Little blue menace coral. Help, I'm being invaded!

Try'nNotToKillStuff · Nov 8, 2019

Lorenzo Angotti said:
Hi, I have some blue star polyps on a small rock but is place near the back of the tank wall, I’m hoping eventually it will spread on the back glass to giving me a stunning blue colour. I have heard that if placed on your main rock, it does takes over and hard to get at so I’m hoping that I can control it on the glass wall by means of scraping with a razor of some sort, making sure that no bits get blown else way, it will probably be done with my wave pumps switched off and a vac at had to suck up any that are loose. Crossed fingers any way, but I hope for you, you solve yours, good luck.

Ah, the pretty blue stuff. I've read too that others have been able to contain BSP to a certain area of their tank, but that is not my experience. If you look closely at my full tank photo you'll see there is BSP in the front right corner (next a rock flower). There is no other BSP within 10 inches of it. My guess is that it is capable of propagating through the water column.

Bossman · Nov 9, 2019

One of my tanks has a lot of this stuff. It was starting to take over. I added a Lawnmower Blenny and the blenny is really keeping it in check. The blenny is non stop grazing. He hasn't eliminated it, but keeps it in check. If it were to continue growing I would go the fenbendazole route.

I've also noticed it comes and goes as I hone in my nutrients as well. I was feeding corals too much and it started to grow quickly. Cut back and the growth stopped.

Lorenzo Angotti · Nov 9, 2019

Try'nNotToKillStuff said:
Ah, the pretty blue stuff. I've read too that others have been able to contain BSP to a certain area of their tank, but that is not my experience. If you look closely at my full tank photo you'll see there is BSP in the front right corner (next a rock flower). There is no other BSP within 10 inches of it. My guess is that it is capable of propagating through the water column.

Well I hope someone somewhere will have found a way to control them, maybe here’s an idea, you could possibly where you want to control them is place a coral on a frag rock that stings and can be easily moved about to keep them in check.

Mayerlyn A · Nov 9, 2019

Try'nNotToKillStuff said:
Ah, the pretty blue stuff. I've read too that others have been able to contain BSP to a certain area of their tank, but that is not my experience. If you look closely at my full tank photo you'll see there is BSP in the front right corner (next a rock flower). There is no other BSP within 10 inches of it. My guess is that it is capable of propagating through the water column.

It will indeed spawn in the tank. There is no way to keep it contained. I know from experience.

Try'nNotToKillStuff · Nov 12, 2019

I posted this up on another thread too. Here is the before photo.

Try'nNotToKillStuff · Nov 12, 2019

And here are some pics of the same areas after 18 hours of treatment. So far everything else looks okay. Before I treated, I pulled all my leather corals out, a bunch of snails and two conchs, hermit crabs, and a flower-pot coral. You can see the BCP is shriveled, but not dead yet. My plan is to leave in for 72 hours as per the article by Max Draco.

Try'nNotToKillStuff · Nov 14, 2019

It has now been 40 hours since I medicated with Fenbendazole. I only dosed about 1 mg per gallon. I hope it was enough. You can see the BCP is even smaller, but not quite the white dots yet reported by Max Draco. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Try'nNotToKillStuff · Nov 22, 2019

I am happy to report that all the BCP is completely gone! Not a speck left. It's been a week now. After about 96 hours after I treated with fenbendazole, I did a 20% water change, turned back on my skimmer and carbon filter. I did another 20% water change two days later and then another 20% water change 2 days after that. I sold off all my leather corals, flower pot coral, a conch, and a bunch of snails. Interesting note, however, a couple of days ago I found that I had missed one conch and a snorkle snail. So, I guess the fenbendzole didn't kill those off. The fenbendazole worked and I couldn't be happier.

Neoalchemist · Feb 3, 2020

Awesome,. Can you point me in the direction of the article or post with the original doseing instructions.

Try'nNotToKillStuff · Feb 24, 2020

Neoalchemist said:
Awesome,. Can you point me in the direction of the article or post with the original doseing instructions.

Here is the thread. The Max Draco article is linked in the first or second paragraph. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/eliminating-blue-clove-polyps-with-fenbendazole.308994/

Try'nNotToKillStuff · Feb 24, 2020

Sad to report that I spotted a tiny colony of BSP growing. Only about six little polyps. I smothered them with a little ball of coral epoxy.

Cory · Feb 24, 2020

Im curious why are they a problem do they sting corals? I wouldnt mind the rocks covered in that if it didnt kill corals.

Neoalchemist · Feb 24, 2020

They will slowly smother the bases of stonies and grow in between and eventually cover any low corals.
Also when they colonize a large area they release enough terpenes (I think this is the right word) to inhibit growth in any coral thaf grows in thier midst.

Neoalchemist · Feb 24, 2020

Cory said:
Im curious why are they a problem do they sting corals? I wouldnt mind the rocks covered in that if it didnt kill corals.

If you look at the op's pictures closely youwill see how sparse his zoa colonies are. That is the polys using a combo of rapid growth any noxious stink to take over. They naturally, grow torwards the best light spots too which obviously sucks