Colonial Hydroids

MrKris · 10/19/2013, 07:00 PM

Well... I have found a spot of neon green colonial hydroids. They look amazing, but I was just wondering if I may have ID them wrong. I can't take pics because they are incredibly small and no camera wants to cooperate in taking extremely detailed small pictures. Thus, I must describe it to the best I can.

They look kind of like this except smaller and more bundled together:
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...DSCN1177-1.jpg

From close observation I see 5 heads each coming out of a separate tube from 1 origin or they may be conversing onto one point. At close they look resemble yellow polyps with one major difference their tube that they come out of. Yes, I have verified they are tubes; when annoyed they shrink back in.

I have never personally seen hydroids in my tank, but I have seen them in my QT tank (which I scrubbed them all off). I have also seen their tubes on dead corals but have never seen them come out into the light.

What should I do now?

1) Destroy the place with kalkwasser?
2) Leave them alone in hopes that they don't spread like crazy?
3) Glue a piece of rock on top of them?
4) Tweezer them out?

I can't really remove the rock that they are on (the foundation for the thing above it) so I can't manually remove them. I may be able to tweeze them out with super long tweezers but being a 200gallon+ I can't really see the bottom portion of the tank when I put my hands in.

What do you think I should do?

Thanks!

Edit:

Found a quote on this one:
If you have the tube ones, they are actually jellyfish. Once they mature(which I don't think they do in the aquarium), the crowns will leave the tubes and become the free floating jellies. I had a few small patches of these, but they did not seem to multiply at all. In fact, they are sometimes neon green and kind of cool. You can easily get rid of these buy plucking the tube from the rock with tweezers. They are on there pretty tough though.

Can anyone verify? I have the ones with tubes :P

Oceanminded · 10/19/2013, 08:14 PM

I also am plagued by colonial hydroids. Four months later I can tell you they did NOT turn into jellies.... They haven't spread that I can tell. My tux urchin will occasionally munch on a few and my emerald crab picks at them. They've stayed pretty much on their one rock, which of course is a foundation rock. I've also heard/read that if you try to pull them out they can release spores and spread like crazy. So I've left mine alone and if they start to spread I can always put some kind of sealant over them.

I read an article on here a while back about manipulating mag levels to get rid of them...might be worth searching if you want to eradicate.

10/19/2013, 07:00 PM	#1
MrKris Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 179	Colonial Hydroids Well... I have found a spot of neon green colonial hydroids. They look amazing, but I was just wondering if I may have ID them wrong. I can't take pics because they are incredibly small and no camera wants to cooperate in taking extremely detailed small pictures. Thus, I must describe it to the best I can. They look kind of like this except smaller and more bundled together: http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...DSCN1177-1.jpg From close observation I see 5 heads each coming out of a separate tube from 1 origin or they may be conversing onto one point. At close they look resemble yellow polyps with one major difference their tube that they come out of. Yes, I have verified they are tubes; when annoyed they shrink back in. I have never personally seen hydroids in my tank, but I have seen them in my QT tank (which I scrubbed them all off). I have also seen their tubes on dead corals but have never seen them come out into the light. What should I do now? 1) Destroy the place with kalkwasser? 2) Leave them alone in hopes that they don't spread like crazy? 3) Glue a piece of rock on top of them? 4) Tweezer them out? I can't really remove the rock that they are on (the foundation for the thing above it) so I can't manually remove them. I may be able to tweeze them out with super long tweezers but being a 200gallon+ I can't really see the bottom portion of the tank when I put my hands in. What do you think I should do? Thanks! Edit: Found a quote on this one: If you have the tube ones, they are actually jellyfish. Once they mature(which I don't think they do in the aquarium), the crowns will leave the tubes and become the free floating jellies. I had a few small patches of these, but they did not seem to multiply at all. In fact, they are sometimes neon green and kind of cool. You can easily get rid of these buy plucking the tube from the rock with tweezers. They are on there pretty tough though. Can anyone verify? I have the ones with tubes :P Last edited by MrKris; 10/19/2013 at 07:10 PM.

10/19/2013, 08:14 PM	#2
Oceanminded Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: NC Posts: 126	I also am plagued by colonial hydroids. Four months later I can tell you they did NOT turn into jellies.... They haven't spread that I can tell. My tux urchin will occasionally munch on a few and my emerald crab picks at them. They've stayed pretty much on their one rock, which of course is a foundation rock. I've also heard/read that if you try to pull them out they can release spores and spread like crazy. So I've left mine alone and if they start to spread I can always put some kind of sealant over them. I read an article on here a while back about manipulating mag levels to get rid of them...might be worth searching if you want to eradicate. __________________ Liz 55 gallon reef since 7/2013 10 gallon reef since 11/2013 happy biologist by day, angry bartender by night --ramble on--