- Joined
- Feb 28, 2020
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- 356
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My tank is quite new, I’ve only had it set up for 8.5 weeks. Very early on I noticed a white worm-like thing that would come out at night from a hole in one of my pieces of live rock and was very light sensitive. I took a video to my LFS and they identified it as a dorveillidae worm. They said these worms can be both free moving and anchor in place. I’ve seen lots of them popping up, in my sand, from my rocks, from my macroalgae...and just today randomly stumbled across somebody posting about “dreaded digitate hydroids”. I definitely have the digitate hydroids and not dorveillidae worms. I’ve now read a bunch of threads about them including one where somebody here pointed out that digitate hydroid only seems to be a term used in the hobby so the only information about them is from forums like this. Some people say they’re harmless, some say they kill corals and fish. My first fish is in QT right now, and I have some CUC that I’m quote attached to but other than that I would be ok with breaking down this tank and starting over again totally. I could leave my animals where they are now while cycling another tank I have laying around and then switch them over once it was ready. Is this the best solution at this stage in the game? Are these hydroids really not very common or are they in every/most tanks and just go unnoticed because of their light sensitivity?
I did see that some people recommend trying to starve them but apparently they eat copepods and I am trying to build a copepods population in my tank so I’m not really in a place to starve the hydroids.
Are there different species that all fall under the common name “digitate hydroids” with different degrees of stinging power?
I saw people saying they’d tried vinegar, lemon juice, Kalk paste, AiptasiaX, boiling water, peppermint shrimp and manual removal and nothing worked. One person did say they watched emerald crabs eat them but that seemed to be a one off since others said their emerald crabs didn’t touch the hydroids.
thanks
I did see that some people recommend trying to starve them but apparently they eat copepods and I am trying to build a copepods population in my tank so I’m not really in a place to starve the hydroids.
Are there different species that all fall under the common name “digitate hydroids” with different degrees of stinging power?
I saw people saying they’d tried vinegar, lemon juice, Kalk paste, AiptasiaX, boiling water, peppermint shrimp and manual removal and nothing worked. One person did say they watched emerald crabs eat them but that seemed to be a one off since others said their emerald crabs didn’t touch the hydroids.
thanks