Scraping GSP, Yellow Polyps, Xenia or Zoas/Palys off rocks????

[duganderson]

If you can easily remove your rock from the tank, how easy is it to manage the growth of  GSP, Yellow Polyps, Xenia or Zoas/Palys by scraping it off the rock?  Does it come off easily without breaking the rock? Does this work?  Tips?

 

[seabass]

It kind of depends on how porous the rock is.  Sometimes these corals attach to an outer crust (possibly originally made by coralline algae); in these cases, the corals tend to come off along with this layer of rock.  Other times there is no removing these corals without either destroying the corals and/or breaking the rock.  Be careful with zoanthids and palythoas as they can contain various concentrations of palytoxins (which can be dangerous if the coral becomes damaged).

 

4 hours ago, duganderson said:

Tips?

Instead of scraping, try to find a loose edge and carefully try to peel the mat off of the rock.  Sometimes there is no getting around replacing the rock which they are on with another fully cured piece of live rock.

[mcarroll]

On 2/23/2024 at 9:35 AM, duganderson said:

Zoas/Palys by scraping it off the rock?

Agreed, these guys have the potential to be mega-toxic, so handle them appropriately (ie wear personal safety gear like gloves and eye protection).

 

Sometimes they're completely fine to handle, but you don't want to find out the hard way.