murder of button polyps

See, I liked them originally. They were cute. Then they
started....spreading. And spreading. And spreading. It's become what
can only be termed an infestation, making very real for me the lesson
that European reefers call these little darlings 'pest anemones'.
I have tried mashing them. I have tried squirting them with Kalk.
I have tried covering them with rockwork, but they still seem to get
enough light to persist....tell me...how does one murder a colony of
button polyps?

And before you mention it, the rock they're taking over is close to
30 pounds, over a third of the total LR in the tank.

--
billy

Funny you should say that because I have button polyps and yellow colony
polyps and they just won't spread. I want them to a little but they just
don't. How long did it take them to start spreading?

One man's junk is another man's treasure!


"Billy" wrote in message
...
See, I liked them originally. They were cute. Then they
started....spreading. And spreading. And spreading. It's become what can
only be termed an infestation, making very real for me the lesson that
European reefers call these little darlings 'pest anemones'.
I have tried mashing them. I have tried squirting them with Kalk. I
have tried covering them with rockwork, but they still seem to get enough
light to persist....tell me...how does one murder a colony of button
polyps?

And before you mention it, the rock they're taking over is close to 30
pounds, over a third of the total LR in the tank.

--
billy

"Ray Martini" wrote in message
...
Funny you should say that because I have button polyps and yellow
colony polyps and they just won't spread. I want them to a little
but they just don't. How long did it take them to start spreading?


They stayed sedentary for no more than a month. Now, I can't keep
them in one spot. As they are photosynthetic, perhaps light is the
key, but all I have is middle-o-the-road PowerCompact.
I already gave away the colonies that were on smaller pcs of LR,
and I'm left with the ones that spread onto the large hunks. After my
experience, it still seemed odd that they acted glad to get
them.....g I guess the bloke that gave me the 18" brittle star felt
the same way.......

billy

I found yellow polyp needs feeding (quite a lot) to get it to spread.

Mark

"Ray Martini" wrote in message
...
Funny you should say that because I have button polyps and yellow colony
polyps and they just won't spread. I want them to a little but they just
don't. How long did it take them to start spreading?

One man's junk is another man's treasure!


"Billy" wrote in message
...
See, I liked them originally. They were cute. Then they
started....spreading. And spreading. And spreading. It's become what can
only be termed an infestation, making very real for me the lesson that
European reefers call these little darlings 'pest anemones'.
I have tried mashing them. I have tried squirting them with Kalk. I
have tried covering them with rockwork, but they still seem to get enough
light to persist....tell me...how does one murder a colony of button
polyps?

And before you mention it, the rock they're taking over is close to 30
pounds, over a third of the total LR in the tank.

--
billy

"Billy" wrote in message
...
tell me...how does one murder a colony of button polyps?

The only way to do it is to peel them off the rock with some
wooden spatula. This way you will not destroy the tissue and
remove it as a whole thing. When not leaving any tissue
remainders on the rock you will solve your problem...

And before you mention it, the rock they're taking over is
close to 30 pounds, over a third of the total LR in the tank.

Too bad for you, but you have to take it out and peel them off.
Nobody said it will be easy to do - everything is trying to survive :-)

"Billy" wrote on Sat, 16 Jul 2005:
See, I liked them originally. They were cute. Then they
started....spreading. And spreading. And spreading. It's become what
can only be termed an infestation

I had the same experience.

tell me...how does one murder a colony of button polyps?

I got "lucky", in that a tank mini-crash seemed to change the water
parameters enough that they are no longer spreading, and in fact in the process
of a very slow decline (-10%/year?). Whereas they used to be doubling every
few months. Unfortunately, I don't know the difference between my tank before
and my tank after, as to why they spread before but not now. The remaining
ones sure look healthy, they just aren't spreading any more. Moreover, plenty
of other corals (plate/montipora, closed brain/maze) are growing like
gangbusters.

However, here's the one piece of advice I have for you: I also got a few
Aiptasia anemones, some of which were growing it the middle of my buttons
polyps. Squirted a bit of Joe's Juice into the mix to kill the Aiptasias.
Those are hearty little suckers, though, and while damaged, they appear to
be trying to survive and come back.

But: All the button polyps that were nearby where I squirted the Joe's Juice
died. If that's you're goal, you might want to try some anti-Aiptasia
solutions, and see if that can help control your button polyps.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
I prefer my lovers to be female, human, and breathing, but I'll take any two
out of three in a pinch.

"Don Geddis" wrote in message
...


Don't you get huge amounts of spam as a result of posting your email
address, unmunged, on USENET?


billy

"Pszemol" wrote in message
...

Too bad for you, but you have to take it out and peel them off.
Nobody said it will be easy to do - everything is trying to survive
:-)


Yeah, I think I've admitted this to myself. Ah well, I didn't have
any plans next weekend. I don't mind so much the actual removal of a
hunk of LR, but whenever I do something like that, I always find
other things that "have to be done" and I spend all day covered in SW
and smelling of skimmate. g

billy

Its all about getting them spread out in a way that is
constructive.... :-

I've got them hiding an ugly powerhead here and covering the back
glass
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...95300971sjCwLw

http://aquariacanada.com/PhotoPost/s...t=500&p age=1

I love them!

"Xerces" wrote in message
...
Its all about getting them spread out in a way that is
constructive.... :-

I've got them hiding an ugly powerhead here and covering the back
glass
http://community.webshots.com/photo/...95300971sjCwLw

http://aquariacanada.com/PhotoPost/s...t=500&p age=1



Sadly, second pic requires registration. I'm in awe of what I can see
of your tank, from what I understand, Canadian reefers have to work
much harder than us silly 'merkins to find equipment and stock, and
spend much more money. Well done, it's beautiful.

billy