Zanclea hydroids??

[minus9]

My stag has been doing great, then all of a sudden it's PE totally went away and then I noticed these little guys. Zanclea hydroids? It's still growing and encrusting on the rock, but it never has PE, even at night. Any thoughts? All water parameters are great, no swings with temp or alk. Everything gets dipped before it enters the DT.

 

[therman]

Looks like them to me. Had them on a frag once, ended up losing it...hard to say if they were the reason but I imagine they didn't help. From what I could find out, they actually grow through the tissue of the coral, so there is no removing them. At least mine never spread to anything else.

 

[minus9]

Yeah, that's what I've read as well. It sucks, because it was really starting to take off.

 

[minus9]

Update: The stag didn't make it, but there was some healthy tissue left that was encrusting over the rock, so I left it there. Hopefully it will survive and keep growing?
therman, I used to live in Toledo. I've seen other members here from Ohio.

 

[flworkd]

I've seen these on hundreds of maricultured Acro colonies. My guess is that they all came from the same farm; an area with enough particulate matter in the water for them to feed off of. Once imported I watched them die off over time, every time. I've never seen [or heard] of them spreading to other colonies, however. Very interesting observation. IME the hydroids don't have enough food in the water column to continue filter feeding over time. I've never held up on feeding to rid of them, but I don't feed any powdered foods (if you do I would halt that temporarily). IME no common dips eradicated them.

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