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ID - Hydroids or Aiptasia?


TreTheDJ

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So I'm pretty sure they are colonial hydroids but I've been wrong before. They have taken over this small rock completely, and have a good hold on a nearby rock. They were a small problem, tank was neglected for a little while and now there is obviously a much larger problem. They are also attached to the base of my caluastrea and it seems to be upsetting them.

 

Hydroids_zps77e015ae.jpg

 

Hydroids/aiptasia on one side, bubble algae on the other... :wacko:

Caulastrea-1_zpsc77f18d9.jpg

If it is hydroids as I suspect, I've heard its best to pull the rocks. If there are other suggestions I would love to hear them haha

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Those look like hydroids to me. Someone else might want to chime in but I don't think you can do anything about them. I had a couple pop up in my last tank but they went away eventually.

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fretfreak13

Yes, they're hydroids. I say pull and dry out the infected rocks. For the caulastrea frag, super glue over the hydroids (careful not to get it on the flesh of the coral!). Its easiest to do this if you get the coral to retract as much as possible. For the bubble algea, try an emerald crab, or take the frag out of the water and try to pluck them off without popping them. Rinse/swish it around in a cup of tank water, dump it, do it again with a different cup (this is incase you accidentally pop some of the bubbles), and then place it back.

 

Not sure if the peroxide method works on bubble algae, but I've done the method I posted above with decent success.

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You can cover these guys with marine epoxy and superglue and it's pretty effective. It is not effective trying to pull them out. Best bet is to act now and aggressively. Sometime these guys don't spread but other time they go crazy.

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Alright thanks everybody. I think I will just take out the 2 rocks that were infected and leave them outside for a couple weeks and let them die. I don't really want to risk leaving them in the tank. Hopefully the other rocks are okay. I got some superglue so hopefully the frag will be fine using that method.

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