Digitate hydroids, how to kill? Fenbendazole?

[Wiskey]

Hello all!

I have a 10G nano that is full of Digitate Hydroids which are stinging and irritating my coral. I didn't worry about them at first because I thought they were something else, but when their affect became more apparent I started looking further into it.

I've been using Apista x to zap them, it works, but I'd much rather eliminate them or get something that eats them.

I've heard that Peppermint shrimp are a great choice, has anyone had experience with that? (Working or not working?)

I've also read a great thread on Fenbendazole but it was pretty old, it's not my first choice, but seems promising. Is there another source that you don't need to separate now? Has anyone had experience with that?

Are there any other ways to attack these that I haven't seen in my research?

Thank you,
James

 

[Jekyl]

I always thought hydroids were just part of the ugly phase and clear up on their own. I may be wrong. I had them, never did a thing about them and haven't seen them since.

 

[Wiskey]

The tank is a little over a year old now, but being so small it doesn't have any fish other than a clown. I'm sure some fish out there eats them because my big tank has no issue with these.

Whiskey

 

[Shadows Reef]

Hello all!

I have a 10G nano that is full of Digitate Hydroids which are stinging and irritating my coral. I didn't worry about them at first because I thought they were something else, but when their affect became more apparent I started looking further into it.

I've been using Apista x to zap them, it works, but I'd much rather eliminate them or get something that eats them.

I've heard that Peppermint shrimp are a great choice, has anyone had experience with that? (Working or not working?)

I've also read a great thread on Fenbendazole but it was pretty old, it's not my first choice, but seems promising. Is there another source that you don't need to separate now? Has anyone had experience with that?

Are there any other ways to attack these that I haven't seen in my research?

Thank you,
James

I’d love to know this too, my current tank is a year and a half old and it’s filled with them.

 

[BillyW]

I know the article you’re talking about and I used the safeguard and separated it for my tank. I bought peppermint shrimp and they didn’t do anything. Fenbendazole worked though!

 

[Wiskey]

I ended up trying a two pronged approach in my 3G at work and my 10G in my bedroom. The first prong was Apista X, which I found to be marginally effective. It worked great if you could get it in the right place but that was often difficult.

The second prong was Peppermint shrimp. This wound up being super effective - they knocked back the bulk of them very quickly, and now I haven't seen one in over two weeks in either tank. It's worth mentioning that I got 3 shrimp for the 10, and 2 for the 3G. I got both ORA captive raised and wild peppermint shrimp for variety.

Whiskey