Algae on my frags?
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fishface NJ
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can you turn off your blue lights?
To elaborate: those are hydroids. They’re filter feeding pests and while some have had luck with using fenbendazole (dewormer), I didn’t have any with that technique. I ended up upgrading my tank and starting with new rock so I wouldn’t have to worry about them. They stung my zoas, but not much other than that.
Johny Cash
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Cladophoropsis, Green Wiry Algae
Species in this genus, and related ones, cling to the rock, and spread from a runner. The branches do not get tall, and they are often found with hobbyist frags or on live rock.
Manual Removal: Difficult. Macros that have fragile runners and creep along the rock are the hardest to manually remove. Do the best you can. Get a dental pick and get it all the first time and be done with it.
Clean Up Crew: Rock Boring Urchins, Emerald Crabs, Turbos, and Sea Hares occasionally pick on it, but it dont seem particularly interested in it.
Starving it out: It seems to be particularly good at adapting to nutrient lulls, and it is unlikely that a small amount of the algae here and there will be starved out of your tank.
Fortunately these algae species tend to grow slowly, and aren't particularly common.
We distinguish this from Green Turf Algae by keeping this heading limited to green algae that creep along the rockwork, rather than grow up from it.
Species in this genus, and related ones, cling to the rock, and spread from a runner. The branches do not get tall, and they are often found with hobbyist frags or on live rock.
Manual Removal: Difficult. Macros that have fragile runners and creep along the rock are the hardest to manually remove. Do the best you can. Get a dental pick and get it all the first time and be done with it.
Clean Up Crew: Rock Boring Urchins, Emerald Crabs, Turbos, and Sea Hares occasionally pick on it, but it dont seem particularly interested in it.
Starving it out: It seems to be particularly good at adapting to nutrient lulls, and it is unlikely that a small amount of the algae here and there will be starved out of your tank.
Fortunately these algae species tend to grow slowly, and aren't particularly common.
We distinguish this from Green Turf Algae by keeping this heading limited to green algae that creep along the rockwork, rather than grow up from it.
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Albertoinbox
Active Member
Thank you all, I understand I must remove it.
It has currently spread onto 3 frags and none on my rock, being isolated should help. I don't have a dental pick so I'll find something similar.
So I can clean it, how long can a frag stay out of the water?
So it doesn't come back, should I cover the surface where it was growing from with epoxy, glue or something else?
So I can understand, how did this come about in my tank?
It has currently spread onto 3 frags and none on my rock, being isolated should help. I don't have a dental pick so I'll find something similar.
So I can clean it, how long can a frag stay out of the water?
So it doesn't come back, should I cover the surface where it was growing from with epoxy, glue or something else?
So I can understand, how did this come about in my tank?
Corals need water but they can stay out of water for a few minutes, I personally wouldn’t risk more than 5 mins. Zoas and paly’s can stay out a little longer.
You’re best off taking the coral off of those frags as best as possible and either:
A.) gluing the coral where you want it (if they’ve adjusted to the light intensity in your tank) or
B.) gluing the coral onto a small piece of rock rubble so it can be temporarily placed on your frag rack.
Because the truth is, it’s hard to say how to get rid of hydroids. There’s a lot of mixed info. Like I mentioned above, some have had success with fenbendazole (dewormer). But I’ve read where others insist that they’ll go away on their own if you don’t feed them/your corals any fine foods since they’re filter feeders. When I first saw mine and made a post asking for help, I was just told to throw the frag away (which I didn’t do). I ended up taking all my corals off of the rock, and gluing them onto rubble. Once I upgraded my tank, I didn’t use any of the old live rock to prevent these guys from coming into my new tank.
Most likely, these pests came into the tank on a frag from someone else’s system or on some liverock, if you purchased any.
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Albertoinbox
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That was some valuable information AmaleeC, thanks for sharing and thanks for your time.
I got new frag plugs I can switch the frags to, which sounds way better than trying to clean them as far as avoiding a come back, but since it's also on the frags themselves I'll have to clean them anyway. I'll keep them on the rack so I can monitor to make sure its gone before I put it on the rock, removing any of my rock without my rock work crumbling down would be impossible. I have a nano 13.5 and only one main rock structure thats all connected with epoxy, only a couple of tiny loose rocks.
I dip my corals in CoralRX, it's not meant to kill these kinds of pests?
I got new frag plugs I can switch the frags to, which sounds way better than trying to clean them as far as avoiding a come back, but since it's also on the frags themselves I'll have to clean them anyway. I'll keep them on the rack so I can monitor to make sure its gone before I put it on the rock, removing any of my rock without my rock work crumbling down would be impossible. I have a nano 13.5 and only one main rock structure thats all connected with epoxy, only a couple of tiny loose rocks.
I dip my corals in CoralRX, it's not meant to kill these kinds of pests?
That’d be awesome! Others also recommend covering the hydroids in paste to kinda suffocate them. But removing them entirely is a much easier and secure route in my eyes as it means these buggers won’t make a return. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard of much evidence where Coral Rx or other dips have the capability to kill these things.That was some valuable information AmaleeC, thanks for sharing and thanks for your time.
I got new frag plugs I can switch the frags to, which sounds way better than trying to clean them as far as avoiding a come back, but since it's also on the frags themselves I'll have to clean them anyway. I'll keep them on the rack so I can monitor to make sure its gone before I put it on the rock, removing any of my rock without my rock work crumbling down would be impossible. I have a nano 13.5 and only one main rock structure thats all connected with epoxy, only a couple of tiny loose rocks.
I dip my corals in CoralRX, it's not meant to kill these kinds of pests?
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Albertoinbox
Active Member
Just to give you guys a conclusion for this.
I Meticulously removed as much as I could with my dentist tools, light and a magnifying glass. Found all kinds of crap besides Hydroids, even a big bubble of algae stuck within the GSP. I dabbed glue all around the skeleton of the frags (yes, it didn't look pretty and I covered some polyps but its for the best) and switched them all to new dry frag plugs. Put them back in the water.
Slowly but surely they came back.
I had to dispose of all infected frags. Cant take chances with my 13.5 tank. They were all singular pieces in my tank, my only Goniopora and a rainbow fleshy encrusting something that was amazing. But I liked them all and they're not cheap.
Its absolutely unacceptable to sell stuff contaminated with harmfull pests, theres no excuse. Its pretty simple for a business to have a clean system.
To me this sucks big time.
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I agree! I just found out one of my Rasta zoa frags is COVERED in hydroids. Then I looked over and my Rock Flower Anemone Island is also covered in it. As a result, I’m still unsure about what to do... Right now the plan is to wait them out, I was planning on not feeding my corals anymore anyways, so let’s see.
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Albertoinbox
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Dangit! Not the Rastas...
Removing anemones is always annoying, but you can do it.
I figured out they would come back unless I starved them long enough for my frags to wither away, I mean a really long time like months, since I think they would still be able to come back long after you have lost sight of them. Just couldn't find a way out so I reluctantly gave up. Theres already too much frustration going around to deal with some immortal microorganism from hell slowly eating my beautiful corals, and me having to watch.
I got another beautiful frag I spotted thats also covered and its gonna have to take a trip down my trash chute!
These guys had to be liable for this, its like a product showing defect. I had them for only a short period before I noticed. There had to be a guarantee, they all came from the same shop. If they were liable they would take measures to avoid it.
Good luck and keep us posted.
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