Hydroids?

cdn_beaver

Member
Very sorry, but after reading another recent post about hydroids, I thought I'd better ask if this what I also have. They pretty much cover an entire 9lb piece of live rock. I had just assumed it was some type of algae that comes as part of the cycling process. Im in the very end stages of a brown algae - diatoms outbreak. If these are indeed hydroids, is there anything other than keyhole limpets that will take care of it, and if not, where can I find some? Finally if I do need to go the route of the limpets, how many should I have for a 25 gallon tank?
Thanks.
 

skirrby

Active Member
i dunno if thats hydroids,, normally you will notice them on the glass. not sure what it is if its not hydriods though.
 

effloresce

Member
i am magic carp, that account was banned,
jelly's are a paint becuase they eat pods, and can also over take a tank, all hydriods sting corals to some extent, most dont do any harm at all, but jelly's reproduce rapidly and in high numbers and stress corals.
 
T

tizzo

Guest

Originally posted by Archie
How do I get rid of them? and where did they come from?

They come in as hitch hikers on your lr. I don't know how to get rid of them, but I'll tell you what DON'T work...
Kalk paste
liquid calcium
puddy
Joe's juice
I'll keep posting after each experiment.
Superglue has worked somewhat. Some spots it works, others, they just poke out from around it.
If you can take the rock out of the tank, you can dig them out, but they go pretty deep.
These are hydroids...
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/show...light=aiptasia
 

effloresce

Member
those are jellys, they can hitch hick in brine shrimp eggs, and when you feed the BBS to the tank they go in also, they go away after a month or two.
 
7

75bownut

Guest

Originally posted by stuckinfla
call me crazy, but i see little strands of alge.

I second that!!
 

effloresce

Member
look at the very tip, you can see little "feathers" those are hydrio polyps, they have the ability to move by "rolling" and can deploy that feather top, and where it lands a new hydriod will start and slip creating more colonies.
 

stuckinfla

Active Member
Look at Tizz's post again. Notice the hydroids have a tube that they go into. These have no obvious tubes. Did you try to touch it? did it retract into a tube that I cannot see? Or did it just bend like a blade of grass.
I still say alge.
 

ophiura

Active Member
The problem is that "Hydroids" are an extremely diverse group...some have little tubes, some look like little solitary anemones (the classic "Hydra" from biology class), some grow along little root like structures (which may be above), some look like long whips, some are like small jellys, some are like huge jelly's (the portugese man 'o war is a type of highly specialized colonial hydroid) some are like corals (fire coral). VERY DIVERSE, and usually very small so hard to take good pictures of. There is the hint of little hairs at the top of those.
Ron Shimek wrote a good article on their diversity. There are also several picture on his site, and this is what I reckon you may have - just at higher zoom :)
( :( I'll try posting it later...but yes, there are hydroids that look like those)
You may be able to google a hydroid like "Hydractinia" for a general idea on a similar hydroid.
 

pyro

Active Member
uhhhh ohhh, upon reading this post, I think I might have found my correct answer...
D.)All the Above
I always thought they were tons of microscopic feather dusters or harmless filter feeders..... hmmmm, this could be a problem. Any suggestions considering they are all the way down on the bottom pieces of rock aswell?
 
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