I have a small area on a rock that I believe has some colonial hydroids possibly from what I've seen. I only have a few small coral frags in the front of my tank at this point. I've read these hydroids need good light to survive? If I were to shade the part of my tank just where the hydroids are for a long period of time would that do them in possibly? Or is there enough light reflection etc to probably keep them going? They don't appear to be spreading at all. One other question if I razor blade them off but they float off into the water column are they able to land somewhere else and plant in there? Thank you!
Colonial hydroid question?
- Thread starter themadman
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Tahoe61
10K Club member
Hydroids do not have Zooxanthellea that I know of. The amount of light they receive plays no part in their ability to reproduce and expand.
Your best bet IMO is to smother them with some epoxy. It would be like putting a piece of chewed up bubble gum over them. This will harden up and eventually become covered in coralline algae. You'll never even know they were there after awhile. GL.
Tahoe61
10K Club member
Hmmm, interesting.
Cloak's suggestion is a good one and one I have used.
There are many different types of hydroids, some worse than others.
Can you remove the small rock from the tank?
:-)
twilliard
Tank pests..
Colonial hydroids have no dependency on lighting.
If it's a small area superglue them
They live off of suspended particulates and can multiply quite rapidly.
I would cover them now while you have some control over them. If they get out of hand fenbendazole is the last step.
If it's a small area superglue them
They live off of suspended particulates and can multiply quite rapidly.
I would cover them now while you have some control over them. If they get out of hand fenbendazole is the last step.
Thanks for input everyone! Much appreciated. I got them all covered up with some tunze epoxy. It's the purple kind so not too bad plus the rock is in the back thankfully so really not noticeable at all. The rock was a support rock so I didn't want to tear it out. Thanks again. I'll keep an eye on it and make sure nothing pops up.
@twilliard you seem to really know your stuff on these hydroids so I have another quick question. I have some very very tiny things growing in a couple of places. These things are so fine I couldn't possibly get a picture and can only see them if look really hard like ridge line on a rock. These do not look like the grown out colonial hydroids at all. They also don't look like the branching hydroids at this point. All the pics of the branching hydroids have a similar shape as a fern where the branches get smaller as it goes up. These also don't appear to have anything attached to the branches. The branches go all the way from the bottom to the top and appear to be the same length. I attached a pic of a drawing that is as close as I can get to what these look like. Just wondering are these baby hydroids possibly or more than likely something else? Also at this small stage if they are hydroids can I just brush them off to get rid of them or will they spread if I get them in the water column? Thanks again!
Not to imply others who helped me don't as well. @twilliard was just the last one to post so tagged you. Anyone else who may know input would be appreciated as well. Guess I can just let them get bigger if they do and see what they are. Just figured might be easier to deal with when they are so small can't even barely see them if that's what they are. Thanks!
So are these an organism that if I scrub off at that small size, if that's possible, they will spread in the water column? Or if I were to be able to brush them off would that be the end of them in that area?
Thanks for taking time to help me out again! Looks like I have been "blessed" with 3 types of these things. I can't seem to find a name for them exactly and only found this one pic that matches what they are. I could use the epoxy trick again on these guys but if I could just scrub them off would be awesome.
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