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FAQs on the Hydrozoan Identification 3
Related Articles:
Hydrozoans,
Cnidarians, Fire Corals,
Stylasterines, Hydrozoan Jellies,
Related FAQs: Hydrozoan ID 1,
Hydrozoan ID 2, Hydrozoan ID 4,
Hydrozoan ID 5, & Hydrozoans 1,
Hydrozoans 2,
Hydrozoan Behavior, Hydrozoan
Compatibility, Hydrozoan Selection,
Hydrozoan Systems, Hydrozoan Feeding,
Hydrozoan Disease, Hydrozoan
Reproduction, Medusoids/Jellies (Ctenophores, some Hydrozoans,
Scyphozoans): Jelly
Identification, Jelly Behavior,
Jelly Compatibility, Jelly Selection,
Jelly Systems, Jelly Feeding,
Jelly Disease, Jelly Reproduction,
Fire Corals,
Lace Corals,
Stinging-celled Animals | 
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Tiny 9-point critter... Hydroid Jellyfish (Staurocladia oahuensis)
11/9/07
Hello WWM,
<Hi Jesse, Mich here.>
I have a
picture of an interesting critter that is eating copepods. At least
I think they are copepods. You can see them in the picture being
eaten. Maybe it's common but I'm still new so could you tell me what
it is
<It is a Hydroid Jellyfish (Staurocladia oahuensis) More
here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/jellyidfaqs.htm
http://www.ronshimek.com/Animal%20Groups%203%20Cnidarians.htm >
and will it eat much of the fishes' copepods?
<No.>
We just
noticed them and there are about 5 we could find quick and easy.
<Their populations tend to wax and wane.>
They do seem to move
when they feel like it.
<Yes.>
Thanks,
<Welcome! Mich>
Jesse | 
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Unknown hydroid hitch hikers. 10/25/07
YupHello Mr. Fenner,
et al.
<Hi Nate, I guess you would have et al with you tonight.>
I set up my 75g tank about 2 months ago and my live rock was very
much alive!
<Great!>
I bought it fully cured locally from a
good source.
I have seen snails, protopalys, feather dusters and
lots of varied sponges. Along with the good stuff, I have received
some not so good
stuff. I have killed a few Aiptasia (w/ lemon
juice), and stinging hydroids(with fire) but now I have a few other
questionable organisms
growing. First, I have these weird hydroid
looking polyps growing on top of my LR. they look different than
anything I have seen on your site, or
any other site. They look
like mini brownish white daisies (pics attached).
Are these
harmless or bad? and if they are bad, how should I go about removing
them?
<They do look like hydroids as far as I can tell by the
pictures. More pic here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hyzoanidfaq.htm >
Also, I am
starting to notice more and more little digitate hydroids in my
tank. none seem to be in close proximity to anything important, but
I am starting to fear that I have another battle to fight.
<I
would not let these get too far out of control.>
Any thoughts?
<Manual removal with gloves being an absolute necessity!>
I skim
pretty heavy and my parameters are all 0 for ammonia, nitrite,
nitrate, phosph; dKH~ 10; calc = 480.
<A little high.>
I am
having large growths of pineapple sponges, protopalys and feather
dusters if that is important.
<Just means there are nutrients in
you water that are feeding these critters.>
Keep up the good
work,
<Will try! Mich>
Nate
Re: Unknown Hydroid Hitchhikers... Yup 10/26/07
<Hi
Nate, Mich with you again.>
Should I try to remove the hydroids
on my rock?
<I would.>
You never said if they were bad for
the tank or not.
<They can be problematic, stinging other nearby
life... why I said I wouldn't let them get out of control.>
I
know some hydroids can take over a tank like Aiptasia, but these
don't look like those type.
<Perhaps not, but can pack a powerful
sting... If it was me I would remove, while wearing gloves! Mich> | 
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Creature Identity... Jellyfish? 10/25/07
Hello! <Hi Renee, Mich
with you tonight.>I hope today finds you healthy and happy.
<Yes,
thank you and I hope it finds you the same!>I am back with another
interesting question.
<Good I like interesting questions... so much
better than uninteresting questions Heehee!>
I cannot seem to find
this identity anywhere online and hope you can assist me.
<Will try!>
In my refugium, I have some apple algae
<Mmm apple algae? I do see
some grape Caulerpa, but never heard of apple algae.. Heehee! Could have
a tutti-frutti mix!>
and toadstool algae
<Have not heard of this
one either... do you have scientific names for either of these?>
as
well as whatever will grow, some hermits, a few snails, a coral banded
shrimp and a Stomatella and 2 lettuce nudi.s. It's a standing pond
refugium, without any circulating water, just the air stone.
<Interesting, not sure I understand the point. It is not connected to
you main system?>
It's 20 gallons.
<OK.>
I have a lot of odd
things in there...lots of little red things stuck to the sides of the
tank
<Could be a type of tiny spiral tube feather duster (Spirorbis)>
nd a lot of white and see through caterpillars on the apple algae
crawling around...
<My guess is a scud, a Gammarus shrimp.>
an odd
protozoan type thing every now and then, but tonight something new
happened.
<OK.>
I have been privy to something odd hatching.
<Neat!>
3 to 5 are in my tank as of tonight, and they are small,
crystalline creatures with many arms. They swim just like jellyfish.
They do adhere to the algae on the front of the aquarium and often swim
around and then reposition themselves. Sometimes they go into the algae
instead. I do not know what these are. They are totally cool however.
They swim exactly like jellyfish and I have included some images.
<I
see.>
Can you identify these?
<Is a hydroid Jelly (Staurocladia
oahuensis). Nothing to be concerned about. They typically
come and
go. More here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/jellyidfaqs.htm
http://www.ronshimek.com/Animal%20Groups%203%20Cnidarians.htm >
Thanks in advance.
<Welcome! Mich>
Renee | 
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Aiptasia, or something else? Something else: Hydroids! 10/11/07
Hi! <hi there!> I've been reading your site for about 6 months now and
it has been wonderfully helpful in identifying and learning to care for
all the creatures in my aquarium. <Terrific!> There is one I haven't
been able to identify, however. They grow in clusters and have long,
skinny brown stalks (about ½ inch long). <Uh oh> There are around 10 or
12 tentacles which are very fine and wave constantly in the water. <Yep>
I have seen Aiptasia in my tank and have removed it, but these look
different. Can you identify these and please tell me if they are good or
bad?
<I’m sorry to say that they’re hydroids and they are definitely
bad.>
I pulled about 50 of them off the rock yesterday with tongs and
then remembered your admonition about pulling Aiptasias off of rock. I
hope I haven't caused these to multiply horribly!
<Although such
removal is a very bad thing to do with Aiptasia, the same is not true
with hydroids. The best method is to manually remove them at the base
with tweezers. Just be sure not to touch them as you might get a nasty
sting! Please see these links (and related blue highlighted links at the
top) for more info re: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hyzoancompfaq.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hyzoanidfaq2.htm
Good luck. I wish I
could have given you better news! Take care –Lynn> |
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Can you ID this? 9/27/07
Good morning!
<Good morning!>
I hope this email finds the men and
women of WWM well. I had a quick ID question I'm hoping you can help me
out with. I have this stuff growing out of a patch of zoanthids in my 12
gallon nano. It seems to have just shown up out of nowhere. At first I
thought it must be some kind of algae, but when I poked at the zoanthids
to get them to close so I could see what kind of base they had, they
balled up as well. In the second picture you can see how they closed up,
and also that they seem to be growing from "runners" like crabgrass as
opposed to from a mat or encrustation like GSP or xenia (two
possibilities thrown at me on a reefing forum). I have looked at both
algae and coral pictures on WWM and Google trying to get an idea, but
I'm at a loss. Do you know what it is?
<"Brown" or "pom-pom"
hydroids: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hyzoanidfaq.htm>
Is it
good/bad/indifferent? Should I pull it out?
<yes>
Thanks for any
help you can give.
<No problem,
Sara M.>
P.S. If you need me to
attach the actual pictures instead of links, please let me know.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1080/1447354271_5fdfde9b62_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1010/1447117139_4ed34bd05b_b.jpg | 
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Baby Mini Brittle Star? Nope, Hydroid Jellyfish! 8/19/07
I was
wondering if this was a mini brittle star.
<Nope, it’s a teeny tiny
crawling hydromedusae (Staurocladia oahuensis) and generally nothing to
worry about. Please see these links for photos and more information:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/jellyidfaqs.htm
http://www.ronshimek.com/Animal%20Groups%203%20Cnidarians.htm
<Take
care -Lynn> | 
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Hydroid(?) ID 8/10/07
<HI Jason, Mich here.>
I think I
incorrectly linked the images. Sorry.
<No worries! I see them now.>
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonm1/AquaMisc/photo#5096085357812969394
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonm1/AquaMisc/photo#5096085314863296418
Hi Crew,
<Jason>
I hope you can help me identify these brown
hydroid-looking creatures.
<I think you ID'd them yourself! Can see
similar on this page:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hydrozoanfaqs.htm >
Thanks!
<Welcome! Mich>
Jason | 
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Mystery Algae or Invert, Hydroid ID
– 07/14/07
Hello, my name is Michael.
<Hi Michael, Sara
here.>
I have recently found a large number of strange little
creatures in my tank that I was hoping you could identify.
<The
pictures are a bit blurry, but they look like hydroids.>
Here is a
little information about my tank in case it helps. I recently upgraded
from a 30gal to a 55gal tank (definitely worth it). I had a slight algae
bloom when I changed to a higher wattage of lights about 2 weeks ago.
I just got back from a 6 day vacation and everything seemed OK. The
algae had disappeared, all parameters were normal, nice reddish/purple
coralline was growing on my new rocks, my corals seemed bigger and
healthier, and I had some nifty colonies of small yellow feather
dusters.
<Cool. Well done.>
Anyways, I then noticed some strange
creatures on the shells of my Cerith snails and in a few rock crevices.
I apologize that I couldn't get better pictures so ill try to describe
them. These things are very, very small with a tanish stalk, white
center at the top, and several small tentacles around the top. They seem
too small to be glass anemones and have no calcium tubes like feather
dusters. After a long search on your site I was unable to find any
information although I could swear I had seen a picture of these things
a couple months ago while skimming through your archives.
<Try here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hyzoanidfaq.htm I think at least one of those
pictures is one of hydroids similar to yours. But they come in a lot of
different shapes and sizes. Some look like jellyfish while some look
like hairy strings, algae or skinny little aliens.
See here too:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hydrozoans.htm>
I only ask because my
experience with mystery creatures has been that they are either
beneficial or very bad. Are these creatures some sort of invertebrate,
algae, or something else?
<If they're hydroids, they're closer to
jellyfish.>
Also, are these creatures harmful and if so, are there
any ways to get rid of them?
<It just depends on the kind you have.
A lot of hydroids never become a problem or a nuisance. However, some
other become quite a pain to deal with. For right now, I'd just keep
your water quality good and wait and see if they go away on their own.>
Sorry if this has been answered before and thanks for your time.
<No
problem, my pleasure.
Best,
Sara M.> |  
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Macroalgae ID
7/13/07
Greetings,
Hey Crew!
I have a couple of pictures
of an unknown Algae that I was hoping you might be able to ID.
<Actually, I think you have hydroids (most likely of the genus
Myrionema). Not all hydroids are bad, but these ones are. And believe it
or not, they're actually closer to jelly fish than algae.>
This stuff
is incredibly prolific and comes right back after harvesting from the
rock. I'm afraid I would have to scrub the rock to get it off and as
almost every rock has some other important denizen, I'd rather not.
Harvesting is not a problem but I was hoping with an ID, I might find a
critter who would benefit from harvesting it for it's own nutritional
needs.
<I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these things get
really annoying. You're not likely to find something that eats them.
They sting and kill things. Basically, they're like Aiptasia. For more
info, please see: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hyzoancompfaq.htm.>
Thank you,
<De nada,
Sara M.>
EL
Re: Macroalgae ID, hydrozoan control
7/13/07
Sara,
I looked through what available literature there
was on this species that I could readily find as well as cruising
through the WWW forums. From what I read, short of removing the rocks
and scrubbing them off, I am basically going to be in a situation of
just constantly harvesting them out and trying to keep them from growing
near any corals.
<Pretty much, yes. Controlling excess nutrients with
protein skimming, water changes, macro algae harvesting, etc. will also
help.>
However, I noticed that in a previous post Anthony mentioned
that some limpets eat them. I was wondering if there was a way we could
get his attention and find out a suggested suitable species that I could
add to the system to enjoy a wonderful Hydroid snack!?!
<I'll cc dear
Anthony here. He's extremely busy so I don't know how long it might take
him to respond. Also keep in mind that knowing the kind of limpet that
eats these is one thing, finding them is quite another.>
Again, thank
you so very much for all your wonderful help!
<Happy to help. Good
luck.
Sara M.>
-EL |  
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