Hydroids or not hydroids?

[Runner]

I started getting little snowflakes on my glass of my new 10G tank. I've never seen them before, so I do a search and lo and behold, everybody is calling these things "hydriods". Funny. To me, hydriods in this stage are little blobs that look like a snail egg that have long, near-invisible streamers trailing them in the water. When they hit rock, they grow into those ugly brown feather-duster like tubes that dominate the entire tank. Somebody actually posted to somebody here at RC that it was better to have hydroids than aptaisia. Pffft. There are either two types of hydroids or he has a few screws loose.

 

[EvilMel]

I seriously think that person has lost their mind. Hydroids BETTER than Aptasia? He's smoking crack. Hydroids are the worst POS thing I can think of...and I've got the scars to prove it.

I got those on my glass Scott and I had read that they were one of the stages of the hydroid life cycle.

Now before everyone goes and gets all shocked...yes...I did read reef-related literature about hydroids. I know...shocking...shocking I tell you!

 

[Runner]

I reckon there are two different types of hydroid jellyfish, then. When mine were actively spreading (the medusa stage), they never looked like those snowflakes -- they were little blobs of jelly with stringers behind them. This is the first I've ever seen snowflakes -- but I defintely have a hundred thousand hydriods at home.

If I see any of the hydroid stalks growing in my work tank, I am going to nuke it -- take everything out and throw away the tank and start over.

 

[EvilMel]

I don't think it's two different kinds... I think it's two stages of the life cycle...or at least that's what I read and it makes sense from what I've learned in my classes at school.

For some jellyfish, there's a sessile stage (non-motile) and a medusa stage (motile). I'm going to go look on the interweb...

...OK...this isn't a diagram of hydroids necessarily, but it's what I was envisioning from back in school about jellyfish life cycles:

I'm with you on nuking the tank though. Go for it...abso-frickin'-lutely.

 

[Runner]

Sheesh. Apparently there are dozens of hydrozoans:

Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Plumulariidae Antennella secundaria a thecate hydroid Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Lafoeidae Anthohebella parasitica Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Campanulinidae Blackfordia virginica Black Sea jellyfish Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Cladonematidae Cladonema radiatum Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Cladonematidae Cladonema uchidae a hydrozoan Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Clavidae Clava multicornis club hydroid Native Transplant
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Campanulariidae Clytia latitheca Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Clavidae Cordylophora caspia freshwater hydroid Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Corymorphidae Corymorpha sp. hydroid Unknown
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Olindiidae Craspedacusta sowerbyi freshwater jellyfish Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Sertulariidae Dynamena crisiodes a hydroid Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Eudendriidae Eudendrium sp. Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Bougainvilliidae Garveia franciscana hydroid Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Olindiidae Gonionemus vertens clinging jellyfish Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Campanulariidae Gonothyraea clarki hydroid Native Transplant
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Haleciidae Halecium beanii a hydroid Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Plumulariidae Halopteris polymorpha Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Olindiidae Maeotias marginata Black Sea jellyfish Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Moerisiidae Moerisia lyonsi Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Moerisiidae Moerisia sp. Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Campanulariidae Obelia bidentata doubletoothed hydroid Native Transplant
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Campanulariidae Obelia dichotoma hydroid Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Campanulariidae Obelia spp. a hydrozoan Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Halocordylidae Pennaria (Halocordyle) disticha Christmas tree hydroid Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Plumulariidae Plumularia floridana Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Plumulariidae Plumularia strictocarpa Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Corynidae Sarsia tubulosa clapper hydromedusa Native Transplant
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Sertulariidae Sertularella areyi Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Sertulariidae Sertularella tongensis Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Sertulariidae Sertularia ligulata Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Syntheciidae Synthecium megathecum Exotic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Sertulariidae Thyroscyphus fruticosus a hydroid Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Sertulariidae Tridentata humferi Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Sertulariidae Tridentata ligulata Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Sertulariidae Tridentata turbinata Cryptogenic
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Tubulariidae Tubularia crocea a hydroid Native Transplant
Coelenterates-Hydrozoans Kirchenpaueriidae Ventromma halecioides Cryptogenic

I am betting only a few, though, are tropical in nature.

 

[ct_vol]

I have two types of hydroids... I'll try and take some pics...

 

[Canarygirl]

When they hit rock, they grow into those ugly brown feather-duster like tubes that dominate the entire tank.

I didn't know that hydroids created tubes like feather dusters! :eek2: How can you differentiate between hydroids then, and just little feather dusters? I have tons of little brown tubes with what I thought were mini feather dusters coming out of them. Now I'm worried...

 

[aztbs]

I have several types of hydroids in my tank.

I had the snowflake ones on the glass when the tank was new. There were a lot of them. They were harmless and eventually disappeared on their own as the tank matured.

These are harmless, grow on SPS:

These go through the different stages, but haven't seemed to spread any more than this tiny little patch of them:

And these which are the plague!!! Horrible fast spreading monsters!! I have been fighting this battle for over a year.

 

[Runner]

These are feather duster tube worms:

The brown tubes that grow in clumps and spread across rock and have the fuzzy little tenticles are hydroids. Apparently the snowflakes are the medusa stage of one type and the jelly blobs are the medusa stage of another type. I've only seen the jelly blob kind, though. I hope the snowflake ones are pansies and don't grow into tubes very well.

 

[EvilMel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11097901#post11097901 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Canarygirl
I didn't know that hydroids created tubes like feather dusters! :eek2: How can you differentiate between hydroids then, and just little feather dusters? I have tons of little brown tubes with what I thought were mini feather dusters coming out of them. Now I'm worried...

Stick your arm up to them...if they sting the living hell out of you (with blisters in a few days but no real pain upon contact) then they are the devilishly horrible variety with which I was continually plagued.

Also, the tubes are soft, not hard and calcium-based like many feather duster worm tubes.

In addition, the tubes tend to grow in clumps, meaning that they usually aren't single solitary tubes. They seem to grow like a bunch of flowers would (imagining daffodils).

 

[Lint_Licker]

Here is a pic of the crap I pulled out of a filter, something I thouht were cool neon green glowing feather dusters wound up being hydroids. The pic shows the actual jellies that were alive in the filter.

 

[Lint_Licker]

I grab ahold of something and got stung and then I looked and saw it was covered in jellies.

 

[EvilMel]

Linty...that's not what I have seen and called hydroids. It doesn't mean that that's not hydroids of another kind, but it's not the ones I had. In addition, mine wouldn't hurt when I would initially touch them...just itch and hurt like hell later on when I had the deep blisters coming up.

Man, there are so many bad bugs out there.

 

[Lint_Licker]

I cant remember the exact name but it was hydrozoan something.

Under actinics, thier polyps glow neon green. or they did before I took the torch to all the rock I had.

 

[Lint_Licker]

Those were also tiny, look a lot bigger in the pic, 1" or less total length, the cap was maybe 1/4" or smaller.

 

[Reefdiver72]

Hey runner My copperband would be fat with those feather dusters he wouldnt stop till they where all mowed off.

 

[Runner]

Too late. My tiger pistol shrimp has already found them, clipped off their tubes, and included them in one of his structural projects.

 

[Runner]

A hydroid has grown in my 10G tank now, but it is one of the whispy little pathetic-looking ones -- not the big brown bad ones.