Juju2773
Active Member
This post is for those like me that frantically started reading out there trying to find a solution to digitate hydroids multiplying in my tank. I started getting digitate hydroids and they were multiplying daily. I was going batty,.. every evening using a flashlight to see them and an old tooth brush to scrape them off the rocks on a daily , just to keep them in check.
I have a 75 gallon tank with alot of rockwork .
Anyways, my tank is now clear of them with no chemicals. First, ...i purchased a sixline wrasse. I got lucky because i read some can be devil fish. Mine is a model citizen. Actually seems very friendly with my other fish. And a favorite of mine now. After a week, i couldnt tell that he was eating them, but i did notice that the back of the tank rocks seemed to not have very many hydroids. (Thats his area).
But it wasnt fast enough for me. My corals were are tensed up , especially my zoas.
So, i picked up 4 halloween hermits and dropped them on top of my zoa garden rock. ( i got 4 just in case some do not eat the hydroids). Those hermits had that big rock cleared of hydroids in two days. And they do a great job at picking the algae off the zoas too. i havent caught one actually in the process of eating a hydroid, but they are gone. i swear my tank was digitate hydroid free after about 2 weeks!
Those hermits have been all over my tank, top to bottom, even on the heater, and now i searched today, and couldnt find a single hydroid!
So a combination of the sixline & the halloween hermits,... along with adding a uv sterilzer to my filterpump hose (for the waterborn babies) , this has worked for me.
Hope this helps someone else out there. You dont have to live with them like some people say. You dont have to use harmful chemicals. Just let nature take care of it.
I have a 75 gallon tank with alot of rockwork .
Anyways, my tank is now clear of them with no chemicals. First, ...i purchased a sixline wrasse. I got lucky because i read some can be devil fish. Mine is a model citizen. Actually seems very friendly with my other fish. And a favorite of mine now. After a week, i couldnt tell that he was eating them, but i did notice that the back of the tank rocks seemed to not have very many hydroids. (Thats his area).
But it wasnt fast enough for me. My corals were are tensed up , especially my zoas.
So, i picked up 4 halloween hermits and dropped them on top of my zoa garden rock. ( i got 4 just in case some do not eat the hydroids). Those hermits had that big rock cleared of hydroids in two days. And they do a great job at picking the algae off the zoas too. i havent caught one actually in the process of eating a hydroid, but they are gone. i swear my tank was digitate hydroid free after about 2 weeks!
Those hermits have been all over my tank, top to bottom, even on the heater, and now i searched today, and couldnt find a single hydroid!
So a combination of the sixline & the halloween hermits,... along with adding a uv sterilzer to my filterpump hose (for the waterborn babies) , this has worked for me.
Hope this helps someone else out there. You dont have to live with them like some people say. You dont have to use harmful chemicals. Just let nature take care of it.
