Hydroids experiment

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Hello fellow advance reef keepers!

I have been doing research on a potential treatment for hydroids. A product by the name of Panacur. I would really like to run some experiments to see what the dosage should be as well as what animals need to be removed from a tank prior to treatment. I want to "stock" a small 10 or 20 gallon tank with the following:

SPS frags (Acro milli, Acro tort, birds nest) I HAVE MOST
Soft corals (leather, toadstool, etc.)
Polyps (GSP, Button, etc.)
Mushroom anemones I HAVE, but could use 1 hairy
Brittle star
Cucumber
Aptasia I HAVE
Majano anemone
Bristle worms I HAVE
Shrimp
Anemone, preferably carpet and bubble tip
Snail (Mexican Turbo and others) I HAVE MEXICAN
Different types of hydroids I HAVE ONE TYPE


If anyone else is interested in being involved in the experiment I can provide the space and what I wrote I have above. I will also order the panacur.

The experiment will run for 3 days at a time and we will probably have to go through three different runs to figure out the best dosage. The initial run would be at a higher dosage to see what does not survive.

I suspect that this treatment would be good for majano as well as aptasia based on what I have read.

Alfred

 

[prattreef]

I have hydroids you can use as well.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

If we can get someone to loan a tank and a submersible filter to supply oxygenation and circulation as well as what is missing we would be in business!

If this works out we would have solved a few of the biggest problems of our hobby- hydroids and majano. (NOTHING eats majano anemones!)

I suspect that anemones, shrimp and snails will do poorly as well as soft corals with petalled polyps. But need to try it out... Perhaps a low dosage will prove effective against hydroids and not larger anemones and corals.

Alfred

I have hydroids you can use as well.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Thinking this through... We probably will also need "dividers" or the plastic breeding nets so that we can keep the delicate animals that hide well in view. (Shrimp, bristle worm, etc.)

Alfred

 

[Josh]

I have some hydroids you can have.

Also, I suggest putting xenia in the testing tank to see what happens to them. Let me know if you need some.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Ok. I will put together a "formal" list of what is needed. For now, the most important items would be a small aquarium with lighting and a submursible filter for circulation/oxygenation. This would be a "loaner" and would be returned.

I have roughly half of what is needed, and I would photograph the entire experiment from beginning to end. What I am thinking is that I can find a way to save the water from one of my next water changes (30 gallons) so that we are using mature water.

We may need to run this experiment twice. Corals such as Xenia get pretty toxic when stressed and I do not want that to impact the results. Perhaps setting up the test system 24 hours in advance with activated carbon would be a good way around this (to give the corals and other inverts a chance to settle in and recover from the stress of being moved, etc.)

Alfred

 

[sjsoto]

looking foward to experiment, ...

 

[Acro76]

Wow that is an ambitious experiment!

I've been doing some testing on dips for Aiptasia and Majano anemones. But my goal is pretty simple... don't kill off the coralline algae, but KILL the anemones! So far I've just tried commercial dips, Coral Rx and TMPCC. I've had coralline algae survivial, but the Aiptasia grow back within two weeks on my test rocks.

Are you only testing with Panacur? I wonder how effective this would be on hydroids, since it is made for deworming animals. I guess you are hoping it would be lethal at low concentrations to hydroids rather than desirable corals?

Great ideas, I'll be checking back with this thread for sure!

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

I chose panacur because it is a product that has been used by seahorse breeders for some time and reports indicate that it total erradicates hydroids after 3 treatments. But information about it's toxicity is non-existent and no one has any concrete dosage information.

Also, reports of it being used on reef aquariums exist and the few I found all stated that SPS survived, but what about other corals and inverts? Can this product be used in an established system without it crashing?

Finally, since it is a dewormer, I am hoping that it will also kill parasitic worms that kill clams and snails.

If we can actually pull this experiment off I can think of a half dozen other experiments that can be done with minimal cost. While not quite up to scientific lab standards, we should be able to get good data. (i.e.: We will not have multiple systems and have a control)

Alfred

Wow that is an ambitious experiment!

I've been doing some testing on dips for Aiptasia and Majano anemones. But my goal is pretty simple... don't kill off the coralline algae, but KILL the anemones! So far I've just tried commercial dips, Coral Rx and TMPCC. I've had coralline algae survivial, but the Aiptasia grow back within two weeks on my test rocks.

Are you only testing with Panacur? I wonder how effective this would be on hydroids, since it is made for deworming animals. I guess you are hoping it would be lethal at low concentrations to hydroids rather than desirable corals?

Great ideas, I'll be checking back with this thread for sure!

 

[skimmerman100]

sounds like a good trial, write up a list and i have a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon and a submersable pump i dont have a light and the tanks arent drilled, u can borrow but i do want to learn too so ill be there, but it has to be after the holidays

 

[cdamiano]

Anything new with this? Have you done any testing yet?

 

[Keith P]

Bump? I have, and HATE hydroids. Lets keep this moving!