My Battle with Blue Clove Polyps (BCP) using Fenbendazole - success!

[Reeferbadness]

Thanks for posting your story. I finally pulled the trigger and dosed fenbendazole after seeing a surge in BCP growth and wanting to hit it before it took the tank over. I’d say 20% or so of rock had it.

After 3 days the BCP was totally gone and at this point, 10 days later, they are all gone. I’m in the midst of a pretty bad algae outbreak. I did a 20% change on day 4 and another 20% on day 6. I plane to do another 10% today. My levels are fine, N3-4, phos 0.03 but I suspect that’s because the algae is consuming it.

My main question is, when are snails safe to add again? I pulled all snails out to a temporary home during the treatment and readded them after the first 20% change which I also added carbon and phosban. My astraea snails seem totally fine. My nerites not so much. I’d say half are mobile and half haven’t moved in days. They are tucked into their shells and don’t flop out or anything when I check them but they haven’t moved. I don’t want them sitting in my tank rotting. I’d like to purchase some replacements but I don’t know when I can expect them to be fine? Any thoughts?

Good question. I had only a couple of snails the first time I treated the tank with fenbendazole and didn't remove any snail or other inverts. The snails didn't make it and i removed them after about 1 week. I have since had to re-dose the same tank 2x with BCP making a come-back each time. I think i'm out of the woods now (it's been 3 months since last dose). My other inverts - hermit crabs, emerald crabs and 5 urchins all survived. The urchins were slower for about 2 weeks but made a strong come back. I don't have snails in that tank due to a very aggressive wrasse and a hawkfish - both of which dine regularly on even the largest turbo snails. I've since changed it up to using urchins to control hair algae.

From the original post on using Febendazole by Max Draco (https://maxdraco.wordpress.com/2013...ue-cloves-polyps-xenia-aiptasia-hydriods-etc/) he doesn't really say when it's safe to add snails again. I would guess that after a total of 100% water change (add up the %s of your water changes over the course of a few weeks) and you should be ok, but that's just my guess.

Good luck! BCP are the worst scourge but fortunately fenbendazole is a pretty easy cure, unlike hair algae and other ugly invaders of our precious tanks.

 

[Oshanickreef]

Thanks for posting your story. I finally pulled the trigger and dosed fenbendazole after seeing a surge in BCP growth and wanting to hit it before it took the tank over. I’d say 20% or so of rock had it.

After 3 days the BCP was totally gone and at this point, 10 days later, they are all gone. I’m in the midst of a pretty bad algae outbreak. I did a 20% change on day 4 and another 20% on day 6. I plane to do another 10% today. My levels are fine, N3-4, phos 0.03 but I suspect that’s because the algae is consuming it.

My main question is, when are snails safe to add again? I pulled all snails out to a temporary home during the treatment and readded them after the first 20% change which I also added carbon and phosban. My astraea snails seem totally fine. My nerites not so much. I’d say half are mobile and half haven’t moved in days. They are tucked into their shells and don’t flop out or anything when I check them but they haven’t moved. I don’t want them sitting in my tank rotting. I’d like to purchase some replacements but I don’t know when I can expect them to be fine? Any thoughts?

so it has been months since my treatment and i just added a turbo snail and some other trochus and astrea. they all died. i cant run carbon becasue that will kill all my sps colonies. i have done maybe 10 25% waterchnges and im still having issues. this stuff is no joke!

 

[Reeferbadness]

so it has been months since my treatment and i just added a turbo snail and some other trochus and astrea. they all died. i cant run carbon becasue that will kill all my sps colonies. i have done maybe 10 25% waterchnges and im still having issues. this stuff is no joke!

Sorry to hear that. I don’t understand why carbon will hurt your SPS - I run it in both of my tanks and both have a lot of healthy sps

 

[Oshanickreef]

Sorry to hear that. I don’t understand why carbon will hurt your SPS - I run it in both of my tanks and both have a lot of healthy sps

I don’t get it either. But i believe that carbon removes good and bad things. If you already run low nutrient it can strip the water and as a result i see lps and sos rtn and stn. Once i to move the carbon my tank stops the die off. It’s very weird i agree but i prefer no carbon. Lost two torches in this treatment and i believe it is 100% carbon caused. Granted i was using carbon rocks in a sock in my spill over sump area so maybe it was just too much for the tank to handle. Rox are too strong! Lol

 

[tcwoodrn]

so it has been months since my treatment and i just added a turbo snail and some other trochus and astrea. they all died. i cant run carbon becasue that will kill all my sps colonies. i have done maybe 10 25% waterchnges and im still having issues. this stuff is no joke!

I’m a little over 2 weeks since I treated at 2mg/g. I had removed my snails during acute treatment. All of them died when I added them back. Yesterday I went and bought 10 astrea and 1 turbo. As of this morning I only see 2-3 actively moving and the rest were laying in the sand. The turbo seems to be doing fine.

I’ve been running carbon for over a week and have changed 70% of my water volume. I’m suffering from a massive cyano and GHA bloom which is compounded by a lack of clean up crew. I wish I knew when I am going to be able to safely re-add snails.

So far no signs of BCP and all corals and fish are seemingly perfect.

 

[Oshanickreef]

I’m a little over 2 weeks since I treated at 2mg/g. I had removed my snails during acute treatment. All of them died when I added them back. Yesterday I went and bought 10 astrea and 1 turbo. As of this morning I only see 2-3 actively moving and the rest were laying in the sand. The turbo seems to be doing fine.

I’ve been running carbon for over a week and have changed 70% of my water volume. I’m suffering from a massive cyano and GHA bloom which is compounded by a lack of clean up crew. I wish I knew when I am going to be able to safely re-add snails.

So far no signs of BCP and all corals and fish are seemingly perfect.

i would be very careful with the carbon. i was using it for about a month and then i lost a few large colonies of sps and a couple torches. another thing you should try is poly pads. they help remove a bunch of different stuff and i believe it is safer than carbon. large water changes will help too but like i said i am a few months after treatment and my snails are all dead. i have a lot of fish that eat algae so they have been able to keep up with the algae. im now dealing with my nitrates bottoming out and am trying to figure that out... this hobby is always keeping us on our toes!

 

[Reeferbadness]

I’m a little over 2 weeks since I treated at 2mg/g. I had removed my snails during acute treatment. All of them died when I added them back. Yesterday I went and bought 10 astrea and 1 turbo. As of this morning I only see 2-3 actively moving and the rest were laying in the sand. The turbo seems to be doing fine.

I’ve been running carbon for over a week and have changed 70% of my water volume. I’m suffering from a massive cyano and GHA bloom which is compounded by a lack of clean up crew. I wish I knew when I am going to be able to safely re-add snails.

So far no signs of BCP and all corals and fish are seemingly perfect.

I would go slowly and test 1 or 2 snails at a time, a week or 2 apart. I can’t speak to this directly as the tank that I treated with Fenbendazole doesn’t have any snails due 2 aggressive fish ( yellow chromis wrasse and flame hawk fish) but my hermits and urchins all survives multiple treatments of Fenbendazole. Good luck

 

[tcwoodrn]

I’m a little over 2 weeks since I treated at 2mg/g. I had removed my snails during acute treatment. All of them died when I added them back. Yesterday I went and bought 10 astrea and 1 turbo. As of this morning I only see 2-3 actively moving and the rest were laying in the sand. The turbo seems to be doing fine.

I’ve been running carbon for over a week and have changed 70% of my water volume. I’m suffering from a massive cyano and GHA bloom which is compounded by a lack of clean up crew. I wish I knew when I am going to be able to safely re-add snails.

So far no signs of BCP and all corals and fish are seemingly perfect.

Update: all but 1 or 2 astrea have died. They lose their ability to remain attached to anything meaning they fall off the glass and lay upside down until dead. I would flip them, etc which would give them a jolt of energy and then they’d fall again until the hermits moved in. Obviously I pulled them, especially the turbo, ASAP once their fate was known to avoid them rotting in the tank.

I’ll wait a few weeks to try again and continue heavy water changes. I am very concerned that this will be a long term issues. Without a working cuc my algae bloom is out of control.

 

[Reeferbadness]

Update: all but 1 or 2 astrea have died. They lose their ability to remain attached to anything meaning they fall off the glass and lay upside down until dead. I would flip them, etc which would give them a jolt of energy and then they’d fall again until the hermits moved in. Obviously I pulled them, especially the turbo, ASAP once their fate was known to avoid them rotting in the tank.

I’ll wait a few weeks to try again and continue heavy water changes. I am very concerned that this will be a long term issues. Without a working cuc my algae bloom is out of control.

You can try a Tuxedo Urchin. I have 3 (+ a purple Urchin and a black Urchin) and all survived. Great CUC on hair algae

 

[tcwoodrn]

You can try a Tuxedo Urchin. I have 3 (+ a purple Urchin and a black Urchin) and all survived. Great CUC on hair algae

Great suggestion. Thank you!

 

[tcwoodrn]

Update: all but 1 or 2 astrea have died. They lose their ability to remain attached to anything meaning they fall off the glass and lay upside down until dead. I would flip them, etc which would give them a jolt of energy and then they’d fall again until the hermits moved in. Obviously I pulled them, especially the turbo, ASAP once their fate was known to avoid them rotting in the tank.

I’ll wait a few weeks to try again and continue heavy water changes. I am very concerned that this will be a long term issues. Without a working cuc my algae bloom is out of control.

Update for anyone that has this issue in the future. I tried adding some Astrea again at the 1 month mark. That was yesterday and I’d say 50% are on their way to death already. I’ve been running carbon constantly for the last month and have changed 150% of water volume. The good news is I don’t have any signs of GHA. Maybe I overdosed. Who knows.

I had the worst cyano bloom I’ve ever seen a week or so ago. I ran a quick course of chemi clean and that wiped it out quickly. I do have substantial GHA still. I don’t have access to many stores so I have not found a tuxedo urchin. Will be adding one if I find it.

It will probably be another month before I try more snails. I plan to post here in hopes it helps those afflicted with BCP in the future.

 

[Oshanickreef]

Update for anyone that has this issue in the future. I tried adding some Astrea again at the 1 month mark. That was yesterday and I’d say 50% are on their way to death already. I’ve been running carbon constantly for the last month and have changed 150% of water volume. The good news is I don’t have any signs of GHA. Maybe I overdosed. Who knows.

I had the worst cyano bloom I’ve ever seen a week or so ago. I ran a quick course of chemi clean and that wiped it out quickly. I do have substantial GHA still. I don’t have access to many stores so I have not found a tuxedo urchin. Will be adding one if I find it.

It will probably be another month before I try more snails. I plan to post here in hopes it helps those afflicted with BCP in the future.

i am 4 months in with at least 15 25% water changes and i still can add snails. i would just get fish that eat algae for 6 months then try again. this stuff doesnt come out easily.

 

[nessjosh]

I just posted my BCP story below in another thread, so i thought I'd share my experience here too.

I did some research on this as well. i bought a powerful green laser on Amazon for $75 and was able to zap back some Blue Clove Polyps and tried to control their spread, I also tried adding peppermint shrimp and those didnt help. I finally bought some Fenbendazole on Amazon in 2MG packets and it added the entire packet to a 1 gallon pitcher.
I yanked out all my inverts, or i tried, including nass snails, turbos, etc.. I knew i couldnt get some emerald crabs out as they were hiding under coral colonies. I also pulled out my 3 tangs and potters wrasse as a precaution.
I first dosed half the 2mg/ 1 gallon mix into my 126gal display + 29 gal sump. I made sure to turn on the mp40s at a higher speed to mix it all up. After 24 hours I still saw some BCP that seemed unaffected. So I dosed another 1/4 gal from that pitcher into the display and within the next 24 hours it seemed to take them all out. It didnt effect any of my rock anenomes, candy cane corals or goni/alevpora that i thought would be more sensitive. I was hoping it would take care of my manjanos but it didnt seem to impact them at all. I've learned my lesson with GSP and Xenia in the past and I didnt have any in my tank.
Day 3 I did a 25gallon water change and filled my BRS reactor with carbon. I then added the fish and inverts back in on day 4. (I did not have any shrimp in the tank as I killed them off a month ago by raising the Calc up too fast)

Overall I would do this again, the BCP was spreading from rock to rock in my tank and it was suffocating zoas and some sps.

Best of Luck on your BCP fight!

 

[tcwoodrn]

How have your snails done after placing them back in? Mine were somewhat okay for a few days before a mass die off.

 

[Reeferbadness]

How have your snails done after placing them back in? Mine were somewhat okay for a few days before a mass die off.

All of my inverts (except snails, which i can't keep due to a very aggressive yellow choris wrasse + a fire hawk fish - both eat them within days) lived through not 1 but 2 treatments. Hermit crabs and 5 urchins. The urchins slowed down a bit but came back. Others in this thread with snails have not had much luck re-introducing them. I'd give it another month or 2 of heavy water changes and test again with 1 or 2 snails to see.

 

[lofty78]

I just got over 2 major GHA battles and now this. I've got a 200 mixed reef. I have fireworks clove polys I want to keep, but not concerned about gsp. I have 5 large snails, probably 20 or so smaller snails and tons of hermits. I'm not sure how to deal with them as the only other tank I have is my qt which has been used with cuprimine.

 

[tcwoodrn]

I just got over 2 major GHA battles and now this. I've got a 200 mixed reef. I have fireworks clove polys I want to keep, but not concerned about gsp. I have 5 large snails, probably 20 or so smaller snails and tons of hermits. I'm not sure how to deal with them as the only other tank I have is my qt which has been used with cuprimine.

In my experience fenbendazole will clear out your clove polyps in a few days when dosing 2mg/g but you’ll be faced with an unrelenting algae outbreak after and will not be able to use snails to fight it for a long time (I’m at 2 months and counting).

In hindsight, maybe I should have tried 1mg/g first. I truly didn’t realize that running carbon for months and changing 3x worth of total water volume wouldn’t be enough to have a viable CUC of snails. There’s part of me that wonders if I’ll ever be able to have them again.

 

[Reeferbadness]

In my experience fenbendazole will clear out your clove polyps in a few days when dosing 2mg/g but you’ll be faced with an unrelenting algae outbreak after and will not be able to use snails to fight it for a long time (I’m at 2 months and counting).

In hindsight, maybe I should have tried 1mg/g first. I truly didn’t realize that running carbon for months and changing 3x worth of total water volume wouldn’t be enough to have a viable CUC of snails. There’s part of me that wonders if I’ll ever be able to have them again.

I agree that you can experience an outbreak of algae outbreak after using fenbendazole - i've had it 2x. On the other hand, unless you hit the clove polyps hard, they come back - as mine have 2x. I am now starting to see BCP return after a 6 month hiatus, and will consider hitting them even harder - 2.5g for a 200g tank. Regarding algae control, i would highly recommend tuxedo urchins or other urchins - i have 5 in my tank and all lived through both treatments.

 

[Reeferbadness]

Quick update on this thread. The BCP came back, again! At least i have some experience with this and am not too worried about Nuking the tank with the Fenbendazole treatment. I used the same protocol as last time, 2 x 1gram packets (enough for 222 g system even though mine is 200g), this time I really ground up the contents to make sure that as much as possible would get into the water and have maximum impact. Like 2 other treatments, BCP immediately receded and now on day 5 are completely gone except for some white dots where they were on the rocks. Hermits and Urchins are all ok (it's their third round, so maybe they are just used to it now LOL). Interestingly, many of my Zoa's closed up for 3 days this time, all are coming back fine now. Hopeufuly this is the last time with this.

I think the lesson here is hit BCP hard, even with higher dose than Max Draco suggests in his WP Post , possibly increasing your dosage by 40 or 50% from his calculations (Recommend dosage is 2mg per gallon of water to be treated (half dose would be 1mg per gallon). A metric dosage would .5mg per Liter (half dose would be .25mg per Liter).

Good luck out there. Any LFS that still sells BCP should be outlawed!

 

[Reefasaurus X]

After almost a year of being in denial and watching the BCP plague spread throughout. most of my 200G mixed reef tank, I finally worked up the courage
to try Fenbendazole as it's the only way that i found that can eradicate this plague. BCP, or in my case, ugly brown/red clove polyps started as just a few tufts
on a rock, likely came with a frag and slowly but surely became very ugly and a threat to other corals - especially Zoa's.

I was able to get some pure Fenbendazole from a friend. For an in depth look at how to use Fenbendazole, check out the WP post by Max Draco HERE

Here's a some before and after photos.

One note, i ended up using 1 packet of Thomas Labs Fenbendazole - each packet is 250MG. Max Drago suggests 1MG per Gallon - so i was a little over the 1/2 dose with 1 packet.

It worked incredibly well within 3 days or so, but after 2 weeks, i noticed not all the BCP was gone so it hit it again with another 250MG packet just to make sure. In hindsight, i would do the full or even slighly more dose (in my case, 400MG) straight away - hit 'em hard approach that many others on this forum have advised.

Other reactions: i tried to take out all inverts - but a few hermit crabs and a snail or two were left. Incredibly, the crabs are still alive but moving pretty slowly.

Corals: My Zoa's protested for a couple of days but came back in full. No other harm was caused to softies, SPS or LPS corals and, hopefully my BCP nightmare is finally over.

Phosphates/Algae: I did have a big spike in Phos - from 0.00 to 0.16 in 2 days - due to BCP die off likely,. This triggered an already problematic algae situation but once things calm down, i'll bring back a grip of Turbo Snails, a couple of tuxedo urchins and more hermit crabs to hopefully clean things up nicely.

So for those with BCP issues, hang in there, there are a variety of Fenbendazole available, don't wait until your tank is completely overrun and when you do take this path, hit it hard 1x and wait for the magic to happen.

​

Hello there. Do you know where I can buy Thomas labs Fish Bendazole? I used to use it years ago and now I can’t find it in any retail outlet online?