hydriods

Delphinus · #1 07-17-2011, 04:14 AM

The third picture in particular (the side profile), there's no doubt those are hydroids. I guess some of the others could be small aiptasia but they don't usually stay small like that for very long and end up being unmistakably anemones (if they were). These look like the same hydroids I had. For what it's worth, they never really bothered anything but they just looked fugly. They started dwindling on their own after I added a potter's angel to my mix. Whether that's coincidence or not I can't say but I did read somewhere that pygmy angels might eat them. I'll see if I can find the link.

ScubaGirl · #2 07-17-2011, 03:46 PM

First thing I thought with the polyp things was aptasia too. However, they are growing outward (spreading) like a carpet on the most part. I definitely do have a few new aptasia though. I count 5 that are obvious. In the same time frame they individually have grown larger, maybe 2-3x the size of each of the little polyps you see in the pics and definitely retract. I haven't tried touching the little guys though. I am going in to clean all the powerheads, etc. before the blackout (for dinos) so I'll check it out and let you know. Maybe I'll grab a couple of pics of the aptasia too so it's easier to compare them against each other.

I'll look into the compatibility of the angel in my tank. I'd much rather have a nice looking fish control the issue than me have to deal with it manually.

waynemah · #3 07-17-2011, 03:55 PM

The hydroids I had looked alot like the 3rd pic as well. The stems are very firm. I was able to peel off carpet like pieces at a time.

ScubaGirl · #4 08-19-2011, 11:18 PM

Ok, dinos seem to be non-existent (once again, YAY!) so ready to attack the hydroids. Anyone with experience doing the epoxy? I have small patches of these on almost every rock in the tank. It will be an extensive job.
I'm full of questions:

Should I do one rock at a time or start replacing the live rock in my tank?
Doing one rock at a time will be a lengthy process and I will have to dismantle my whole rock work. Have any of you done this successfully? Any issues arise?
Should I do it over a couple of days for less trama to the live stock?
What brand of epoxy did you use?
How long to leave it outside the tank before returning it to the water?

Here we go for a ride on the crazy train, LOL.

ScubaGirl · #5 08-23-2011, 10:32 AM

Bump.

Thank you in advance!

Delphinus · #6 08-23-2011, 01:47 PM

I never did try the epoxy trick so I'm not sure. If I was to do that though I'd only do a few patches at a time. The underwater epoxy is not always the nicest to work with (it's more of a putty than an actual adhesive). I could see this getting kind of expensive since even the cheap epoxy is still like $10 per tube.

Sorry I wish I had better experience to draw on. All I really know is that shortly after adding a potter's angel, the hydroids started to disappear. I had also read that pygmy angels (any of the Centropyge sp. angels) will nip at hydroids so I still think that might be worth a shot for you.