Hydroids: Do you / did you have them too?!

[BriDroid]

In my never ending battle against these things, I finally have enough algae to add a small tuxedo urchin. I can say without a doubt, he eats them. I don't think that he is going out of his way to search for them, but if they are in his path, they are gone!

 

[BriDroid]

Well, the emerald crab is already doing something. He's not eating every single one of them, but he's like Godzilla, ripping them off the rocks to get to what is under/around them. He is eating a few in the process. When he moves on, there are 60-70% less hydroids there! Maybe he'll develop a taste for them even more!!!!

Emerald crab eating hydroids

He still pics at them, but hasn't eradicated them by any means. I added 2 bumblebee snails a month ago, just to see if they would do anything. Today I witnessed one of them eating they hydroids off of a candy cane skeleton. I couldn't tell exactly what he was doing, I thought he was trying to steal some mysis from the candy cane. After he left, there is nothing but bare skeleton, no more hydroids!

 

[feelingfishy]

I used to have a bunch of them in lower flow areas but they weren’t near any corals and didn’t seem to bother anything, so I mostly ignored them other than cut back a little on reef roids. Eventually they just went away on their own.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Had the same ones as you, and they have mostly disappeared as well