Cutting Palys Inside Tank

[george9]

Hey all,
I have a colony of pandora palys that are absolutely growing like weeds and encroaching on another colony of slower growing zoas.

Is it dangerous to gently pull their “webbing” from the rock and snip between the polyps to remove them before they become too entangled? I would avoid cutting the polyps themselves

Curious to see if anyone has any experience with this. I don’t want to nuke my tank with palytoxin but unfortunately they’re on a rock at the base of my rockwork so I don’t have much choice.

Thanks!

 

[shakacuz]

i would rather NOT nuke my tank and try to get the rock out

 

[Lavey29]

I've cut mine in the tank. Majority of palys have no dangerous toxins due to extended aquaculture for decades. At least this is what my coral vendor says and why you seem them so readily available.

 

[george9]

i would rather NOT nuke my tank and try to get the rock out

Me too that’s why I am asking lol

 

[JoJosReef]

Hey all,
I have a colony of pandora palys that are absolutely growing like weeds and encroaching on another colony of slower growing zoas.

Is it dangerous to gently pull their “webbing” from the rock and snip between the polyps to remove them before they become too entangled? I would avoid cutting the polyps themselves

Curious to see if anyone has any experience with this. I don’t want to nuke my tank with palytoxin but unfortunately they’re on a rock at the base of my rockwork so I don’t have much choice.

Thanks!

Following. I also want to know about trimming palys in my tank, because the paly/zoa island is now a peninsula since my cloves have grown between the rocks and I don't want to take it out.

Can you just dump a bunch of carbon in and snip off polys at the base? Or will that nuke the tank?

 

[george9]

Following. I also want to know about trimming palys in my tank, because the paly/zoa island is now a peninsula since my cloves have grown between the rocks and I don't want to take it out.

Can you just dump a bunch of carbon in and snip off polys at the base? Or will that nuke the tank?
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Mine have a thin “webbing” that connects the polyps so I am thinking just ship that webbing would even touching the polyp heads themselves? I can gently lift them from the rockwork with tweezers.

Not sure. waiting to hear if anyone has done it successfully and I will take the plunge lol

 

[jkcoral]

When I’ve cut zoas or palys in my tank, I use a razor blade and make a vertical cut on the “neck” of the polyp. The polyp then looks deflated (like a popped ballon) and will eventually waste away after a few days.

I’ve done this to eradicate all but a few Pandoras that came on a rock I was given that had begun multiplying from 3-4 polyps to 15 in a short time. I’ve never experienced any issues when using this approach, however, I’ve never had to deal with/attempt this on anything over ~10 polyps at one time. I also make sure I have some fresh carbon every time I’ve done it.

A long long time ago, I was told not to pull or tug at palys inside the tank because accidentally smashing the polyp would have a much higher risk of releasing toxins. I’m not sure about the specific evidence behind the claim, but I’ve always used the cutting approach above when needed.

If you’re dealing with a ton of polyps, or if you don’t want them to die (e.g. you want to frag them, not kill them), then you should pull the rock out.

Disclaimer: this is just my personal experience, and I don’t want to persuade anyone to use this approach when trying to cull a hoard of unwanted and invading palys/zoas. I just wanted to share my annectdote as someone who has “removed” polyps inside the tank before.

 

[anthonygf]

Just suck them out of the tank with the water. I use a stainless steel straw and hose, I use this method on all sorts of pests.

 

[george9]

Well I decided on at least covering a good portion of the offending polyps closest to the other colonies with F Aiptasia and see what happens. So far the orange colony already seems a bit relieved and happier. Not sure what I want to do with the polyps where F Aiptasia can’t latch onto on vertical areas, but maybe I will keep the colony and just “prune” them every so often. Running extra carbon just in case

 

[anthonygf]

What will happen when those polyps die and decompose? Will the carbon be enough to help with the contamination? I wouldn't chance it. Suck them out and you will be sure they won't pollute your tank water.

 

[george9]

What will happen when those polyps die and decompose? Will the carbon be enough to help with the contamination? I wouldn't chance it. Suck them out and you will be sure they won't pollute your tank water.

I am confused on how exactly to suck up polyps that are attached to rock? When the F Aiptasia hardens I will eventually chip it away

 

[anthonygf]

I am confused on how exactly to suck up polyps that are attached to rock? When the F Aiptasia hardens I will eventually chip it away

You still need to scrape the polyps off the rock, I use the straw to scrape the polyps. I do that myself. I tried F Aiptasia, it does work well but I didn't like the white color compared to the red rock so I put a little food coloring in it. The stuff does harden, but what about the polyps? Will they harden also? When you chip that stuff away the polyps flesh will be exposed to open water. Still you may want to suck out the F Aiptasia you chip away either with a straw or hose when doing water changes. You can take that chance if you want. Personally I would not, I will go the extra mile just to have the peace of mind knowing it is out of the water.

 

[george9]

You still need to scrape the polyps off the rock, I use the straw to scrape the polyps. I do that myself. I tried F Aiptasia, it does work well but I didn't like the white color compared to the red rock so I put a little food coloring in it. The stuff does harden, but what about the polyps? Will they harden also? When you chip that stuff away the polyps flesh will be exposed to open water. Still you may want to suck out the F Aiptasia you chip away either with a straw or hose when doing water changes. You can take that chance if you want. Personally I would not, I will go the extra mile just to have the peace of mind knowing it is out of the water.

I see what you mean now. Yeah I am planning on doing that with my next water change early next week. I imagine they will be easy to scrape off after a few days under the F Aiptasia.

No issues with toxicity so far as all of the neighboring corals remain happy and no spikes in Alk or PH due to me using an excessive amount of F Aiptasia lol

I will NOT be using this approach again because it is so messy (and risky I admit) but maybe on smaller numbers of polyps at a time

I am still not sure how toxic these pandoras are as I see some say they are palys (which could potentially make them more dangerous) and most say they’re actually zoas but so far for me, no issues

 

[anthonygf]

I see what you mean now. Yeah I am planning on doing that with my next water change early next week. I imagine they will be easy to scrape off after a few days under the F Aiptasia.

No issues with toxicity so far as all of the neighboring corals remain happy and no spikes in Alk or PH due to me using an excessive amount of F Aiptasia lol

I will NOT be using this approach again because it is so messy (and risky I admit) but maybe on smaller numbers of polyps at a time

I am still not sure how toxic these pandoras are as I see some say they are palys (which could potentially make them more dangerous) and most say they’re actually zoas but so far for me, no issues

I think even if they are not toxic per say they may decompose and may cause an ammonia or nitrate spike, I really don't know. I play it safe and remove them before they decompose.

 

[george9]

Update for anyone interested - didn’t notice any spike in ammonia or nitrates but did get rid of most of the F Aiptasia that had been hardened on some of the polyps. I sucked it all up during a water change and the dying polyps came off the rock super easily. Going to scrape the rest off during my next water change and will be controlling this colony in the future by being proactive about zapping encroaching polyps. So far, while risky, it does seem like this was a win but I will not be nuking this many polyps at one time ever again because it is a mess lol

 

[Just John]

I frag my zoas regularly by snipping off individual polyps at the base and putting them in a container in the tank. After a few days the cut heals over and the polyps look as happy as they did before they were cut off. Now they can be glued to plugs.

Also, I recommend getting one of the metal straws mentioned earlier and sticking them to a hose for siphoning. After fragging you can scrape the webbing off and and it's sucked up. You can also do it with large areas of polyps, since any toxins are siphoned right out. Somewhere on YouTube there is a video about removing patches of zoas this way. The bent ones are also very good for getting dirt out of holes in the rock, under things, etc. Here are the ones I have: