possibly hydroids?

trippyl · #1 02/05/2007, 09:15 PM

I have these things in my LR, they are kind of like those translucent worms that everyone has, except when you look closely, the worm actually looks more like a very long and slender feather. It sways in the current, and definitely irritates my corals.

Others have posted a photo of it here before, and people have suggested that it is a type of hydroid. However, it isn't a polyp and does not resemble most of the hydroids I've seen. I have noticed quite a few of these, and would like to get an ID and then start looking for a way to eradicate them. Any help or advice would be most appreciated.

Trippyl

SDguy · #2 02/05/2007, 09:22 PM

Digitate hydriods

Here are a couple causing no harm to some acro polyps. The only corals mine ever bothered were zoas. The hydroid population has since declined on its own for unknown reasons.

trippyl · #3 02/05/2007, 09:29 PM

yup thats them. It seems to be bothering my zoas and a stylophora.

Any idea about natural predators? I've heard others say that these will sometimes go away on their own.

What's interesting is, I had a bout of monti eating nudhis a few months back and I added a Mandarin, who has decimated their population. I am starting to suspect that the nudhis also ate these, because all of a sudden I am seeing a population boom of these damn things.

Thanks

techreef · #4 02/06/2007, 11:06 AM

your mandarin ate nudi's? that's a new one to me. glad it worked out for you!

dc · #5 02/06/2007, 11:47 AM

I thought my peppermint shrimp ate mine. No proof, but they disappeared in the tank that had them.

SDguy · #6 02/06/2007, 11:49 AM

My pepps could be eating mine...they certainly are all out of aptasias

techreef · #7 02/06/2007, 12:47 PM

i FINALLY caught the final mantis shrimp (3" long) from my tank this weekend, and it's amazing how the tank's critters know that the king predator has now left the building. my peppermint shrimp are now all over the side of the tank where the mantis lived. I don't have any nudibranchs in my tank (that i've seen), but my 2 pep's have become pretty omnivorous, eating most of the various foods I feed the tank now. (Formula I and II, cyclopeeze, mysis, or a homemade mix of nori, scallops, squid, clams, mussels and shrimp)