Blue Clove Polyps - What to do?

[Brad Bessett]

I've been fighting these in my 90 gallon SPS dominant mixed reef for over a year and the spreading is now beyond control. There are now colonies of BCP's on almost every rock in my tank. Millions of polyps.

I've tried beating them back with a laser but they've spread to the point where there is no way I can get them all.

I have countless acro colonies that are attached to the rock, hundreds of zoas attached to my base rock, all of which have these BCP's on them.

My question is - What now? Ditch all of this live rock and suffer the losses?

I've heard of fluke tabs - Will that risk my other stuff?

I'm at a loss - Help!

 

[d2mini]

I did the fluke tab thing... worked great. May have lost a couple shrimp but I think that was it. I took my frag tank and mangrove tank off line for a few days, which also housed my large pistol shrimp, and he survived. Still have him a couple years later.

 

[demonspeedn]

My Powder Brown Tang eats them faster than they can grow.

 

[Brad Bessett]

I do have several fish including a pistol/goby pair. 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermints. Lots of LPS including scoly's, euphyllia. Softies like shrooms, z/p. Thousands invested in SPS.

I've got a Lavender Tang, Kole Tang, and Foxface but they don't touch the cloves.

 

[d2mini]

Dude, shrimp and cuc are cheap.
I don't mean to sound like an insensitive jerk, but when it comes to my coral that could be worth thousands vs my cuc that I can easily replace for less than a Benji, I know who wins out. ;)
Kill those BCP's ASAP.

 

[themcnertney]

I've been dealing with this same issue. @d2mini where can we go to get fluke tabs and information about it?

 

[Brad Bessett]

I could care less about the clean up crew. Or anything for that matter minus the coral. And there are several high end corals I could re-home temporarily too.

 

[Brad Bessett]

I guess the question now is can fluke tabs still be found?

 

[Empress]

Use Safeguard. It's a dog dewormer and it WILL kill all those BCP. Been there, done it. Active ingredient Fenbendazole.

 

[d2mini]

I was lucky enough to get some from a friend at the time.
They are getting harder and harder to find. Wish I knew of some that were available. :(

 

[Empress]

Any pet store that sells stuff for dogs/cats will have Safeguard. It might be behind their counter do you'll have to ask. Safeguard. Cheap too.

 

[d2mini]

Any pet store that sells stuff for dogs/cats will have Safeguard. It might be behind their counter do you'll have to ask. Safeguard. Cheap too.

Sorry, I was talking about the fluke tabs, but that's great to know that Safeguard has similar results!
I figured there had to be an alternative out there but wasn't sure if it was going to have the same active ingredient or if the active ingredient had the same effect on the BCP.

 

[rlpardue]

Acros grow right over them. I've never had them kill a single coral. They're monolithic but don't do actual damage.

 

[klp]

Use Safeguard. It's a dog dewormer and it WILL kill all those BCP. Been there, done it. Active ingredient Fenbendazole.

How much Safeguard per gallon do you use? Also I assume it kills all similar animals? What is not safe in your experience?

 

[ritter6788]

don't do actual damage.

But they can. I don't know what it is they do but they will sort of detonate and take out any surrounding coral. They will also smother Zoas and irritate LPS as they grow up the skeletons.

 

[Empress]

How big is your tank?

What I did was poured ABOUT a tsp of Safeguard in a cup of tank water and stirred it up really good, then poured it slowly in the tank where the polyps were really bad.

Then I watched and waited to see what would happen. I didn't see any change for the first 24 hours, then I started seeing tiny white dots that WERE the polyps! So I added a little more Safeguard and watched and waited a few more days, and before I knew it the polyps disappeared dot-by-dot. It was kinda cool actually.

It took about a month, but I took it slow. Dosing a little at a time. Then did a big water change. None of my fish / corals or inverts were affected, but I made sure my skimmer was pulling out dead polyps and the power heads were pulling a lot of oxygen into the tank.

That's the secret to making sure your livestock don't get sick from the Safeguard.....lots of oxygen and a healthy water change at the end.

Hope that helps. [emoji886]

 

[therman]

Do you think this could be done effectively in a dip? I have a big Icefire echinata colony that is being slowly encroached by the brown version of blue cloves. The colony is loose, so I could do a much more concentrated version. Maybe I will do some experimenting.