BAYMAC
Supporting Member
Sadly, I'm a guilty party
What would you do? Blue Clove Polyps
- Thread starter Invictus
- Start date
Sadly, I'm a guilty party
divewsharks
Supporting Member
Me as well, "fortunately" they did not grow well in my tanks.
They are like really small gsp. They don’t detach. They grow like a mat. They come in different colors. I’ve seen blue, tan, brown. So far.
tribbitt
Supporting Member
I’ve seen a few “nano-bowl”setups with this covering the rocks. It looks quite cool especially with white light
I would just recommend keeping it far, far away from anything that’s going into a main tank
Here's a pic of what I got - left of the oregon tort. Definitely some kind of small polyp but doesn't look as big or have as long tentacles as the "blue clove polyps" I've seen. They also haven't really been an issue - been in my tank for a while. Definitely slowly growing over rocks but not nearly the suffocating pain that montis and zoas are - they aren't bothing any acros nearby. What could these be?
BAYMAC
Supporting Member
They can detach. I've had it happen quite a few times. I don't know if a critter was doing it, or what, but they'd end up in my sump fuge.
BAYMAC
Supporting Member
looks like them, fell blessed
Oh I didn’t know that. Thanks for the correction.
BAYMAC
Supporting Member
its a pretty weak mat they make, so it could have just been a hermit or something poking around and popping them off.
Those ended that tank, which was connected to two other tanks that ended up getting them and going offline as well.
That’s what makes me nuts in this hobby. It can never be the good stuff. It’s always the bad stuff.
I wish you the best of luck. They will literally grow up onto the Zoa polyps eventually irritating enough and then suffocating them out. No experience with their interaction vs Acros but I can see how they’d coexist, maybe stifle encrusting at most.
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
If you think something is eating them, please continue to investigate.
I’ve been looking for that piece of information!
I tried blue cloves when they were cool a lot of years ago. They spread a little locally and looked nice (IMO) for a year or so then died off, don’t know why. This was a long time ago, way before I joined BAR.
Now I have these brown or tan clove polyps. They are much smaller and not pretty. I know exactly where I got 1 polyp from around 7 years ago. I’ve tried many forms of killing them off over the years and they are slowly getting the better of me. Very frustrating.
Last edited:
Those look similar to what I have. Unfortunately pretty common. I didn’t think they were a big deal when I had them as long as you have. They are a slow burn.
Yeah I’ve heard Chris talk about that, and at one of our events at High Tide earlier this year I asked him about it directly. He definitely seems to think it’s a good approach. I may try the Fenbendazole flakes at some point for the clove polyps I have. It seems kind of risky for everything else in the tank to me though.
Yeah, there is a very long thread on Reef2Reef on fenben usage to eliminate BSP. It seems like the pharma pill version ground up and dosed to the tank is very potent. The fish flakes version is almost certainly less potent but it seems to be able to eliminate BSP at least temporarily. It is unclear whether the fish flakes can permanently eliminate BSP—especially at a very low dose. If I had a BSP issue I would try a small pinch once a week which is what Chris Meckley does, then increase dosage or frequency if I saw no affect. You could also experiment in a separate QT tank to see what the effect is on the BSP.
If you want to experiment I can give you some fish flakes. Just let me know what size tank you intend to run it on.
Last edited:
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
Get a brush on them...outside of display tank if possible
Those are the burgundy ones...they’re terrible too
Don’t know what eats them
They bad, treat accordingly