I need help getting rid of my blue clove polyps they have taken over my 330 gallon system. At first I did not mind them. They do look nice. But 50 polyps have multiplied to thousands. They grow around my SPS colonies and then from one day to the next they seem to die off and take the SPS colony with them. So far this has happened three times. It seems as if some type of toxin is released when they disappear killing the SPS colony they were once surrounding. The worst part is they reappear a few weeks later in the same spot. I don't think they are dyeing. I think they are reproducing. Im afraid they are going to kill what is left of my SPS. Has anyone had the same problem?? Is there anything that will eat them? Please help!!!
Invasion of blue clove polyp help!!!
- Thread starter lola302
- Start date
kingfisher62
New member
Any pics?
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olemiss reb
Molon Labe
A longspine urchin ate thousands in my 90. Traded in the urchin and the polyps are slowly coming back.
saltwaterpimp
New member
Well Here are my thoughts. First you could frag some of the larger colony's making plenty of money to buy new rocks. You can slow the growth buy bumping the alkalinity up a little bit then scrubbing them with a toothbrush as you syphon the waste from your tank..I went from 10 polyps to hundreds of thousands to millions in a year, I really enjoy them even though they have killed a few LPS and SPS of mine too...Good luck and will tag along here..
Joe Pusdesris
New member
I have been trying without success to get these things going. :/
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
hungry urchins and/or tiger cowrie might be a solution.
best solution IMO/IME is to bring environmental conditions in the aquarium up to SPS type environment. This will enable stony corals to outcompete Clavularia / Pachyclavularia / Anthelia / Xenia etc.
DO NOT scrub them with a brush inside the display. They can release harmful toxic substances.
best solution IMO/IME is to bring environmental conditions in the aquarium up to SPS type environment. This will enable stony corals to outcompete Clavularia / Pachyclavularia / Anthelia / Xenia etc.
DO NOT scrub them with a brush inside the display. They can release harmful toxic substances.
Im going to have to look into the long spine urchin. I have started dosing vodka in my system to achieve a low nutrient environment. Hopefully the cloves wont like it and disappear. My worries are if they do start to die off they are going to release toxins and kill my SPS while there at it. Ive been only dosing for a week now and my Nitrates and Phosphate are still pretty high. I will update if any changes occur with the cloves.
I have to disagree with Gary on two counts. This unidentified xeniid (per Aderslade, 2001, according to Sprung's corals quick reference guide) spreads in ways that make green star polyps look non-invasive. It apparently practices something akin to polyp bailout as it frequently pops up in spots far away from the initial colony. I'm frankly not sure anything can out compete it, regardless of tank conditions.
I wouldn't be worried about toxic substances from scrubbing them inside the tank - I'd be worried about bits and pieces that are overlooked and not removed from the tank starting up whole new colonies.
Great coral for a softie display, but one I wouldn't want to put in a mixed tank.
Is this the same stuff?
http://phishybusiness.com/livestock/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=3050
http://phishybusiness.com/livestock/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=3050
Scott-CapeCoral
New member
I'm not sure about them spreading through "polyp bailout", but I know for sure they produce thousands of eggs. If you have high nutrients, they will start spawning. Then your problem is much worse. Mine have spawned a few times, at night, when I used to have softies only and let the nutrients build. I would notice the eggs in the morning when my lights came on. The eggs are pink, sometimes orange. My advice to you is to keep nutrients/nitrates low, syphon out any eggs you can during a spawn, and try to isolate the colonies from other corals. When a coral spawns it takes something like 80% of their nitrogen surplus. So when you keep the nutrients low, spawning is less likely. this doesn't stop them from creep spreading though. On patches of them that weren't near other corals, I would shoot them with hot water (I've never had a problem with the ones that died killing my other corals.) CjDevito is absolutely right about not scrubbing them in the tank because of the pieces settling and starting new colonies. That may be more dangerous for you than a spawn. Good luck man, post some progress pics...
Scott W.
Scott W.
It is actual spawning, Scott? The other accounts I've heard have been pretty vague about it, and I figured the odds were low of having eggs and sperm both from one colony. Be really cool if that is the case, though.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
it's spawning and reproduction can slow/stop if environmental conditions are manipulated.
saltwaterpimp
New member
In my case mine are Brooders ( Hermaphrodites ), I have 100s of pages of documentation On MD Do a google search ( Corysreef )..I have prolific Spawns.I dont agree with low nutrients slowing the growth or slowing spawns, These cloves hate high Alk it will STOP the spread and recede the colony..
Can i post a links to another forum here ? I really have tons of info on two sites but dont want ban ?
saltwaterpimp
New member
I have never had a night spawn with these brooders, always day time 12:00 Pm is when the eggs started everytime, Thats also when my lights came on, same for the hatch ( Larvae ) always day time, Fish,Hydroids,Corals,Inverts,Shrimp...None of these will touch them...The larvae prouduce some kind of chemical to keep predators away..I would like to share my other threads if a mod can let me know...It might give some of you guys some insight on this coral..
RyanSweatt2004
New member
Rather than scrubbing and killing them off, take a razor blade and start scraping and cutting off some frags and start attaching them to frag disks. Plenty of people with soft coral or lps tanks would probably buy those cloves like it was crack. That would dampen the cost of restocking the sps corals you lost. I wish I had this problem with my softy tank. Those cloves are great for filling in bare spots of rock and around coral bases.
RyanSweatt2004
New member
heck, sell them on E-bay and craigslist
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
a direct link to those sites will likely get deleted but you've already provided a lot to go on (ie: Corysreef on MD).
You should share your spawning pix here in this thread. Maybe post link to the thread in the URS Forum.
Have you ever starved Xeniids out of a system by limiting nutrients (ie: PO4, nitrates, organics)?
It can be done.
saltwaterpimp
New member
In my spawning system Nutrients are really low, Dont know about Phosphates though.Pulsing Xeniids dont do reall well for me in either tank. Here are a few photos i need to find the rest .
