Upside down jellyfish polyps.....hundreds of them.

[Bucs20fan]

Soooo after a series of events I have finally identified what I once thought was aiptasia in my tank as being upside down jellyfish polyps. And You can believe I thought it was aiptasia because theres hundreds of them. Until I found one that was no longer in the polyp stage. The polyps are in all nooks and crannys all over my rockwork. They really do look like very tiny mini aiptasia. So my question is. How do I get rid of them? Ive had spurts of them on and off for a few months and Kalk paste does kill them. But they keep coming back. Obviously they dont survive to adulthood because my flow is far to high for a jelly to live. I know they arent bothering any of my corals for sure and not bothering my fish. If they really dont pose a threat to anything im fine with letting nature take its course. Oddly enough I can in fact confirm that copperband butterflies eat the polyps like candy.

 

[Chrisv.]

Neat! Sounds like you are on track with the copper band.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Thank you for your reply, I guess the info im fishing for is are they harmful in any way, bc my copperband cannot eat all of them some are really deep in rock work. All the info I can find on the lovely interweb is just people trying to keep upside down jellies, not them as a pest lol.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Thank you for your reply, I guess the info im fishing for is are they harmful in any way, bc my copperband cannot eat all of them some are really deep in rock work. All the info I can find on the lovely interweb is just people trying to keep upside down jellies, not them as a pest lol.

Burghia will eat them when in the polyp stage.

I currently have 3 lagre ones that decided to breed and populate the tank they are in with babies. This was the only way to be able to rid them from the tank. It took 3-4 months for them to eat them all and then I gave the berghia I could catch away, as I do not have aips for them to eat.

I am in the process of tearing down those tanks and have not seen a single baby in the entire system while doing this, so this worked well for me.

Side note: Water volume was about 500 gallons and I used 50 berghia spread out among the tanks. And if you have wrasse berghia may become food.

 

[ralteredstates]

Soooo after a series of events I have finally identified what I once thought was aiptasia in my tank as being upside down jellyfish polyps. And You can believe I thought it was aiptasia because theres hundreds of them. Until I found one that was no longer in the polyp stage. The polyps are in all nooks and crannys all over my rockwork. They really do look like very tiny mini aiptasia. So my question is. How do I get rid of them? Ive had spurts of them on and off for a few months and Kalk paste does kill them. But they keep coming back. Obviously they dont survive to adulthood because my flow is far to high for a jelly to live. I know they arent bothering any of my corals for sure and not bothering my fish. If they really dont pose a threat to anything im fine with letting nature take its course. Oddly enough I can in fact confirm that copperband butterflies eat the polyps like candy.

I had them for a while in a seahorse tank that had a low flow setup. Actually transferred some of them to a jellyfish tank! The rest of them we just physically removed over time as we found them. They eventually just disappeared. Never caused issues but I can see them getting out of hand if not culled. Interesting creatures though.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Im taking care of the ones I can get to, there is just so many. I think I will just try and stick with nutrient control and manual removal at this point. From what you guys are saying leads me to believe they cant really harm anything, just unsightly for the most part. As long as that is true I dont think I will do anything drastic to get rid of them.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Im taking care of the ones I can get to, there is just so many. I think I will just try and stick with nutrient control and manual removal at this point. From what you guys are saying leads me to believe they cant really harm anything, just unsightly for the most part. As long as that is true I dont think I will do anything drastic to get rid of them.

That works also. They didnt harm a thing in the system I had them in. I had everything from acros to zoas to torches to NPS anemones in there and nothing was affected. They were just unsightly to me, so put in berghias after ordering a few and testing if they ate them in a 10g tank.

 

[Bucs20fan]

I think bergs would be a good idea. I have a carpenters wrasse, but I dont believe that species would eat bergis. Id be more worried about my hermits making a snack of them honestly.

 

[Bucs20fan]

I have seen a couple polyps get too close to my rock flowers and they didnt last long, so if the polyps have a sting, its definitely not anything compared to a rock flowers stinging abilities.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I think bergs would be a good idea. I have a carpenters wrasse, but I dont believe that species would eat bergis. Id be more worried about my hermits making a snack of them honestly.

I had no issues with red legs or white stripe (native to Fl hermits) eating the berghia. I think when all was said and done, I was able to catch just over a 100 and give them to local reefers with aip problems. All of the tanks had 100s of hermits in them.

 

[Bucs20fan]

I actually might give them a try. I think ill wait a few weeks though, everywhere ive seen bergis for sale they are super expensive right now.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I actually might give them a try. I think ill wait a few weeks though, everywhere ive seen bergis for sale they are super expensive right now.

That they are. depending on tank size, you may not need that many. They will breed quickly with a food source, but do take time to eat everything they should, as they are slow lol.

 

[Bucs20fan]

I have a 60 breeder, 48.5"x 18.5"x16.25" How many do you think I should start with if I pick some up? How well do the ship? Standard invert acclimation protocol I assume?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I have a 60 breeder, 48.5"x 18.5"x16.25" How many do you think I should start with if I pick some up? How well do the ship? Standard invert acclimation protocol I assume?

for a 60 breeder, I would do 6-8, as they will breed. You could go more to get it done quicker, but I never saw the need to rush it. For acclimation, I just floated and dumped them in. The water they were shipped in was 1.026, so it matched my water.

Best thing to do is to check with whomever you are buying from to see what they keep their water at. If it is more than .001 from yours, you will need to mix up some new water in a bucket to match theirs, then slowly raise the salinty over a day to get it to your salinity. Doing this, I have had 100% survival with most inverts. Hermits excluded, as they are tidal and can go from one to another without issues lol.

Biggest thing with drip acclimation is ammonia. I am not a fan of it, unless I use new water to do it. Bag water is not a good idea IMO.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Thank you for the info, I really appreciate it. I also feel much better about my jellyfish invaders. Any recommendations on a retailer to buy them from?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Thank you for the info, I really appreciate it. I also feel much better about my jellyfish invaders. Any recommendations on a retailer to buy them from?

I ordered mine from a wholesaler, so not sure on who to get them from in a normal manner.

May be best to do a search on here and I am sure some vendors will pop up and you can see the reviews as well.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it.

 

[pixelhustler]

My tank is covered in them and has been for quite a while. Not sure if it’s feasible to try to eliminate them. They’re good filter feeders and neither the polyps or the jellies sting corals. The jellyfish won’t make it long in a regular tank, and probably end up in your sump. Here’s one I grew from the baby stage over a few months in a separate tank