are small and brown and usually occur in small to large patches right on the live rock. Here is a borrowed pic from Jake Pehrson.

2005-02-02_232017_brad.jpg




It seems, as mentioned above, that the other hydroids mentioned by Steve are seemingly harmless. After being in my system for a couple months I have not seen any spreading of the hydroid and it looks like the amount located on the host coral have decreased in number. It seems that perhaps our systems might be lacking something necessary for these hydroids to flourish and spread.

Here are some borrowed pics from people with the same Hydroids as Steve and I:

Attachment178.aspx

By pk1

another
DigitalHydroids_original.jpg

By zhenya
 
Kurt448 - you are bringng back nightmares for me :mad2: That's what my rock looked like. When I first saw it - I didn't know what it was, thought it was sort of interesting, and left it alone. Then it started to spread and someone told me that the only way to get rid of it was to remove the rock. I didn't want to do that so I tried to ignore it. Then when it really got a hold I tried to pretend like it was ground cover - it wasn't bothering anything so why should I tear down 1/3rd of a 300 gallon tank (and I really loved the way the rock was arrangedJ). After it kept spreading and more rocks started to look like that picture - I couldn't stand it anymore. It looks horrible to the point you don't even notice the corals - your eyes go to that first.

If you have that - get rid of it as soon as you see it.
 
Ok, before I put it back in my tank I decided to try something else. I used the Seachem coral disinfectant to see if it would do anything. It is mainly used for soft corals and lps according to the label. Decided to give it a try any ways.

Well that did it. They are gone and I now have poly extension :D Woohoo. (Had no polyp extension when the lights were on/off before)

Here is a pic of it about 45 minutes after I put it back in my display. From when I purchased it until now, you would have seen the hydroids extending their sweeper thing. Now I do not see even a spec of it :D

hydroids_gone.jpg


Thanks for the help all!

I'll take a pic when the halides kick on as well.
 
Nice job Steve! It seems they weren't much to be worried about, but it is nice to know how to get rid of them just in case.

I assume this is what you used as the dip...
62_1_b.JPG
 
That's it Kurt :D

Update and thought: What I find interesting is that it is also a type of iodine. Wonder why lugols and pro cure didn't work and this one did. Might be the multiple iodine baths or just a different concentration of iodine or chemical combinations used in each iodine.

I'll have to buy a few other acro's with them on to test it with and will post an update.
 
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I wonder if the Reef Dip would do anything to the other 'brown' hydroids that plague other peoples tanks.

Seachem states: Reep dip is effective against bacteria, fungus, and protozoans. What family are hydroids in?
 
Not sure if it would do anything with the brown hydroids.
I made an update 3 posts up to my thoughts about it.

The hydroids are in the family Corynidae and subfamily Obeliinae, so it might not be the Reef Dip, but either:

1. The number of iodine baths in a specific period of time.
2. The types of concentration of iodine
3. The type of chemical attributes that make up the different brand of iodine.
4. They just couldn't handle any more stress from the dips
5. Or something else that I might of missed
 
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