[chad54827]

i bought a small rock with some Anthellia Polyps about 5 months ago. At first i thought they were really cool looking and they brought some movement to my tank. But now they have grown out of control taking up a significant part of my tank and growing over corals. I tried to take the couple of rocks out that they were on and i cut them with scissors (maybe a bad move) they seemed to die off temporarily, but are now coming back just as strong about two weeks later. Also i think that cutting them caused a nitrate spike in my tank. Is there anything that eats them or could keep them under control? Truthfully i'm sick of them and wouldn't mind getting rid of them all together, but i really like the rocks they are attached to, and don't want to recure them either.... Please help... thanks

[SECRETREEF]

I am so sorry because i love those polyps. I wouldn't mind adopting some but I live in Puerto Rico and I don't think you are close to me. I hate to tell you this and it is a bit cruel, but you could place the rocks you want to clean up in a tank with just a power head and no light no supplements untill they die off. this way you wont lose your cured rock but get rid of your polyps.

[rlcline76]

Have you looked online to see if there is an easy way to prune them back? I've done some reading because I want to frag my clove polyp, and I am seeing that they can be easily removed (or a good chunk of the population) by just pulling them off of the rock.

[SECRETREEF]

you could pull them but that may even promote their growing by some polyps spreading while being pulled or even if some tissue stays in the rock it will grow again

[rlcline76]

Right, well you probably will not be able to get rid of every polyp and careful attention will have to be paid as to their growth. I am watching mine..and to some extent they are going toward the other rocks, but I can still remove the mother colony for fragging that way and reduce the likelihood of polyps spreading too far willy-nilly. My concorns for a tank already heavily overgrown is what it might mean for other corals in the tank...not too many options.

[chad54827]

ok thanks alot for the input. i think i'm just gonna chip off pieces of rock that they are on and sell them to my lfs to keep them under control.

[theaquaticlife]

I have that same problem in an aquarium I maintain at a local hospital... every two weeks I use my glass scraper and gently push with my finger at base while prodding with scraper and they peel up pretty easy off the rock. If you want them completely off a rock try taking out offending live rock submersing in a bucket siphoned out for a water change and scrubbing them off with coarse plastic bristle brush until rock is totally free of invaders. I have seen many a clownfish use large patches of this coral as a substitute anemone! I hate it when lush overgrown coral in a tank becomes a nuissance... if only everyone had the bad luck LOL