Controlling Clove Polyp

[joshbpaul]

Hi everybody,

My clove polyp grew faster and more robustly than anything else in my 9-month old tank. It's on the verge of taking over! It's attached to a central rock that's not easily removable. Any suggestions on how to control it? Can I prune it like a bush in the tank? Will that release toxins? Anything else I can do without removing the rock?

Thanks very much!
Josh

 

[mike550]

@joshbpaul welcome to the love / hate of polyps. They will spread really easily when tank conditions are good — so congrats! That said, I was in a constant battle of pulling them off of rock. Sometimes you can lift a mat of it. Ive touched polyps with bare hands and no issues.

If you can get the polyps and the rock onto its own “island” in the sand it’s super easy to maintain

 

[joshbpaul]

Thanks! I was able to separate the original colony, but the out-of-control part is all new growth. I was rather pleased with myself at first! I'll see what I can pull off during the next water change. Thanks again.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Those look like the blue/purple clove polyps, which are the worst, they have caused many to close their tanks and start over.

They will take over your tank, they can’t be contained. Polyps will release and float to other area’s of the tank and start growing. They don’t release toxins or sting, but they can smother some corals and grow right over some corals

I tried to toothbrush them back for a year, but they just grow back within just a few days. In Jan of this year I finally took the tank down to start over.

You can search the forum for some type of chemical that some are using (flucanozole ??) , but it comes with a lot of big risks that I wasn’t willing to take.

 

[mike550]

Those look like the blue/purple clove polyps, which are the worst, they have caused many to close their tanks and start over.

They will take over your tank, they can’t be contained. Polyps will release and float to other area’s of the tank and start growing. They don’t release toxins or sting, but they can smother some corals and grow right over some corals

I tried to toothbrush them back for a year, but they just grow back within just a few days. In Jan of this year I finally took the tank down to start over.

You can search the forum for some type of chemical that some are using (flucanozole ??) , but it comes with a lot of big risks that I wasn’t willing to take.

@LordofCinder you’re scaring me a bit. Ive got some in my QT that I was planning to just leave on rock isolated in the sand bed. Not good enough?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Don’t take my word for it. Just type the words “blue clove polyps reef tank” into google, and just look at the headings that pop up. Countless horror stories. Do yourself a big favour and don’t add them to your display.

if you really want clove polyps, try some other colors, apparently some other colors do not spread as bad as the blue ones. But I am traumatized and biased against all clove polyps now.

 

[soreefed]

Don’t take my word for it. Just type the words “blue clove polyps reef tank” into google, and just look at the headings that pop up. Countless horror stories. Do yourself a big favour and don’t add them to your display.

if you really want clove polyps, try some other colors, apparently some other colors do not spread as bad as the blue ones. But I am traumatized and biased against all clove polyps now.

These look like firework cloves which are a lot less gnarly than blue cloves.

 

[Reeftanktraveler]

Those do not look like blue clove polyps. They look like firework polyps. Unless they are the same thing.