Hydroid Invasion?

[reeflover]

I hope this is the right section of the forum to post this...
I observed for a month+ now that I have tons of staurocladia oahuensis on my tank's glass panels, those little pests are everywhere! ...and don't seem to disappear, they actually grow in numbers! (could it be because I feed my zoas a brine shrimp juice that I make with the blender?)
Is there anything that will eat the hydroids but not the corals? I was thinking of a seahare or slugs but I have no experience with those...
Any help would be greatly appreciate. Thanks.

 

[unibob]

Those are hydroid jellyfish vs a more common colonial hydroid which is more of an algae. Slow down on feeding and they should die off. You can suck them out off glass to help speed up process.


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[reeflover]

OK, I will feed my zoas once a week then. Do you think the floss filter catches this little jellyfish? I add a floss filter around the return pipe of my ReefOctopus HOB when I blast the live rock with the turkey baster and scrap the algae off the glass... I remove the filter in about 1 hour.

 

[saltyair]

yea stop feeding the corals for a while - they are pesky but with a filter sock and no food they will disappear, keep an eye out for your more sensitive fish being bothered by them. if you have a big breakout i would suggest shutting down the lights till they cycle out.

 

[reeflover]

yea stop feeding the corals for a while - they are pesky but with a filter sock and no food they will disappear, keep an eye out for your more sensitive fish being bothered by them. if you have a big breakout i would suggest shutting down the lights till they cycle out.

Thanks, I only have 1 clown fish in the whole tank, an acan and a zoa colony....

 

[heath]

ok, I'm learning here so be patient... is this a common pest and will they harm the corals and fish..

 

[saltyair]

ok, I'm learning here so be patient... is this a common pest and will they harm the corals and fish..

Yes and no on being common - they use to be common when live rock came from Florida - most likely came in on live rock or the zoa
They can be tough to totally eliminate. But most of the time it will die out in a mature tank.
Yes they can irritate fish and corals - they can sting like all jellyfish. If your fish are getting ick or seem off but then get better in cycles it could be jellyfish
I had them in my first tank and I would get stung every once in a while and my fish would get irritated - that's when I noticed jellyfish - if you can find the source take out the rock and boil it


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[heath]

good to know considering I will be setting up a coral tank in the next few months..

 

[reeflover]

I hope they will not turn into a problem, so far they are less then 1mm in diameter so I can't feel the sting but I imagine corals and fish are more sensitive than my skin... My rock was live rock from Fiji with all the hitchhikers and shrooms and sponges on them...
I will clean the glass every day and keep a floss filter while I'm doing it...

 

[yveterinarian]

One problem with hydroids is that they will definitely return if you are feeding a brine shrimp mixture that has not been decapsulated before hatching them out. Hydroids are very common on the shells of the brine shrimp. The only true way to get rid of hydroids is to dose the tank with Panacur but then you can never have snails in your tank again so it isn't a good fix for a reef tank.
Are you making the brine mixture from brine you are hatching out yourself or are you purchasing them? If you are purchasing the brine then I would recommend finding out if they are being hatched from decapulated brine. My guess is they are not. I put a sticky in the Library about how to decapsulate brine shrimp if you need the instructions.
Good luck and I hope they disappear for you soon.

 

[reeflover]

Thank you so much for the valuable info on brine shrimps, I would of never thought that is one of the way those hydroids are traveling... I looked on my brine shrimps and they are the frozen ones from Hikari. It says 3 step sterilization, vitamins loaded and higly pure guaranteed to be free from parasites and bacteria... Here is the link for the exact product I am using, please let me know if there is a problem with it... Hikari Brine Shrimp
I would also love to learn how to purchase, decapsulate, hatch and gut load my own brine shrimp...

 

[yveterinarian]

Thank you so much for the valuable info on brine shrimps, I would of never thought that is one of the way those hydroids are traveling... I looked on my brine shrimps and they are the frozen ones from Hikari. It says 3 step sterilization, vitamins loaded and higly pure guaranteed to be free from parasites and bacteria... Here is the link for the exact product I am using, please let me know if there is a problem with it... Hikari Brine Shrimp
I would also love to learn how to purchase, decapsulate, hatch and gut load my own brine shrimp...

To tell you the truth, I don't know if the hydroids travel in on the frozen brine shrimp. I do know without a doubt that they come on brine that people hatch out unless they decapsulate them. I had hydroids in my seahorse fry system right at the beginning of my fry raising journey because I didn't decapsulate the first batch I hatched and I had to treat my tank with Panacur. Hydroids kill fry very easily. I couldn't believe how many hydroids I had in my system with only one batch of brine shrimp. It was incredible. Here is a link to my thread if you are interested: http://www.thefragtank.ca/community/threads/brine-shrimp-de-capsulation-and-hatching-methods.13778/ Once you get the hang of it, it is not difficult to do.

 

[reeflover]

This is very useful information, thanks a lot. Although I didn't use own hatched brine shrimps since I was breeding freshwater angelfish I will probably in the future hatch some to feed my fish as a variety, now I only have to learn how to keep them alive and get them to a decent size loaded with healthy nutritious stuff...

 

[MrHermit85]

I had a load of hydroids in my 75 when I first set it up. They were there for a few weeks and then just disappeared...

 

[reeflover]

I had a load of hydroids in my 75 when I first set it up. They were there for a few weeks and then just disappeared...

Then I wonder what am I doing wrong? I noticed those jelly fish on March 17th for the first time... did yours take longer to disappear or less? I don't have so many since I filter them out... I scrape the tank's walls every 2 days and run the water through a floss filter that I throw after 1 hour.

 

[MrHermit85]

It could have been a month for me too, its hard to remember. All I can remember is that their population exploded in my tank and they were all over the glass and then they just disappeared. As per most things in the beginning they just ran their course and died off. I did the same thing your doing by scraping the glass and I ran a filter sock. I also cut back feeding in the beginning too especially the frozen food.

I doubt your doing anything wrong considering they were probably just introduced into the tank when you put something in from an outside source like frags. As long as you have good husbandry practices it can't really be your fault. Also with a new tank you are going to see all sorts of crazy stuff bursting into life (which is the best part about reefing), just keep up your cleaning schedule test occasionally and and take it slow. Also remember that things don't rectify themselves overnight, they have to run their course so keep scraping and filtering and hang in there.

 

[reeflover]

It could have been a month for me too, its hard to remember. All I can remember is that their population exploded in my tank and they were all over the glass and then they just disappeared. As per most things in the beginning they just ran their course and died off. I did the same thing your doing by scraping the glass and I ran a filter sock. I also cut back feeding in the beginning too especially the frozen food.

I doubt your doing anything wrong considering they were probably just introduced into the tank when you put something in from an outside source like frags. As long as you have good husbandry practices it can't really be your fault. Also with a new tank you are going to see all sorts of crazy stuff bursting into life (which is the best part about reefing), just keep up your cleaning schedule test occasionally and and take it slow. Also remember that things don't rectify themselves overnight, they have to run their course so keep scraping and filtering and hang in there.

Thanks a lot MrHermit, I try to keep up the good husbandry, I have a 5% water change every 2 weeks, I scrap the glass walls and blast the LR with a turkey baster every 2-3 days and I test water parameters every week...
I'm trying to find more information but I read 3 books about marine aquariums and how to start and set them up but none is mentioning about things happening in the first few months like diatoms, algae, hydroids... and I read other's posts and they all say "my sand is brown but that's normal for now"... well when that happened I was worried I didn't know it's normal... so if you know a good reading source please point me to the right direction.

 

[MrHermit85]

In all honesty although there are so many books out there, I found that Thefragtank was the best source for consistent information. I did however read a few books like The new marine aquarium step by step stocking and what fish, a buyers guide to marine fish which both helped me with the basics and fish selection. Other than that I read a lot of articles online and scoured the boards pulling information together and making my own informed decisions. My preparation was over the span of about two years before I actually turned everything on and I still wasn't prepared for everything that happened Lol. My only criticism for your cleaning schedule would be bigger water changes. (That is however open for debate) I personally do 20% every 2 to three weeks. I doubt that is what is causing the hydroids though

 

[reeflover]

In all honesty although there are so many books out there, I found that Thefragtank was the best source for consistent information. I did however read a few books like The new marine aquarium step by step stocking and what fish, a buyers guide to marine fish which both helped me with the basics and fish selection. Other than that I read a lot of articles online and scoured the boards pulling information together and making my own informed decisions. My preparation was over the span of about two years before I actually turned everything on and I still wasn't prepared for everything that happened Lol. My only criticism for your cleaning schedule would be bigger water changes. (That is however open for debate) I personally do 20% every 2 to three weeks. I doubt that is what is causing the hydroids though

That's true, books are nice but nothing like the experience of a nice live community. I study a lot every day about this wonderful hobby and I put information together, also I have a binder where a print and attach key information and articles along with my other notes and tank log and diary.

I hear you on water changes, the only reason I was changing only 5% every 2 weeks is because my tests showed low to non detectable values on phosphates and nitrates and my tank is almost empty...

 

[MrHermit85]

as I said its open to debate . You will discover what works best for you and what works for your system. Its all about nutrient export and if your tests are good and you don't have an algae problem plus lightly stocked then keep doing what your doing.