Eliminating Blue Clove Polyps with Fenbendazole

[Reeferbadness]

I was polyp free for about three months.

same here - dosed 2 x 1 g packets (enough for 222 gallons according to the forumla) and BCP were gone for about 3 months. Now they are back (uggg) - will try again. What else can you do?

 

[fridmani]

I have battling this plague for a least a year, and I think I finally got a foothold. I tried dosing the whole system to only them come back again. Unfortunately, Fenbendazole stays in your system for time even with carbon and water changes, and I could not place any of my shrooms and other softies back in the system for a while. I decided to take the surgical approach of moving infected rocks out that had no corals and basically placing in the sun and drying out the rock. This was the only way I found of truly eradicating them from the rock. Rocks with corals, I had to set up a separate tank and treated it with a light dose of Fenbendazole (Fen). I noticed when treating it with Fen, the cloves would shrivel up and exposed the network of tendrils of the cloves. When this was exposed, I was able to more successful scrub the rock and corals themselves with a toothbrush since the cloves were weakened. I have previously tried to just doing a good scrub on the rocks, but some piece of the clove would always survive in the smallest area and come back. This is extremely tedious, but ultimately proved to be the best way to eradicate them for now. Cross my fingers...

The Fen can be effective as a whole tank treatment, but it had too many long term negative affects on my tank for me. Good luck.

 

[jda]

Somewhere on here I posted how to kill them without high doses or harm to anything. I don't remember where. Mine have not come back in a long time.

 

[littlebigreef]

same here - dosed 2 x 1 g packets (enough for 222 gallons according to the forumla) and BCP were gone for about 3 months. Now they are back (uggg) - will try again. What else can you do?

I posted on this sometime ago and my response has been buried. You need to do a 'double tap' and drop a second dose after 6-8 weeks and that'll put them down for good.

 

[jda]

Buy the flake food from AngelFishPlus with the fenbendazole in it. Feed your fish with it one time a day for a few months.... and gone forever.

 

[Reefman71]

PANCUR, straight dog dewormer is the key. I’ve been polyp free for months.

 

[Reefman71]

same here - dosed 2 x 1 g packets (enough for 222 gallons according to the forumla) and BCP were gone for about 3 months. Now they are back (uggg) - will try again. What else can you do?

Up your dose and leave it in longer.

 

[Reefman71]

I’m trying to find my original comment on here somewhere. That dosage worked for my 125 gallon. You have to go heavy on the Pancur. I remember some of my Zoanthids where stressed but in the end I didn’t lose anything except the blue cloves

 

[Oshanickreef]

Buy the flake food from AngelFishPlus with the fenbendazole in it. Feed your fish with it one time a day for a few months.... and gone forever.

I would love to hear any experience you have had with this. i have the biggest infestation of these. does this actually work?

 

[jda]

Yeah, it works. I don't even have much else to say about it...it is that easy. Just order the right food.

 

[jda]

I will add that it takes a few days or a week for them to start to wilt. Then they slowly die for another few weeks. They can come back if you stop feeding, so just feed the flake food for 3-4 months. If they start to come back, just feed some more. You can feed twice a day if you want, but I am not sure if it is better, or not. I got the large bag and fed my fish a normal amount nearly every day.

 

[Oshanickreef]

I will add that it takes a few days or a week for them to start to wilt. Then they slowly die for another few weeks. They can come back if you stop feeding, so just feed the flake food for 3-4 months. If they start to come back, just feed some more. You can feed twice a day if you want, but I am not sure if it is better, or not. I got the large bag and fed my fish a normal amount nearly every day.

so is this food at all toxic to any animals? thats my main concern. i have my tank full of mostly sps but i have some torches in there that cost me and arm and a leg and i would hate to lose anything.

 

[Oshanickreef]

Buy the flake food from AngelFishPlus with the fenbendazole in it. Feed your fish with it one time a day for a few months.... and gone forever.

also im googling the anglefish plus and nothing is coming up. can you verify with a link to the food?

 

[jda]

Angelsplus.com

Sorry about that. You want the deworming flake food with the fenbendzole in it - I think that it is green. They have many different kinds, so just pay attention.

You can see what I keep in my build thread.

 

[Reefman71]

I have battling this plague for a least a year, and I think I finally got a foothold. I tried dosing the whole system to only them come back again. Unfortunately, Fenbendazole stays in your system for time even with carbon and water changes, and I could not place any of my shrooms and other softies back in the system for a while. I decided to take the surgical approach of moving infected rocks out that had no corals and basically placing in the sun and drying out the rock. This was the only way I found of truly eradicating them from the rock. Rocks with corals, I had to set up a separate tank and treated it with a light dose of Fenbendazole (Fen). I noticed when treating it with Fen, the cloves would shrivel up and exposed the network of tendrils of the cloves. When this was exposed, I was able to more successful scrub the rock and corals themselves with a toothbrush since the cloves were weakened. I have previously tried to just doing a good scrub on the rocks, but some piece of the clove would always survive in the smallest area and come back. This is extremely tedious, but ultimately proved to be the best way to eradicate them for now. Cross my fingers...

The Fen can be effective as a whole tank treatment, but it had too many long term negative affects on my tank for me. Good luck.

It didn’t affect anything but my leathers? Mushrooms unaffected

 

[Oshanickreef]

Angelsplus.com

Sorry about that. You want the deworming flake food with the fenbendzole in it - I think that it is green. They have many different kinds, so just pay attention.

You can see what I keep in my build thread.

I picked up some of this food. It says to feed ornamental fish only and has a freshwater fish on the bag. Another note is it says feed every other day for 5 days and repeat after 5 weeks. Wondering if this treatment could hurt my fish? If I have to feed the food for months wouldn’t that pose more risk?

 

[MnFish1]

It is extremely easy to buy fembendazole powder - multiple stores sell it - I would not buy the one that is in a feed.

 

[MnFish1]

I picked up some of this food. It says to feed ornamental fish only and has a freshwater fish on the bag. Another note is it says feed every other day for 5 days and repeat after 5 weeks. Wondering if this treatment could hurt my fish? If I have to feed the food for months wouldn’t that pose more risk?

I would not use it. Instead - there are numerous hobbyst sites that sell this medication (Its widely used for snails in FW aquaria). The feed version - is for internal parasites. It will not help your corals. get Pure Fembendazole powder if possible (it's hard to dissolve - follow the directions). JMHO

 

[MnFish1]

I picked up some of this food. It says to feed ornamental fish only and has a freshwater fish on the bag. Another note is it says feed every other day for 5 days and repeat after 5 weeks. Wondering if this treatment could hurt my fish? If I have to feed the food for months wouldn’t that pose more risk?

Another different reply. I love the blue clove polyps in my tank - and they never spread. Not sure why - I assume coral combat. I would wonder (if you can seperate those rocks) - rather than chemically treating - remove them from your tank and sell them to your LFS? They are actually popular

 

[jda]

I fed my fish every day for a few months. Cloves gone forever. Nothing impacted in the reef - corals or fish. It works.

Compare this to a one or two time treatment where tanks had issues.

5 days is not likely enough. This is an over-time treatment.