Coral Pruning Help

[Dj Orion]

I have a colony of eithe Clover polyps or xenia (dont know the exact ID) and they are growing way out of control. I need to prune them down or frag them into another tank before they wipe out 2 colonies of mushrooms I have. I dont want to get rid of them. I just would like to know how to control these corals (best techniques) and if it means fragging them, does anyone want the frags? If so PM me. I just need advice and an ID please... maybe i'll post in the freebee thread after...

p.s. the corals i am talking about are the purple xenia lookin ones on the left... they are much larger now (about 3x that size) and those mushrooms are almost non existant.

 

[reefman]

Anthelias
they grow like weeds
try chipping the rock with mushrooms off.

 

[ellebelle]

Definitely Anthelia. I have them in my tank too, and I prune them out every so often and just throw them away. I suggest putting them on a rock far away from any other rocks.

 

[inline6]

I trim them with very sharp scissors every couple of weeks.
(they irritate my prized D. clam)

 

[crox99]

You can cut them with a blade and scrape the remaining tissue off the rock. BTW those button polyps don't look too good.

 

[Dj Orion]

omg damn, i didnt realize how aggressive these things are. Do you think that they are going to wipe out those mushrooms if I dont cut them off?

 

[crox99]

Well between the Anthelia and the GSP those mushrooms are doomed.:bigeyes:

 

[Dj Orion]

Well between the Anthelia and the GSP those mushrooms are doomed.:bigeyes:

no way man... Imma take care of this tonite. arthVade

Those star polyps havent been a problem for me yet. But those purple bastadz are going down! I wonder if I drop them in my fowlr if they are gonna be fish food?

Do you think i should take the rock out of the water when conducting this surgery? I have another rick with a leather on it that is becoming engulfed in those also. Should I take that out of the tank as well to prune???

 

[crox99]

Whatever works for you. I do it in the tank but if you can take the LR out of the water go ahead.

 

[Dj Orion]

BTW those button polyps don't look too good.

lol ya those things died a long time ago. That pic is from when I just started adding corals to the tank. Fortunatly they didnt infect any of the nice looking zoa's I have in there...

 

[crox99]

lol ya those things died a long time ago. That pic is from when I just started adding corals to the tank. Fortunatly they didnt infect any of the nice looking zoa's I have in there...

Was it zoopox?

 

[DonCisco]

you can always get a small container and bring the rock with the anthellias put it there and take scrape the anthellias off, their foot can be scraped off from the rock, remember that even if you have a tiny lil bit left... they will grow back. That way you won't have any tiny pieces falling somewhere else in the tank

 

[Dj Orion]

Was it zoopox?

I beleive so.. I took it out and put it in my fowlr and they just melted away in about 2 weeks time. None of my other corals were effected tho.

 

[ellebelle]

Listen carefully to what Don is saying. I had some on a shell that a hermit crab stole and then dragged the anthelia all over the tank where it has taken root in three different spots. One of the spots is finally dead and gone (put my torch coral over there, mwahahahahahahaha) but I'm now fighting the anthelia fight on two fronts.

 

[Dj Orion]

well last nite I actually removed the coral from the tank and removed some of it as best as I could. I used a scissor and peeled off some of the base of the coral, while snipping it in other areas. The huge mushrooms that are in the pic I posted are now tiny little prunes smaller than a dime. I hope they will recover now that they arent under such heavy attack. I just made several buckets of RO/DI water last nite, so after work today I am going to vacuum the sand to make sure that there arent any surviors.

Its funny that the general attitude of this coral are that they are like unwanted weeds, yet we all paid to put them in our tanks. Are most softies generally this aggressive? It seems that way.

That stuff sure does smell nasty when you are choppin it up, I felt like I was ready to cry after about 5 minutes.

 

[crox99]

That stuff sure does smell nasty when you are choppin it up, I felt like I was ready to cry after about 5 minutes.

It definately has a distinctive smell!!!:chef: