What will eat hydroids

[buffalo123]

What fish likes to eat hydroids?

 

[drummereef]

None that I know of. Hydroids suck.

 

[buffalo123]

not even copperbands?

 

[omni2226]

If you can find a critter that will eat hydroids you could make a fortune and retire from the profit.

Only way I have found is to pluck them off with tweezers, making sure to scrape the rock at the base of the hydroid.

 

[ricwilli]

Does anyonee have any pictures of it?

 

[omni2226]

Here is a picture. You may have to copy it and zoom in a bit. Toward the bottom right.
See the small brown stalks with a anemone type head?
These are hydroids. Well one type anyway. These grow fairly fast.
I have another type which is a bit larger that grows very slowly.

 

[mille239]

I hate hydroids.... they grow soooo fast

 

[rockindacheeks]

tweezers work like a charm.

 

[jda]

Kalk can get them too.

 

[ricwilli]

AAAAAAHHHHHH MAN!!!!!!! I think I have those in my tank. I was showing them to my wife and the in-laws thinking they were something good. I just purchased a new camera. I am going to try to take a picture of it and post it here just to make sure.

 

[mille239]

Kalk can get them too.

Though I've never tried, I've read on several threads kalk is useless against them, they just come back in a couple days....

anyone else had success with this method?

 

[drummereef]

Sorry, but kalk is basically useless. It stuns them, but won't get rid of them, ime. The only sure fire way to rid them is manual removal.

 

[jda]

I got some rock from a tank that was covered in them. I dusted the rock like a powdered donut and let it sit out for a couple of hours. I never saw them again.

I have no idea how it works in-tank.

Are you saying that they can hide so that you cannot apply it very well or that they can actually handle the PH over 12?

 

[omni2226]

Here is a picture of another type of hydroid. this one is over a year old (the hydroid not the pic). In that time it has sprouted one daughter. The little white ring just below it.
This one leaves me alone so I ignore it......for now.

 

[ricwilli]

Sorry for the blurryness, but I don't know how to take pictures. But anyway, is this a hydroid?

 

[omni2226]

Yep. Pluck em off with tweezers.

 

[ricwilli]

Thanks omni2226, how do you scrape the rock after plucking them off? What do you use?

 

[buffalo123]

It must be continuous maintenance thing. When you happen to have your hands in the water do some hydroid pulling.

 

[nebraskareef]

I also have several little patches of hydroids in my tank. Should you have a small syphon running while you pluck/scrape? Are you just scraping the rock with the tweezer head?

 

[JD52]

Ive read where Tiger Coweries will eat them in larger systems.