Button Polyp Control

[gomrjoe]

Long time since I posted. I have a 100 gallon tank mix of softies and stonies. In the last 4 months a rogue button polyp colony had gotten out of control. I recently took out the rocks that it had infested and traded them in at my LFS and he gave me equivalent weight in live rock, so I am happy. BUT, I still have two small colonies that are difficult to remove. One has attached itself to the back of my tank and the base rock of one of my Monty's, the other is at the base of a rock inhabited by my Bubble Tip Anemone. My nem I am not that worried about, my guess is he'll be fine, but would still like to get rid of it all. My Monte I am most worried about.

Anyone have some suggestions on how to remove these polyps. I'll try to get some pics, but I don't have a great camera at all. In another month my Monty will be in danger of getting direct contact from these button polyps.

 

[got2envy]

if you want to kill them and have no choice a syringe and lemon juice works well
u would have to inject each one

 

[fsn77]

I've been trying to rid our 90g of some pink palys that spread like wildfire. While my solution probably isn't any less tedious than the one got2envy suggested, it does work all the same. I bought a long pair of curved tip forceps and have been plucking out the unwanted palys. Many of them survive being removed without tearing (about 50% without me being the least bit cautious) and I've been giving them away to anyone locally that has wanted them (with the caveat that they spread ridiculously fast). I've been able to pull out clusters of 5 - 7 polyps with a single tug. I've done this three times now and have removed well over 200 polyps from the centerpiece rock in our tank, which would be impossible to remove without completely taking out all of the rockwork. They aren't completely gone, as I always seem to miss a few, but the rock has gone from 85% covered with them to maybe 20% covered.

 

[dixienut]

offer them to us here for shipping or small fee,we have to pay an arm and leg to buy these, and most of us really can't afford to buy these at lfs, or online with shipping,. instead of killing them,.. just a suggestion,..
as i would like to have some color in my tank, i bought a teeny tiny piece of a frag for 10.00 and a tiny mushroom, but i think the room is doomed, lol

 

[gomrjoe]

If anyone wanted to simply pay for shipping I would give them away! I have never shipped live stock though personally, I know Fed Ex does it. I have probably about 30 to 40 polyps give or take, mabe a little less.

These are the off purple with a pink center. Under Actinic lighting they look pretty good. They spread like mad though, I swear these things are worse than Xenia, well almost.

I like the forceps idea, I think Dr. Fosters and Smith has them if I am not mistaken.

 

[Nolapete]

I wonder if you put a heat pack in with them if you could send them priority mail? Anyone know?

 

[gomrjoe]

... I bought a long pair of curved tip forceps and have been plucking out the unwanted palys. Many of them survive being removed without tearing (about 50% without me being the least bit cautious) .

have you seen any of them re-grow from any remaining tissue when you have done this?

 

[gomrjoe]

I wonder if you put a heat pack in with them if you could send them priority mail? Anyone know?

As I said, I have never personally shipped live stock so I don't know, but if anything could these guys and Xenia might.

 

[dixienut]

priority is usually 2-3 days so you would need a 60 - 72 hour heat pack and insulation,..
not sure about lack of light,.. i guess it depends on the type,..
i use only us post office and have used priority and overnight both work well if packed good,.

i'm near pittsburgh and sent my dwarf puffers overnight to a lady in NC and she had the the very next day even though the post office said they can't garentee next day for overnight?lol but it worked for that far anyway and that was around $20.00..

 

[fsn77]

have you seen any of them re-grow from any remaining tissue when you have done this?

If enough tissue is left on the rock (the "mat" itself on the rock, for example), they can regrow. But, I don't notice many regrowing of the type of palys I'm pulling out. It's probably happening, but not enough that I'm noticing it. Where I've been pulling from has been mostly separate areas, with just a few that I've plucked off areas that I've already covered. Those could be regrowth, or just ones I missed the first time around -- I haven't been particularly diligent in completely cleaning off every polyp, just been trying to pull out the masses thus far.