Ruth,

Don't know if I got them all, but while re-aquascaping my 37g a couple of weeks ago, I found lots of little groups of these hydroids. They grew mostly in crevices in the rock, and mostly on one rock, though there were a few groups of them on other rocks as well.

I used a heavy duty wire cutter to cut out the rock surrounding the hydorids. It took forever to cut around them and then to finally get to the base of them and cut them out. I also used tweezers to remove any chips of rock that did not automatically fall off the rock as a means of making sure I did not recontaminate the rock with stray hydroids I'd already cut.

I'm pretty confident this method worked on the hydroid groupings I found, but my fear is that I didn't get them all. Took over an hour to do about 25-30 lbs of rock from that tank.

Have not seen them in any of my other two tanks, but am particularly concerned that they may also be in my 67g as the 37g and 67g both have some rock from the same shipment.

No Ruth, I haven't managed to kill any of the little buggers. I have two rocks that I think are covered with them. One rock is exactly like the photo I posted, the other rock sort of looks like maybe anthelia is starting on it, the "stems" aren't as thick and they only have 5 "rough" tentacles that remind me of anthelia. I'm actually thinking about taking both rocks out and boiling them.

BTW, you can get GSP off rock pretty easily, they sort of peel off in sections, just start it with a sharp knife. At least you could recoup some of them. Make sure they don't have any hydroids mixed in though.

I had a couple groups of them in my 90.

Something in my tank got rid of both groups.(But I don't know what.)

I went out of town for a couple of weeks and just asked my wife to feed them when she remembered to.

Maybe they starved? :lol:

They're gone.

Christy,

When we were at Mike's place last year I asked Anthony Calfo about them and he said the only way to get rid of them is manual removal. That's why I did the full rip down, they spread just like aptasia and pack the same kinda punch. If there localized just pull out the rock and break off the surrounding area's. If there on a small chunk of rock just remove the frag and remount it to another piece of rubble and nuke the entire rock.

Anthony also suggested that when removing the hydroids to do it outside the tank as if you loose pieces in the water column that will just make things worse. I also contacted Charles Delbeek on the topic and he gave me the same advice as Anthony, except Charles said to remove not just the top area of the rock crust but to take about an inch of the underlying rock as they bore fairly deep into the rock.

I thought that pic looked familiar :wink:

wonder if blasting them with super glue would help

Epoxy or glue is just a temperary solution as there bore about 1/2" into the rock, the hydroids over time will just grow up and around the masking area :twised:

You basically have to take the rock and bore the little buggers out. I spent a couple of hours digging those suckers out 3-4 pcs of rock. They will spread if you don't remove them.

hth

So boiling isn't an option? :confused: The rocks aren't that big and manual removal would leave me with pretty much nothing but small rubble. I don't really feel like going out and buying more rock that might have the little buggers on them.

I remember someone saying he got rid of them by roasting them with a torch. Which in theory whould work well as long as you dont have anything else attached to the rock.

My experience is the same as C1GY's. There were some on my rocks, and just as I was beginning to worry about them they simply disappeared.:surprise: Maybe my large Emerald Crab took them out, but that would be pure speculation.