Pests??? Clove Polyps, pipe organs, etc

[prodbot7]

Hi! I'm looking to add some texture to my tank and love polyp type corals (clove polyps, star polyps, sympodium, cespitularia, and anthellia).

I've heard a lot about these types of corals becoming pests in tanks and taking over... what experiences have you had?

Tank currently consists of mainly LPS and softies... I'm just not prepared for the commitment that comes with SPS quite yet.

 

[KrisReef]

Organ pipe coral can grow fairly quickly, suck up a lot of alk, but it's fairly easy to remove and eradicate if you decide it has to go. The others you mentioned are more tricky to contain because once they spread on the rock work the rockwork has to go to eliminate them. Most folks don't have a rockscape that is made to replace.

I just tossed a huge chuck of Organ pipe coral, and I have a bunch more I'm going to get rid of because it is growing so quickly. I got it a year or 3 ago and it came with a trojan pest anemone that is the focus of my next tear down effort.

 

[Alexraptor]

Clove polyps are a mixed bag, they can and WILL take over any available real-estate. However, some species will smother other corals, while others will not, and can be overgrown in time, by aggressively encrusting SPS and LPS corals.

I have a variety of the later kind, which is why my focus has been on corals av the pavona and hydnophora genus. Rhodactis shrooms also seem to do an exceptionally good job, smothering this variety.

All the blue/purple stuff on the rocks, are clove polyps.

 

[Mflores888]

Cloves are beautiful ❤

But yea they can grow over a lot of different surfaces

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Hi! I'm looking to add some texture to my tank and love polyp type corals (clove polyps, star polyps, sympodium, cespitularia, and anthellia).

I've heard a lot about these types of corals becoming pests in tanks and taking over... what experiences have you had?

Tank currently consists of mainly LPS and softies... I'm just not prepared for the commitment that comes with SPS quite yet.

It's your aquarium, you can decide on what best suits you, I asked and read so many different replys and fundamentalaly, the best answer is 'you do what makes you happy'.

 

[prodbot7]

Cloves are beautiful ❤

But yea they can grow over a lot of different surfaces

They look gorgeous in a close up shot like this.

 

[prodbot7]

Thanks for all the input... it really sound like everyone has their own likes and dislikes... maybe I'll give it a go, keeping them a bit isolated at first until I see how they grow in my tank.

Thanks again!

 

[ninjamyst]

Pest pest pest. The best advice any experienced reefer can tell you is to be very very selective of the corals you put in your tank and where you put them. You can have gsp and xenia and cloves. Just isolate them to their own rocks / islands. Same for encrusting corals like encrusting monti, lepto, leptra, psammacora, and more. As a matter of fact, stick with lps that grows their own skeleton like euphyllia and candy cane and Duncan. Those you can move around however you want.

 

[JonChicago]

I'd be careful. I started with a tiny bit of Anthelia at the top of my tank on one small rock. It was at the top of my rock work and I admit I let it overgrow a bit from the area I intended. I circled it in yellow in this picture. I then tried to prune it back with tweezers so of course some little bits of pieces got free and floated around. I figured they were to small to propagate elsewhere. NOPE. Before I knew it I had it growing everywhere. Outlined in red is just one spot of many. I fell out of love with my tank and actually did a complete overhaul in the last 2 months and ripped everything out and put in all new rock to completely eradicate the pest anthelia. I was searching through pictures of my tank and realized the in the last 12-15 months I hadn't really taken any since I was so unhappy with how it became overgrown and the way it was looking. I'm much happier with my tank now and as a previous poster wrote I am way more selective what I put in my tank and how.

 

[Alexraptor]

- "Cloves break free, they expand to new territories and crash through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh… well, there it is"

 

[Mogwai]

Hi! I'm looking to add some texture to my tank and love polyp type corals (clove polyps, star polyps, sympodium, cespitularia, and anthellia).

I've heard a lot about these types of corals becoming pests in tanks and taking over... what experiences have you had?

Tank currently consists of mainly LPS and softies... I'm just not prepared for the commitment that comes with SPS quite yet.

Clo

Hi! I'm looking to add some texture to my tank and love polyp type corals (clove polyps, star polyps, sympodium, cespitularia, and anthellia).

I've heard a lot about these types of corals becoming pests in tanks and taking over... what experiences have you had?

Tank currently consists of mainly LPS and softies... I'm just not prepared for the commitment that comes with SPS quite yet.

Clove polyps are really nice. Some easy to control than others (growth wise). GSP are great either on a back wall or separate rock chunk away from main rockscape. Pulsating xenia are very pretty especially in lower flow area of the tank with a nice size colony. The Pulsating is much more noticeable but they spread fast if not careful. Your tank, your taste, your choice and do what you picture in your head what your tank should look and feel like. Best of luck.

 

[Dburr1014]

Blue Cloves can even crawl over the sand. I regret adding to the tank. But as of late, I'm using boiled tank water and a toothbrush, then a dose of H2O2 on top of that to really knock them back. Then a good rinse before going back in the display.

 

[Katrina71]

Branching GSP is beautiful and easy to trim up. Not to mention, the green glow under blues is stunning.

 

[KrisReef]

Thanks for all the input... it really sound like everyone has their own likes and dislikes... maybe I'll give it a go, keeping them a bit isolated at first until I see how they grow in my tank.

Thanks again!

Let us know how it turns out, but don't blame me if they don't grow on you and you have to tear it all down.

 

[prodbot7]

- "Cloves break free, they expand to new territories and crash through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh… well, there it is"

is it spawning?

 

[prodbot7]

- "Cloves break free, they expand to new territories and crash through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh… well, there it is"

we had a few eggs show up and I wasn’t sure what they were… assumed they were some type of snail eggs but they seemed large for a snail… maybe 1-2mm diameter… do you think it could have been one of our corals?

edit: did a bit of sleuthing and I’m thinking our bengai cardinal spit out it’s mouth brood. It would be super cool to get one of our pairs of fish to successfully reproduce.

 

[prodbot7]

Branching GSP is beautiful and easy to trim up. Not to mention, the green glow under blues is stunning.

It is really beautiful…. I think if we do give it a go we’ll stick with something branching like this so it’s easier to control. Thank you!!

 

[Alexraptor]

is it spawning?

Yup!

Mixed feelings about it tbh. It's not like a I need "more clove polyps", on the other hand coral spawning events in aquaria are so incredibly rare still, so it's rather exciting when it happens.

 

[prodbot7]

Yup!

Mixed feelings about it tbh. It's not like a I need "more clove polyps", on the other hand coral spawning events in aquaria are so incredibly rare still, so it's rather exciting when it happens.

Ah I know what you mean! Something I’d love to see happen in my tank someday but maybe a bit a a nuisance if the coral is already prolific.

 

[prodbot7]

Pest pest pest. The best advice any experienced reefer can tell you is to be very very selective of the corals you put in your tank and where you put them. You can have gsp and xenia and cloves. Just isolate them to their own rocks / islands. Same for encrusting corals like encrusting monti, lepto, leptra, psammacora, and more. As a matter of fact, stick with lps that grows their own skeleton like euphyllia and candy cane and Duncan. Those you can move around however you want.

That's what I've been doing so far... its just so tempting with the beautiful texture and motion softies can bring... but I certainly don't want to battle a pest taking over... I already had to remove my Chicago BT because it was splitting and taking over

Here's a list of what's in my tank currently. I'm planning on picking up a few euphyllia and meaty corals as the tank matures a bit more.

Thanks for the input!