Hydroid ID

[CoralExotic]

What type of hydroid is this? They are everywhere in my tank and bothering my zoa's.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Look like colonial hydroids to me. Peppermint shrimp might eat them. Key word might.
Could also try reducing the DOC through some water changes and additional mechanical filtration. Hydroids will feel the effect of less food before the zoas.

 

[CoralExotic]

Look like colonial hydroids to me. Peppermint shrimp might eat them. Key word might.
Could also try reducing the DOC through some water changes and additional mechanical filtration. Hydroids will feel the effect of less food before the zoas.

Aren't these colonial hydroids? Which is not what I have. Or is colonial broad term for multiple species?

 

[CoralExotic]

Here is a pic I found of the kind I have.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I dont know exact species, only was differing from say digitate hydroids.

 

[KJ]

Branching hydroids.

 

[Neto]

I had them before there is nothing that kills them, i tried everything. They also sting really bad. My recommendation to you is to take the rock out and boil it

 

[Gareth elliott]

http://seahorse.com/forum/hydroids-my-dwarf-tank

Found a good write up on dealing with hydroids in a dwarf seahorse tank.

 

[wattson]

I have same problem hydriods,,I just cleaned a tank out on my system and is just a water resevior now.LOL
needless to say that I bought a Dolabella sea hare last week to eat the hydriods but,,I had to put my fish in the cleaned out tank somewhere..soooo I put my matted filefish in my zoa/paly tank and he is actually eating the hydriods now..
no promises that all them do it but I watched him eating/picking on them...HTH

 

[ectoaesthetics]

I have not had them for a while, but the two best methods I had for removal were just mechanical. One was to use tweezers and a dental pick -works really well (I would use a magnifying glass to see better). You may have to go at it a few times before they are truly gone. This was a great method when they were interlaced in-between things like zoas and clove polyps. The second was burning. A cigar lighter worked wonders on these, and allowed me to scorch a very tiny section of rock with accuracy. It will smell terrible, but it only took one pass. Obviously not recommended when they are interlaced with your corals -as the lighter is not quite THAT accurate .

I have not found that they are as difficult to remove as others have. I would MUCH rather be removing them than battling SPS eating stars, nudis, nuisance algae, red flatworms, or aptasia. Yes it might take a few passes with a magnifying glass, but seems like one of the easiest pests to deal with that I have encountered.

 

[CoralExotic]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I dont think manual removal will work for me as they are EVERYWHERE including my sump, fuge, every rock. There's no way I'll be able to get all of them. I have a fully stocked 108 gallon and would rather live with them then tear down the scape and corals.

Has anyone tried Fenbendazole?

 

[ectoaesthetics]

Even just cutting them out of your sump with a razor and sucking them up and disposing of them will help slow the spread... A pair of tweezers goes a long ways -especially when they are near a coral and stinging it.

 

[seamonster]

Ive ben battling hydroids too...flame angels pick at them (im not guaranteeing this) but theyll never eliminate them... what i did was take out my rocks which had them and boil it to kill the hydroids. (I’ll guarantee boiling will kill hydroids) . However, perhaps a better approach is to use hydrogen peroxide to get rid of them. I heard that works. Im going to remove the rocks affected and treat. I have a few small patches left and im going yo try this method very soon.

 

[Vincent100]

Good old panacur will wipe em off the face of the Earth

 

[GoodKat]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I dont think manual removal will work for me as they are EVERYWHERE including my sump, fuge, every rock. There's no way I'll be able to get all of them. I have a fully stocked 108 gallon and would rather live with them then tear down the scape and corals.

Has anyone tried Fenbendazole?

I have these same hydroids. So far I only have a hand full so I think I can still win the war against them. I am debating bleaching the rock. How worried should I be about them? what did you end up doing? Did you take the extreme step of using fenbendazole?

 

[Benny Morosco]

I have to ask what about the higher power laser lights to pinpoint them out of your tank?

 

[Brad Vaughn]

Was anyone successful in eradicating these?

 

[GoodKat]

Was anyone successful in eradicating these?

I stopped dosing coral feeding products and in about a month they started to disappear on their own. How old is your tank?

I recommend a more aggressive approach if they are colonial hydroids. I was only talking about my branching hydroids.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

I think I just got rid of my extreme colonial hydroid infestation. It used fish Bendazole. I had to remove all of my inverts to another tank for several months and treat the main tank but that seems to have taken them out. After I was pretty sure they were dead I took out some of the most infested rocks because even though the hydroids were dead their little tubes were still there.
So far I haven't seen any live ones since the treatment and it has been about a month. I did loose my gorgonian in the process so I wish I would have removed it but the reports I read conflicted on if it would be safe or not and it wouldn't fit into the tank I had the inverts in.