Digitate hydroids help?

[jgsensor]

Don't wait and hope they go away, must likely you will end up with a nightmare infestation. That's what happened to me. I have a 375gal tank and it was covered with these things in a short time. If you have had them and they just went away you were lucky. Mine survived tank crashes, hypo and extreme temps. Get them out now.

[Bofa]

How do you kill them if they are on corals?

[jgsensor]

Carefully! I had some attached to a leather and some monti caps, I just used a soft toothbrush and scrubbed them off. Basically just mutilated them, but it didn't seem to hurt the coral. It may be hard if there attached to some soft corals though.

By the way, if you haven't found out yet, don't touch the hydroids they have a sting that you wouldn't believe. Make sure to wear gloves if you are around them.

[reef2]

someone on my local forum had luck with a silver scat eating the digitate hydroids in their tank.

[thincat]

My guess would be nutrients in the water. No extra food......gone!

[dja1980]

I've heard that there's a nudibranch that eats these. I've got a small patch of the ones pictured in this thread as well... looking for advice to get rid of them.

[LamboBoy]

My tank at this moment is going fallow, in it's 5 week. I noticed this hydroids in my refugium, and now they are in my DT. There are quite a few of them.
Here is a close up pic of it below.

How do I get rid of it?
Do they go away by themselves?
Is there any fish or inver that eats these things?

BTW, the tank is 42" high so there is no way I can get to them unless I take out all the LR, which would totally suck.

[Bofa]

Hey Lamboboy ...are those hydroids? My hidroids were a brown color and were in a big group.

[LamboBoy]

Originally Posted by Bofa

Hey Lamboboy ...are those hydroids? My hidroids were a brown color and were in a big group.

That's what I have been told, Digitate Hydroids.
Have been told to leave them alone but it's been a month and they are multiplying.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[greech]

There are many, many types of hydroids. I have had both colonial and digitate. The colonial are those that grow in a cluster like zoanthids or button polyps. They usually have a hard tube where the hydroid extends out of. I only had them on one rock and noticed them soon enough to remove the rock. Prior to removing the rock I smothered them with Aquamend puddy which killed the colony but more patches started on that rock and I just pulled it.

The digitates are the threads that whip around in the current. I had a huge bloom of these about 4 months into my tank. Started out with a couple and then they took off. I drove myself nuts trying to find ways to kill them but nothing worked. Lots of people said they will die off on there own and sure enough they did. Every once in a while I will see one but it will be gone before I even remember to look for it again. I have read they sting but I never saw any problems even when they were thick in my tank. My advice with these is don't waste your time trying to battle them.

[Bofa]

LamboBoy ---- You can try all the methods in this post but none of them worked for me. I found I had to remove them manually.

IF they were on a rock I would get

http://aquaterras.com/index.php?main..._image&pID=344

those cutters and cut a small piece of the rock where they were on. Those cutters will cut any kind of rock pretty easy. If there was a rock I could pull out then I would get some sand paper and sand them off the rock. Even after removing them all I would still see some appear but then I would cut the rock where they are growing immediately.

These things grow pretty fast and everyone told me they would die but mine didn't after 8 months. I hear they can live with no light too.

good luck...this is the only thing that worked for me.

[dja1980]

I've been living with these for over a year. I finally decided I've had enough and started pulling apart my aquascaping a few months ago. I first soaked the affected rocks in RO/DI water until all the death fell off, then dried them out. I figure if I do a few rocks at a time, I can avoid a cycle. I haven't put them back into the display yet, but I guess we'll see if it works!

[impur]

They do not just go away. I have 3 types in my tank. One digitate has been in my tank for over 5 years now. Luckily its on the side of a rock and doesn't hit anything. the clumps of brownish ones are simple to kill, just cover them in epoxy or a bunch of kalk. But again, i've got clumps in my tank over 5 years old. The bad ones are the white ones that grow along rock then shoot up a stalk with a polyp looking thing on the end. They are impossible to kill, grow incredibly fast, and can go toe to toe with any coral. I'm going to go extreme soon with limpets, nudis, and butterfly fish hoping for something to kill them. I expect to lose some corals in the battle too

[sdc19982002]

I had some for the first 8 months or so and havent seen them in the last year and a half.

[noahm]

Originally Posted by greech

There are many, many types of hydroids. I have had both colonial and digitate. The colonial are those that grow in a cluster like zoanthids or button polyps. They usually have a hard tube where the hydroid extends out of. I only had them on one rock and noticed them soon enough to remove the rock. Prior to removing the rock I smothered them with Aquamend puddy which killed the colony but more patches started on that rock and I just pulled it.

The digitates are the threads that whip around in the current. I had a huge bloom of these about 4 months into my tank. Started out with a couple and then they took off. I drove myself nuts trying to find ways to kill them but nothing worked. Lots of people said they will die off on there own and sure enough they did. Every once in a while I will see one but it will be gone before I even remember to look for it again. I have read they sting but I never saw any problems even when they were thick in my tank. My advice with these is don't waste your time trying to battle them.

I had the exact same experience w/my digitates. One day I just noticed they weren't there any more after being pretty thick. I would watch them literally lay and bounce into all kinds of corals with no problems. There must be very different habits from species to species, or else a lot of misinformation out there.

[LamboBoy]

Originally Posted by impur

They do not just go away. I have 3 types in my tank. One digitate has been in my tank for over 5 years now. Luckily its on the side of a rock and doesn't hit anything. the clumps of brownish ones are simple to kill, just cover them in epoxy or a bunch of kalk. But again, i've got clumps in my tank over 5 years old. The bad ones are the white ones that grow along rock then shoot up a stalk with a polyp looking thing on the end. They are impossible to kill, grow incredibly fast, and can go toe to toe with any coral. I'm going to go extreme soon with limpets, nudis, and butterfly fish hoping for something to kill them. I expect to lose some corals in the battle too

LMK how your battle goes, if there is anything that will eat these things. I think I have the bad ones, the ones that are white and shoot up like a stalk.

I really don't want to take out all my LR since it's really hard to do, have to use extension arms since my tank is 42" high.

Some invert or fish must eat these things....

[LamboBoy]

Originally Posted by greech

There are many, many types of hydroids. I have had both colonial and digitate. The colonial are those that grow in a cluster like zoanthids or button polyps. They usually have a hard tube where the hydroid extends out of. I only had them on one rock and noticed them soon enough to remove the rock. Prior to removing the rock I smothered them with Aquamend puddy which killed the colony but more patches started on that rock and I just pulled it.

The digitates are the threads that whip around in the current. I had a huge bloom of these about 4 months into my tank. Started out with a couple and then they took off. I drove myself nuts trying to find ways to kill them but nothing worked. Lots of people said they will die off on there own and sure enough they did. Every once in a while I will see one but it will be gone before I even remember to look for it again. I have read they sting but I never saw any problems even when they were thick in my tank. My advice with these is don't waste your time trying to battle them.

Man.... I'm praying that you are right. I have a 6" Crosshatch Trigger coming out of QT in about a month, by then my tank has been fallow for 9 weeks so I'm hoping to put him in the DT. Hate to see these things sting the Trigger. How dangerous are these things against bigger fish like Triggers, large Angels, Tangs and large Wrasses? Since fish goes to sleep in caves, by the bottom of the tank, won't these Hydroids sting them while asleep?

[greech]

To my knowledge the digitates never stung any of my fish. Never saw a mark/blemish and never observed an unwillingness to go into the rocks at night when the digitates were out in full force.

[LamboBoy]

Originally Posted by greech

To my knowledge the digitates never stung any of my fish. Never saw a mark/blemish and never observed an unwillingness to go into the rocks at night when the digitates were out in full force.

That's good to know.... thanks!
My Crosshatch is going in as soon as he is done with QT.

[eXcite95]

i have both colonial and digitate hydroids at the moment..these guys came in on a acan frag i got in a raffle 7months ago and man i really wish i picked up the gift card instead because i can now see atleast 50 or more of the digitate hydroids stinging all my zoa and paly frags and i have like 40 differnt frags in the tank and 75% have one of these buggers on them.. as for the colonial type i have resorted to manually removing them with tweezers but its hard to remove the whole thing with out tearing into the tissue of the paly or zoa...i just got a mystery wrasse a week ago and im hoping he will rid my tank of theses guys . he already rid my tank of at least 100 plus little white snails.. dont think they were pyramid snails but he ate them all so im thinking if he gets hungry enough he will go after the hydoids...keeping my fingers crossed.. good luck with your hydroid problem guys .

nick b

[Jstdv8]

I had hundreds of the long white stringy ones. now I only have 30 or so, ive never done anything to them. I think as your tank becomes more mature they lose out on nutrients or something

[LamboBoy]

I still have quite a few of these Digitate Hydroids in my tank but they seem to have gone down in numbers. I added my Crosshatch pair into the DT and they don't seem bothered by them.

I even squeezed a few of them with my fingers and no sting at all, I'm taking about the ones that looks like white strings moving with the current.

[eXcite95]

dont want to jinx it but looks like the digitate haydroids numbers are diminishing. i have only been feeding pellet food to cut down on nutrient levels so its either that or my mystery wrasse that i added a month ago has been having a field day on these guys. either way im happy that they are not in my tank as much.

nick b

[Briniel]

I have the colonial type (the fluffy brown ones, excactly like in the pictures posted) in my tank on two or three stones. I covered the majority of them with reefbond and so far it looks good. There's still small patch I missed that seems to have smaller polyps (or they weren't fully extended) but my anemone is currently running around the tank and is excactly at that spot. Let's hope they don't like it
I'll report whether they come back. I really don't want to take out the stones if I can help it.

[LamboBoy]

After I added my Crosshatches and them my Blueline pair, most of the hydroids are gone. I don't know if any fish are eating it but the numbers are down big time.... thanks God!!