Purging out Palythoa

[themcnertney]

I have some real nasty palys that I need to get rid of. Currently I only have a couple small little colonies that have popped up. What can I use to kill them off? I'll follow with some photos.

 

[Tired]

Pics of how they are would be good. The safest way is to just get rid of the rock. Aiptasia-X may kill them if fed directly to them.

 

[themcnertney]

At one point, they had complete gone crazy and spread. I have a ton more pics if I did some more digging but you get the idea.

 

[themcnertney]

Here is what I’m currently dealing with after I lost all my coral during a move. I got rid of basically all of them. They have come back and survived and want to stop then while I can. They are in another spot too that is tough to photograph

 

[themcnertney]

Pics of how they are would be good. The safest way is to just get rid of the rock. Aiptasia-X may kill them if fed directly to them.

I was using a heavy kalkwasser mix to target feed, but doesnt really budge. It is would be difficult to remove the rock. i think with the small amount I can target them.

 

[themcnertney]

Tank is 220 gallons.

 

[themcnertney]

Before...

 

[Tired]

Sheesh, that's a lot. Good thing you don't have to deal with that. Pretty, but, yikes.

Do you have bone cutters/coral cutters? You could always just take off the bit of rock they're attached to. It should grow over with algae quickly, so you won't notice the chipped spot.

Kalkwasser, IIRC, is basically the same as aiptasia-X and should do the job. I would run lots of carbon during this, of course.

An option for small ones would be to just cover them over with coral putty. Annoy them with something until they shrink up, then smother 'em.

I'm sure you know this already, but, don't touch the blighters. Don't point them at your eyes, either.

 

[Nanorock1970]

I saw a post somewhere about supergluing the mouth shut....I don't know if it works but it might be worth a shot....

 

[Tired]

I'd be a bit skeptical that the glue would stay on. And it would definitely take them awhile to starve.

 

[themcnertney]

I see Amazon sells aiptasia-X that includes a syringe with it. That could be where I am falling short. Using a turkey baster to target them, but not actually injecting directly.

 

[zoaprince]

are there still a ton of them? from the pic you posted it looks like just a few in which case scraping them off would be best.

 

[reefd00d]

Get a syringe from the pharmacy and some lemon juice from the grocery store.
I once had an apstasia on a frag plug. I injected the apstasia with lemon juice, but some got on the zoa and melted it.

 

[themcnertney]

are there still a ton of them? from the pic you posted it looks like just a few in which case scraping them off would be best.

No. I no longer have a ton. Maybe a total of ten.

 

[themcnertney]

I ended up trying aiptasia-x. First thought is it’s like liquid paste. Much thicker then kalkwasser. Seems to stick to the coral. I’ll check back in in a few days to see what damage it did to the coral.

 

[Tim Olson]

I ended up trying aiptasia-x. First thought is it’s like liquid paste. Much thicker then kalkwasser. Seems to stick to the coral. I’ll check back in in a few days to see what damage it did to the coral.

@Dan McNertney - Did you have any luck purging your tank of Palythoas? I've been trying to stop the invasive spread of Palythoas for a few years and have failed with every method. Did the Aiptasia-x end up working on your tank? I've tried it a few times, with no long-term success, but I'm hoping I just wasn't doing it right. Lately I've been cutting them off during a water change and sucking them up with the siphon hose. Although, it barely puts a dent in them and they come right back. Plus I'm scared of the Palytoxin, since the owner of my local fish store recently lost sight in one eye, when he was picking them off for a customer. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[NoAhoysLeft]

I ended up trying aiptasia-x. First thought is it’s like liquid paste. Much thicker then kalkwasser. Seems to stick to the coral. I’ll check back in in a few days to see what damage it did to the coral.

I'm curious how this turned out for you. I do not have palythoas in my tank but I am reading this.

 

[SFREEF3R]

I have a patch I want to trim back and have used Aptasia X multiple times. They shrivel and fall back but eventually recover after a while. I do suspect if I did it repeatedly- like say once or twice a week for an extended period of time I might have success, but I haven’t been so diligent.

 

[themcnertney]

Boy tough to recall, so long ago. I had revamped my tank few years back and moved it down stairs. I think that from what I know now, ApX would work for a handful or so, but the colonies I used to have in the above photos, pulling the rock, killing off the coral with bleach or some means like that would be the only way out.

 

[Roatan Reef]

I had a rock of Captain Jerk/Zombie Zoas and a large Colony of Sun Palys....

Just recently, I was able to pull the rock out of the tank with the Captain Jerk/Zombies and just manually plucked them all off and basically sprayed the rock down. It was a separate rock, so no major issues in doing that.

In the early days of my tank, they were cool, but during cleaning clumps would break off and of course settle on the rockwork...so a handful are left on the tops of the rock, but are not spreading, and that's fine.

The Sun Palys.. I used tongs/tweezers to pull off as much as I could. I intentionally left a few clumps, as I did like them, but they just overgrew.