Palythoa eradication advice?

[EEE1986]

Hello,
I have this wild colony of palys that started growing on my liverock that I would like to eradicate. What type of palys are these and are they one of the particularly toxic ones? If so, how would I best dispose of them? I was thinking of using kalkwasser paste to be safe but I have a 12.5 gallon Fluval Evo so don’t want to disrupt the water parameters too much.

 

[Idoc]

Can you remove the rock and clean the rock outside the tank? Make sure you wear gloves and eye protection when removing them from the rock even outside the tank.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Those look like the bad type so be careful. Personally I would pull the rock and toss it into a bucket of bleach water with a powerhead. Reset the rock and then add it back later. IMO good luck

 

[EEE1986]

Can you remove the rock and clean the rock outside the tank? Make sure you wear gloves and eye protection when removing them from the rock even outside the tank.

I'd rather not move the rock. It's kind of integral to the entire aquascape that I have and has a few other corals glued to it. I know once I remove it I will never be able to get it in the same position again.

 

[EEE1986]

Those look like the bad type so be careful. Personally I would pull the rock and toss it into a bucket of bleach water with a powerhead. Reset the rock and then add it back later. IMO good luck

Can I pluck them and immediately place them in bleach after while wearing PPE?

 

[Patx]

Cover whit Kalkwassser paste , maybe ? (Im asking)
+ active carbon in filtration (sock or reactor)

Or cover whit epoxy...
Active carbon etc...

 

[EEE1986]

Cover whit Kalkwassser paste , maybe ? (Im asking)
+ active carbon in filtration (sock or reactor)

Or cover whit epoxy...
Active carbon etc...

That’s what I was thinking of doing. I’ve got activated carbon in one of the back chambers as well as chemipure blue

 

[Tahoe61]

I'd rather not move the rock. It's kind of integral to the entire aquascape that I have and has a few other corals glued to it. I know once I remove it I will never be able to get it in the same position again.

Don't ignore the advise given.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

following. i have have the same buggers in my tank and they are spreading everywhere

 

[liddojunior]

My favorite kind of paly, it was kind of hard to get. No one had them anywhere for sale. The really long skirt on yours look nice.

You could get bone cutters and chip them off and give away or sell the frag

They are a Protopalythoa I believe

 

[EEE1986]

My favorite kind of paly, it was kind of hard to get. No one had them anywhere for sale. The really long skirt on yours look nice.

You could get bone cutters and chip them off and give away or sell the frag

They are a Protopalythoa I believe

They just emerged out of nowhere. I let them be at first b/c I thought they were cool and liked the flowy skirt as well but they are multiplying rapidly. I noticed that the frag tank at the LFS that sold me the rock to begin with is overrun with the stuff so I know they have the potential to get out of hand.

 

[BryanM]

Tough spot, hope you figure out a workable solution.

 

[liddojunior]

They just emerged out of nowhere. I let them be at first b/c I thought they were cool and liked the flowy skirt as well but they are multiplying rapidly. I noticed that the frag tank at the LFS that sold me the rock to begin with is overrun with the stuff so I know they have the potential to get out of hand.

Gotcha, but these are the really bad ones so be careful. The nuclear green and the purple death ones are the most toxic ones, real p toxica.
But I believe the ones you have may be P. mutuki which is still toxic but less https://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsespecies.php?CritterID=2150

This article is pretty good to help identify https://reefs.com/the-dangers-and-myths-of-zoa-toxicity-part-1/

Yes I have gotten seriously sick from palytoxin, really messed up my eyes and had 3 ophthalmologist check them out. But recovered without any lasting effects, took over a week for my eyes to go to normal vision and then a month for the redness to go away

 

[EEE1986]

Update: Tried pulling off a few polyps with some aquascaping forceps but they were very tightly adhered and I mainly wound up crushing them which released slime/innards into the water column. I was wearing gloves and glasses at the time and covered my mouth and nose with my shirt. I immediately placed the polyp pieces in a jar of dilute bleach and soaked my forceps in there as well after using. I had all windows in the home open. It's been a few hours and I feel okay. My clownfish even nibbled at some of the paly innards and seem to be doing just fine as well. All corals seem to not be bothered. Hopefully this means it was just P. mutuki which it seemed to resemble the most based on the above posted article.

 

[KrisReef]

I'd rather not move the rock. It's kind of integral to the entire aquascape that I have and has a few other corals glued to it. I know once I remove it I will never be able to get it in the same position again.

@EEE1986

Modern aquascapes with everything glued together has been the source of so much frustration for me, and now for you.

These invasive paly's will keep growing until they are dealt with.

I have had to disassemble reefs (glued and unglued structures) to catch fish (Flame angel- "probably ok for a reef"), to dip coral colonies that had pests, and to remove invasive sponges, Montipora, Kenya Tree, Vermitid snails, Organpipe coral, and probably a few other things that decided to grow into plagues instead of just dwelling nicely in the allotted reef space inside my tank and other peoples reefs.

From experience, the longer you put off addressing these kinds of issues, the longer the pest has time to expand into new territory and create a larger problem. Also, non-pest corals will be growing right along side and the bigger they are the harder it is to avoid damaging them during the battle.

Reefs, and rock structures cannot be put back together again unless they were designed with "Lego" like construction assemblies that allow precise relocation after taking them apart.

SOmething has to give. Quick drain, scrape, rinse & refill, or break apart and scrape outside of the tank, rinse and rebuild are the only two options I know for this situation.

I don't think there is a chemical treatment option that is specific for Green Paly's of Death. Otherwise, remove all corals and fish, bleach the tank with the Paly's dying on the rocks, rinse and restart the aquarium.

No good options, just some less drastic then others. Sorry.

It's a great day to go to a solidarity demonstration and break something. :frowning-face: :cool:

 

[liddojunior]

Update: Tried pulling off a few polyps with some aquascaping forceps but they were very tightly adhered and I mainly wound up crushing them which released slime/innards into the water column. I was wearing gloves and glasses at the time and covered my mouth and nose with my shirt. I immediately placed the polyp pieces in a jar of dilute bleach and soaked my forceps in there as well after using. I had all windows in the home open. It's been a few hours and I feel okay. My clownfish even nibbled at some of the paly innards and seem to be doing just fine as well. All corals seem to not be bothered. Hopefully this means it was just P. mutuki which it seemed to resemble the most based on the above posted article.

That’s good! I decided to put my p. Toxics colony between an elegance and a bubble coral. The tentacles keep it from spreading.

And I don’t try craving my p grandis anymore. That thing squirts and tries to poison your eyes like it knows…

 

[Patx]

Update: Tried pulling off a few polyps with some aquascaping forceps but they were very tightly adhered and I mainly wound up crushing them which released slime/innards into the water column. I was wearing gloves and glasses at the time and covered my mouth and nose with my shirt. I immediately placed the polyp pieces in a jar of dilute bleach and soaked my forceps in there as well after using. I had all windows in the home open. It's been a few hours and I feel okay. My clownfish even nibbled at some of the paly innards and seem to be doing just fine as well. All corals seem to not be bothered. Hopefully this means it was just P. mutuki which it seemed to resemble the most based on the above posted article.

Chance are any bits that stay on the rock will regrow.
I once try injecte peroxyde whit a needle... ain't do a thing.

I end up removing the rock... garbage...

Try a blanket of epoxy paste... cover them all.
Worth a try.

 

[rps3287]

Fire

 

[Mickey]

These things really are a plague. Based upon my experience with a similar species, but definitely not the same one, I would advise you to bite the bullet, remove the coral from the existing rock and then get rid of the rock and buy new.

Very briefly here's my past experience:
- when I first set up a reef tank in 2000 someone gave me a rock that had a lot of green paly's on it. They looked nice and went into the reef.
- seemed to stay local so when I upgraded to a 225 in 2004 the rock came with me.
-Paly's started to spread across the reef, along with some smaller orange centered zoanthids.
- Had a tank crash years ago, somewhere around 2010 and ended up dismantling most of the reef rock. All the rock with the paly's was put outside on my deck, out of water, in the sun for 6 months or more. Meanwhile I rebuilt the reef with less rock.
- After months on the deck, most of the rock went into a box in basement, but a few pieces got scrubbed and cleaned and added to the reef.
- Some months later the paly's showed up again. Unfortunately they were at the back of the reef and I didn't see them for quite a while.
- they spread to multiple rocks and almost covered the overflow wall. I was pulling them out with forceps one by one and it was painful but I wasn't making a dent. I kept trying to live with it.
- Then about two years ago all the orange zoanthids which had spread across the reef over the years closed up and stayed that way for a very long time (over a year), though the paly's remained unaffected.
- Suddenly the zoanthids totally melted away and the paly's also seemed to melt away and disappear. Yeah!!!!!
- Then just this week I see some very small ones low on the overflow wall and also on the back part of a large rock I can't remove very easily as it is home to a pair of clownfish and about 4-5 RBTA's.
- I'm so sorry I ever put that rock back in my tank

Cut your losses now! Pull that piece of rock and just junk it. It's not worth trying to save it. Do it while things are contained.

(I guess this wasn't so brief after all )

 

[tzabor10]

I have had luck wearing gloves and goggles. Then go at them with little scissors. Slowly. A few a day. They will die off with manual removal and then scrubbing.