Pest? Hydroid

[leppo91]

Hello.
I have a 3 month old 20 gallon tank.
Also I am new in this hobby.
I got two corals of the same lfs. I found on one vermatid snails and removed them as soon as I understood what it was. Now I found at a similar area on that hammer coral small formations , 1 bud with 2 hairs/ filaments or something like that. I assume that they were there from the beginning but its good possible that I simply didn't see them. So I wonder if it is a pest.

The other thing is hydroids. I found them a few days back the first time. I can only see them on the Glas, but I'd doubt i could see them free swimming. Should I do something against it or just wait it out?

Thank you so much in advance.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hello.
I have a 3 month old 20 gallon tank.
Also I am new in this hobby.
I got two corals of the same lfs. I found on one vermatid snails and removed them as soon as I understood what it was. Now I found at a similar area on that hammer coral small formations , 1 bud with 2 hairs/ filaments or something like that. I assume that they were there from the beginning but its good possible that I simply didn't see them. So I wonder if it is a pest.

The other thing is hydroids. I found them a few days back the first time. I can only see them on the Glas, but I'd doubt i could see them free swimming. Should I do something against it or just wait it out?

Thank you so much in advance.

Hydroids are pretty common, and they typically go away on their own. You can probably just wait them out, so I wouldn't worry too much about them. The other things on your hammer coral are Coral Boring Spionid Worms - they’re technically harmless, but they have a tendency to grow to massive populations and look pretty ugly when they do. Honestly, I would remove the hammer before they spread (coral-boring spionids tend to bore into SPS, but they are known to occasionally bore into LPS too):

Coral Boring Spionid Worms -- an ugly bane to SPS

This is not something I've ever seen before. They are extremely ugly. Mar the appearance of SPS. This is on a "Beach Bum" encrusting montipora. I would take aphasia or even montipora eating nudibranchs over this crap. I've beat those with hard work. Not sure how to eliminate these without...

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Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[leppo91]

Hydroids are pretty common, and they typically go away on their own. You can probably just wait them out, so I wouldn't worry too much about them. The other things on your hammer coral are Coral Boring Spionid Worms - they’re technically harmless, but they have a tendency to grow to massive populations and look pretty ugly when they do. Honestly, I would remove the hammer before they spread (coral-boring spionids tend to bore into SPS, but they are known to occasionally bore into LPS too):

Coral Boring Spionid Worms -- an ugly bane to SPS

This is not something I've ever seen before. They are extremely ugly. Mar the appearance of SPS. This is on a "Beach Bum" encrusting montipora. I would take aphasia or even montipora eating nudibranchs over this crap. I've beat those with hard work. Not sure how to eliminate these without...

www.reef2reef.com

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Thank you for your answer!
Even though it is sad news. How fast do they spredd? That coral was my first and sits in the tank since early december. I at least didn't spot them anywhere else. Early on i found on the same hammer also a few vermatid. I guess i should avoid that seller from now on, but there is not many options..

Is there a possibility of manual removing them/ scraping them off?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thank you for your answer!
Even though it is sad news. How fast do they spredd? That coral was my first and sits in the tank since early december. I at least didn't spot them anywhere else. Early on i found on the same hammer also a few vermatid. I guess i should avoid that seller from now on, but there is not many options..

Is there a possibility of manual removing them/ scraping them off?

How fast they spread depends on the species and the condition in your tank, but, generally, they seem to spread moderately quickly (and then snowball to spreading rather rapidly). You can't scrape them off (the are literally bored into the coral skeleton, they're not just sitting on the outside of it), but if they are only on that one coral you can try to treat that coral by itself in a separate hospital tank using Interceptor, Bayer, or Ivermectin (please do not use these in your main tank, they will cause you problems):

I would only use ivermectin external to the main tank, and that would require three external tanks: one for treatment, one for rinse, and one for decontamination with a lot of activated carbon. It is extremely toxic to all inverts (except corals) in minuscule doses. I also bleach any water containing ivermectin to try to chemically neutralize it prior to disposal, as its environmental half life is very long (e.g. don't just pour your waste down the drain).

The link I posted above can give you an idea of what people have tried to do to deal with (unsuccessfully, for the most part).

Edit: just to add, be careful using any of the above medications, and figure out how to dispose of them appropriately before disposing of them.