For those wanting to eliminate invasive soft corals from their tanks; I can report that I successfully eradicated Blue Clove Polyps and Xenia from my tank. I used the canine de-wormer medication Fenbendazole without harming my biological filter or killing invertebrates (although Bristle worms and certain snail types are fair game). I think depending on the dosage and treatment time, this should kill kill green star polyps, hydroids and aiptasia. Hopefully more experienced aquarists will provide their input on using Fenbendazole and the risks involved.
Note about worm die off – this treatment will cause bristle worms to die off en masse. Be sure you can remove dead worms when then this happens (which might be impossible for large tanks filled with rock).
Note about Xenia – from my personal experience, since Xenia doesn’t spread like BCP – it would be much easier to manually remove it with a small sharp tool like a screwdriver and slowly scrap the foot off the rock (or just replace that rock with a new one).
After doing exhaustive research on how other aquarists have treated their tanks with Fluke Tabs to kill BCP. I tried in vain to obtain it, or any medication with Trichlorfon (mostly because forum posts suggested it was the Organophosphate that was responsible for killing BCP). Based on this method, I tried soaking some LR in Clout for 2hrs (the only Trichlorfon medication I could find). The treatment irritated the BCP and other corals (Mushrooms, Hammer, Millepora, Acans, and Zoas), but it killed amphipods and bristle worms (although small fan worms survived), and I assume it killed the LR bacteria because Organophosphates are very toxic. I placed the rocks back in the display tank, and the corals revived to a healthy state, so why didn’t Clout Tabs work if Organophosphate was the suguested killer?
I began to wonder if maybe the secondary active ingredient in Fluke Tabs (Mebendazole) was the component responsible. I searched in vain for it, but unfortunately Mebendazole is a prescription medication. Luckily I found an alternative version (Fenbendazole) is available in pet de-wormers (Panacur and Safe-Guard). That’s when I noticed Google returned forum links about Seahorse hobbyists using Fenbendazole to quarantine plants and livestock with the goal of killing Hydriods.
Based on their experiences, I determine a dosage for my tank and experimented with the same rocks in a bucket. After 2 hours the corals seemed kind of irritated, but the blue cloves were pissed off. The dip had no effect on worms and I even saw amphipods happily scooting about. I placed these rocks in the display to see if the corals would revive. After a few hours the corals looked healthy, except for the BCP, but I also noticed Xenia on a nearby rock was irritated.
Because the dipped rock (a full dose) did have an affect on the nearby XeniaI in the display tank, I was very nervous about dosing my whole system. So I took a conservative approach and treated with only a half dose (1mg per gallon).
I felt confident the inverts would survive (mostly because the amphipods survived the test dip). I left two bristle worms in the quarantine bucket to observe them while the tank was being treated. I was worried the treatment would kill my Rock Flower and Maxi-mini anemones (because of reports of it being toxic to stalked hydroids), but they’re very stubborn and would not detach from their spots. I wasn’t worried about the Zoas bexause I think they’re invasive pests too.
Preparation: Various options exist to obtain the medication i.e.
– Buy pure Fendendazole and mix with water.
– Buy some non flavored concentrated dewormer paste.
– Buy 1 gram packets of Safe-Guard dewormer (22.2% Fenbendazole). Grind it into very fine powder and mix into 1 gallon of water. This will make 222mg/gal of Fenbendazole.
Dosage: Recommend dosage is 2mg per gallon of water to be treated (half dose would be 1mg per gallon). A metric dosage would .5mg per Liter (half dose would be .25mg per Liter).
Examples:
– 1 gallon of water mixed with 1gm 22.2% powder, will treat 111 gallons.
– 1 gallon of water mixed with 1ml of 10% concentrated paste (100mg/ml), will treat 50 gallons.
Risks: I do not know which soft corals will be affected, but any species of the stalked Hydrozoan family may die. Other corals in my setup were not affected, but your results may vary and your tank may cycle, killing everything in it (someone had to say it).
Duration: I used the recommendation for Fluke Tabs of 72hrs. I assumed it’d be the best approach.
Observations:
2 hrs – fish and inverts acting normal, and the water has become a hazy cloud. My wife wants to know why I’m trying to kill off the pretty blue stuff…
12 hrs – Xenia is pissed off and BCP is irritated. I realized I’ve forgotten about the Sympodium in the back corner. I assumed it will die off, but it can be kind of invasive too. Fish and inverts (even Mysis) are healthy. My blue banded coral shrimp is out scavenging and eating. Bristle, spaghetti, and fan worms are healthy.
24 hrs – Xenia and BCP are shriveled up and appears to be dying, although I’ve seen them recover from worse looking states.
48 hrs – Xenia is definitely dying and detaching from the rock. BCP is slowly melting away into tiny spots. Sympodium is shriveled up. Astrea and Turbo snails have stopped moving, not sure if they’ll survive at this point. The tank is starting to emit a foul fishy smell. Bristle worms in the dip bucket are still alive.
60 hrs – Aiptasia has shriveled up, Rock Flower and Maxi-mini anemones are not happy (shrunken 50% and looking strange). All Zoas have closed up. At this point I decide to start filtering carbon through the sump. All Xenia has completely disappeared, and the BCP has become small white dots.
72 hrs – Rock flower anemones, Zoas, and Aiptasia (unfortunately) are recovering. 50% of BCP has disappeared, with the remaining consisting of a connective layer. Sympodium has been severely harmed, but might survive. Astrea and Turbo snails are still stunned. I decide to start the skimmer and run it wet.
84 hrs – Cloudiness has cleared up, and the fishy smell is gone. The skimmer has pulled out 2 gallons of clear stinky water. Astrea and Turbo snails are still stunned. The tank doesn’t appear to be cycling. Parameters are a little elevated (Phosphate .16ppm, Ammonia .25ppm, Nitrate .75ppm, Nitrite 0ppm). I decide to do a 20 gallon water change. Wife says the bare rock looks ugly and misses the pretty blue stuff…
6 day later – All bristle worms died off en masse. Although spaghetti and fans worms appear healthy. The Astrea and Turbo snails are still acting stunned (I do not expect them to survive). I haven’t seen any Stomatella snails, so I assume they died during the treatment. All Cerith and Nassarius snails appear healthy and unaffected. A particularly nasty Manjo looking anemone has died, although other anemones are ok.
14 days later – Things are looking good; the anemones have fully recovered, but the Astrea, Turbo & Stomatella snails have died off. The tank is going through a minor algea outbreak, but my Tailspot blenny is fat and happy.
Jan 14th 2015 (1 year 8 months later) – The tank is doing fine (same live rock). I recently installed a DIY Avast CS1 skimmer, and added a 10 gallon storage tank to the sump with an additional 40lbs of LR in it. Althoigh I did suffer a system crash when I moved the system to a different house, unfortunately I had to leave everything in Tupperware containers for 3 days and ended up losing 90% of my corals and fish. Luckily everything on the central rock survived. I have numerous SPS frag colonies growing, along with Duncans, Trumpets and rock flower anemones. I had a large variety of corals before and after the treatment.
(1 year 8 months later)
(1 year 8 months later)
Notes: – This was a fairly safe treatment for display tanks and I have no concerns about doing it again. I suspect a higher dosage might also kill Aptasia.
Disclaimer: – You assume all risks when treating your tank using the information contained in this post. Hopefully this information will help someone else safety eliminate invasive soft corals from their system too.
References:
- http://www.seahorse.com/faqs/seahorse-meds/fenbendazole-(panacur)
- http://reeftools.com/news/how-to-kill-hydroids
- http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?104158-Fenbendazole&p=982541
- http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2208225&highlight=fenbendazole
- http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/pipefish-parasite-133809.html
Max Draco 
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So of the one gallon you made up. You used only half of it? Or is one 1 gram tablet half the recommended dose meaning you did use the whole gallon?
Mix a 1 gram packet of Fenbendazole with 1 gallon of water to make 221ml of Fenbendazole. The recommend dosage is .01-.02 ml per gallon in the tank, so the mixture will treat a 100 gallon tank, but I only used only half of the mixture to treatment my setup (75 DT + 25 sump).
Apparently I’m missing something or my math skills are not up to par. Please explain this dosage again. After the batch is mixed you are left with 1G of solution. Yet you say you are supposed to treat .01-.02ml per “gallon in tank”. So in your example, you are treating 100G. If you go with .01ml/G why wouldn’t the dose be .01ml X 100G = 1ml/G ? My confusion comes from you treating a half gallon when my calculation says you should treat 1ml of solution.
Sorry for the confusion, I only did a half dose because I was unsure I wanted to expose my tank to a full does. When I did a test dose, I decided to play it safe and do a half dose for my tank.
How much of the solution to be added to a reef tank at one time? Drip fed? there is a lot of solution that is RO water. I have a 88 liter reef!
I would just add the solution at once, I’m not sure why you’d drip feed a medication?
This is a very informative post. Thank you for taking we well documented approach. I guess the issue now is to find where you can get your hands on a single tab for treatment. Thanks max!
You can buy it at any pet store, just buy some Panacur or Safe-guard.
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I guess I’m still fuzzy on the dosing. From the website for Safe – Guard dewormer
Active ingredients (in each dosage unit): Fenbendazole Granules 22.2% (222 mg/g).
So in 1 gram of Safe Guard you get 222mg of fenbendazole – adding that to 1 gallon (or 3785ml) of RO/DI – you would end up with a solution that is 222mg/3785ml or roughly 0.06 mg/ml. So the called for dose of .01-.02 ml (of solution above) per gallon (in tank) breaks down to really dosing 0.0006 to 0.0012mg of fenbendazole per gallon in tank or 0.06mg (A dose of 0.01 ml/gallon x 100gallons = 1 ml total of solution added to tank and since it is 0.06mg/ml then you added 0.06 mg total). That would mean you had most of that gallon left – is that true?
I’ve rewritten the dosage section. I’d accidentally included directions for using powder and concentrated pastes. Sorry for the confusion.
Gotcha – so you ended up treating the tank with 1/2 gallon of your solution – so basically 111mg — the 1mg/gallon low end.
Yes, sorry again for the confusion. I had to piece together knowledge from various forum posts, and the formulas varied depending on what product people used.
Thankyou so much for posting this in such detail. Just confirming the exact product you used was safe gaurd and all of its contents mixed homogenously? The reason i ask is that other pure fenbendazole treatments documented on other forums suggest no harm against snails and raise speculation that something in safe gaurd dog wormer was responsible for the impacts on snails and vermatids. I am trying to help a friend rid his system of a pest predatory snail and want to investigate vermatid snail treatments. Thanks.
Yes it was Safe Guard. It’s doesn’t mix well with water though, so be sure to really crush and mix at the same time.
Also I do have access to Mebendazole (200mg capsules) – any idea on dose of that one?
I think it’s similar and I stumble across an online vendor once, but can’t recall the link. Although I think the industry switched to using Fenbendazole because its more stable in water, so you may not notice any increased effectiveness with mebendazole.
Max please post your rewrite on using Fenbendazole. I still can’t get the amount I need to dose my 88 liter reef
I’m not sure what kind of rewrite you’re looking for? The dosage recommendation can be found in the write-up.
Just started my treatment. My infestation was fairly small… but in the frag tank and these had to go. Will repost as things progress and add any input from my treatment. Tank is over over 500G, but treating for 400G total water volume. I used the safeguard 4g package.. the box I bought had 3 packs containing 4g each.
Here is the link to the day to day photos and observations.
http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=120591
Hey Dave –
How’s the system doing? Did any BSP survive the treatment?
Max.
Did this treatment as suggested but at the last minute reduced the amount of solution added by about a 1/3rd (last minute panic!) All the Clove polyps are gone! Also lost some BSP and a Tree Coral (thought this might happen) but overall tank looks great and I am super happy to be rid of the things. Took a bit longer than I expected and am not sure if that was the amount I used or the level of infestation but regardless they are gone. Had to buy the SafeGuard in the US because they don’t sell it over the counter in Canada.
Great! Glad to hear to worked. Did you lose any snails or worms?
Max. Or anyone. Since treatment with Fenbendazole have you been able to keep snails in your tank without them dying? I’ve read about the live rock absorbing and later leaching thus killing turbos and other snails for a long time. Just wanted to see if you have been able to keep snails afterwards. Let me know please. Brook
I currently have 6 large Zebra Turbos (much better than Mexicans), 20 Ceriths, and a couple Nerite, Nassarius, and Astrea snails roaming around. The Zebras have quadrupled in size from purchase.
I didn’t have any issues keeping snails or worms after the treatment, although I did water changes and skimming. The only time a snail dies is when a red or blue legged hermit decides to upgrade it’s shell.
On a side note, other than tearing down your tank, and bleaching everything – I haven’t heard of any other successful treatments. I’ve personally witnessed how invasive these cloves/polyps can get, so I think it would still be worth doing the treatment even if it meant not keeping snails.
hi there love the post I’m now deciding to try this method myself feeling really sketchy about it as i have some nice expensive corals I’m worried about, how did your mushrooms react not that I’m bothered but id rather take them to a shop etc rather than kill them off
I have 2 discosoma colonies (5 red, 4 blue) that survived the treatment and a disastrous tank relocation. From my experiences of forcibly removing and proprogating mushrooms, they tend to be resilient creatures.
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Hi Max or anyone else:
After treatment as you suggested, in 2 weeks all BCP and palm cloves have died. I did a wc and restarted Carbon and gfo in 1st week. I had moved cuc to a separate tank. Tried adding a trochus and an orange mini turbo. Trochus wasn’t moving much for a day , the orange turbo started eating the algae. So I moved back the trochus to the other tank.
About to buy ceriths,nassarius,astrea etc soon from LFS….to put in dt.
So do I do a second wc of 20% (total vol is 80g sw)? or just change the carbon in reactor…so I can add snails. Params are normal. I do have a small algae issue since there were no snails.
Pls advice , thx …kris
Personally I’d recommend buying only a couple of snails and see how they do. You can put them in a ventilated container and observe them for a while. I have ceriths and nassarius in my tank, although I stopped buying astreas because I got tired of always turning them over and also having my hermits evict and eat them. Changing out the carbon would be a good idea and another water change couldn’t hurt either, especially if you don’t have a skimmer to help remove dissolved organics.
Good luck,
Max
Hey Max.
Sorry I do have a big skimmer running! So after 3 weeks , 3 wc @20%, changing carbon and gfo twice …tank is great. Skimmer pulled lots of gunk. Fuge is still running offline since I tried moving from fuge to DT a couple of turbo and trochus but they became inactive. So moved them back. Amazingly hermit crabs and nassarius are doing great in dt. I don’t see a single pod or micro brittle star in dt. Wonder when I can truly add all good cuc to dt…but let me start with ceriths.I will also do the carbon changes every 2 weeks.
Thanks!..Kris
Hi Max,
I’m sorry but I think I mistakenly posted this in another section.
I just came across your article on how you eradicated Xenia using Fenbendazole. My tank has become overrun with pink pulsing Xenia and I’m at the point where I might break it down and start over.
It seems that this method will most certainly kill the snails but I’m concerned about my cleaner shrimp, Peppermint Shrimp, Coral Banded Shrimp and my starfish.
Did you have any of these animals in the tank when you dosed your system? Do you know if anyone has?
Thanks very much.
I had a blue coral banded shrimp that survived and did very well during and after the treatment. I had numerous small astrea stars and micro serpent stars in the system and they survived too.
Thanks. I’ve been reading up on this treatment and I came across a few instances where people lost their shrimp and Linkia Star Fish so I’m really on the fence but my tank is completely overrun with pink Xenia.
I’m not sure if they dosed improperly or if they used a different kind of Fenbendazole. There’s apparently the safe-guard 4 canine variety and fish bendazole. I may set up a QT and try and place my shrimps and Star in it while I treat if I can catch them.
Thanks. This is a very helpful post.
One ambiguous point that I would like to understand further is in the Treatment section. You mention that you used the recommended dosage as Fluke tabs ..72 hours.
You treated the whole tank once with 1/2 the recommended dosage ..understood. But then the treatment was for 72 hours. What happens after 72 hours? Do you start water changes?
Thanks again for posting this. Will try this treatment for my tank as I too am overrun with xenias.
Yes, you’ll want to start regular maintenance procedures (water change, skimming, etc).
When I had Xenia, I would just use a fine sharp screw driver to slowly scrap the foot away from the rock and removal it. It would be safer to do manual removal of Xenia or easier to just replace the LR than it would be to do this treatment…
Thank you for the response, Max.
Indeed it would be safer, and manual removal is what I have been doing for quite some time now. My complication is that it is a large tank and there is close to 600 lbs of Live Rock. It would end up being a new career for me to remove all of it manually. Thank you again for the information and the cautionary.
Good luck with the treatment. One big concern I’d have with treating that much LR is the mass die off of bristle worms and snails,which could crash a system… based on my experience, I really needed to move the rocks around to remove all the dead worms.
Good advice and I will prepare for this. Also, in anticipation of the die-off, I have removed as many of my soft corals, toadstools, nepthias, and other potential victims from the tank (minus all xenias) to another system. This should reduce the bio-mass load when the carnage starts.
I just wanted to provide an update: I started the treatment using fendendazole on Nov. 15. I am now 4 days after the initial treatment and have started carbon and GFO reactors. Started skimming again and proceeding with large volumes of water changes. I changed 110 gallons from the calculated 500 gallons. The Xenias are dead. Most have melted away. Others have left a nasty, lifeless deposit which I will try to remove in the next few days. The GSP appears to be dead also. No polyps out for 3 days. Base tissue is still there and will try to remove over the next few days. It does not look good for the turbo snails. Some fared better than others.
Coral causalities were very low. I noticed a couple spots of tissue loss on two of my birdnests…it is unfortunate but I’m certain that both corals will recover. (This is probably from the elevated nitrates from lack of skimming).
I would say that the treatment has been successful. My only concern is the remaining Xenias tissue. Hopefully any remnants I miss won’t spring back to life. These things are like roaches!
Thank you, Max. Your blog has been most helpful!
Hi Max,
But:
Is Fembendazole not solubilize in water?
I assume pure Fenbendazole is, but the binder for internal treatments needs to be crushed and mixed well with water before use.
Hello Max,
I have what look like purple clove polyps, they look much larger than the blue I’ve seen pictures of but behave the same way (connected to Zoa tissue).
Do you think this treatment would work the same as BCP?
Thanks very much in advance,
Sorry, I don’t know if this treatment will work for you. You could try testing it by placing some in a bucket to see how your cloves react.
Hi Max,
Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! I had these “things” (mine were the purple clove polyps) taking over my 210 gallon reef tank for over a year now and had no idea what they were and how to get rid of them!!! I tried all the things people recommended for other nasty things in there tanks and nothing worked… there were way too many!!! Then I FINALLY happened upon this site and I was exstatic!!! I did the “dewormer treatment” 6 days ago and as of today I am clove polyp free!!! I know it’s early but everything you said happened in your tank happened in mine. I lost a couple astrea snails and turbo snails, looks like my little leather won’t pull through, and my bristle worms are dying. All my fish and LPS corals are doing great. I did start losing some tissue on only a couple of my sps acroporas but it is a small price to pay to get my tank back!!! I’ve been in the hobby over 20 years and have never been this frustrated with anything.I was ready to give it all up!! Thank you for putting out such a detailed process on eliminating these awful things I REALLY appreciate it and am thrilled to have my tank back.
Glad it worked for 🙂 I too was at my wits end trying to combat these pests, my only option was to start from scratch on take the risk on this treatment. Thankfully it worked for me and is helping others too.
Great post!
This treatment worked very well in my 80G system. I had BCP (blue clove polyps), PCP (purple clove polyps) and some hydroids. I treated my system as directed above and have completely eliminated them from my tank.
I lost a few of my Zoa’s due to the treatment but only the ones that had been infected by the BCP’s and PCP’s. All other SPS and invertebrates were not affected.
Thanks again!
Max I have tried your method by using mebenthasole and I had exactly the same results and the same loses.Thank you very much for getting me ridding of xenia and BCP!!!
Thank you for this! I did the same treatment after my 29 biocube was overrun by waving hand anthelia and GSP.
This also killed my Pipe Organ coral – FYI but everything else appears to be fine.
Too bad it killed the pipe organ 😦 but thanks for posting the info. I’ll try to add a warning about it.
i treated my 500 Gallon. i used 3 2 gram packets, after treatment all looked well. a few weeks later they are all back. I’m thinking i didn’t grind and mix well enough. any thoughts?
What brand of medication did you use and what was the concentration of Fenbendazole in it? How long did you keep the skimmer off? Any reactors or media installed?
i use 3 2 gram pouched of safe-guard 4. i left skimmer of for 75 hours, no reactors running. here is link of what i bought.
https://www.chewy.com/8in1-safe-guard-4-canine-de-wormer/dp/111610?utm_source=google-product&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=hg&utm_content=8in1&utm_term=&gclid=Cj0KEQiAv4jDBRCC1IvzqqDnkYYBEiQA89utombMxxyUdL9IOun7jnXoodpEnwunDIIZLHHYcMaMo3oaAsuS8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds
Recommend dosage is 2mg per gallon of water to be treated, so you’d need 1000mg for the 500 gallons. If you used 3 packets of the above link, then I assume you only treated with 666mg. Maybe a half dose is not enough for a large tank?
how many 2 gram packets do you recommend for 650 gallons of water volume
Depends on the amount of Fenbendazole in each packet. Recommend dosage is 2mg per gallon of water to be treated, so that’d be 1300mg for 650 gallons.
Just an update – since the die off on my anthelia and gsp, I had a big diatom bloom followed by a bunch of cyano and now what looks like hair algae on the back wall of my tank. Lots of it. I’ve done many water changes , changed gfo several times. I lost my torch coral , hammer coral, wellso and one head off a frog spawn. Torch and hammer both died the same way with the heads just falling off.
Can’t seem to figure out how to stabilize it at this point hoping that the algae will clear up on its own and coral die off is done. It’s like I cycled all over again when all the softies died.
Sorry to hear about the problems. Maybe worm die in the rocks is causing the bloom? 29 gals is small enough that’d I’d personally replace the roc, but that could also cause the system to cycle again, which could prolong the bloom. Are you running carbon and skimming?
i am using this kind.
http://wordpress.redirectingat.com/?id=725X1342&site=maxdraco.wordpress.com&xs=1&isjs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chewy.com%2F8in1-safe-guard-4-canine-de-wormer%2Fdp%2F111610%3Futm_source%3Dgoogle-product%26utm_medium%3Dcpc%26utm_campaign%3Dhg%26utm_content%3D8in1%26utm_term%3D%26gclid%3DCj0KEQiAv4jDBRCC1IvzqqDnkYYBEiQA89utombMxxyUdL9IOun7jnXoodpEnwunDIIZLHHYcMaMo3oaAsuS8P8HAQ%26gclsrc%3Daw.ds&xguid=7c07d4362255d755c35783e1dd80a688&xuuid=0f5ef687a10b229886652aa60b9036d6&xsessid=39cf7ec2659b77259eb28614c2fb3c6a&xcreo=0&xed=0&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fmaxdraco.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F03%2F14%2Ffenbendazole-eliminate-invasive-soft-corals-blue-cloves-polyps-xenia-aiptasia-hydriods-etc%2F%23comment-301&pref=https%3A%2F%2Fmaxdraco.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F03%2F14%2Ffenbendazole-eliminate-invasive-soft-corals-blue-cloves-polyps-xenia-aiptasia-hydriods-etc%2F&xtz=360
in a 650 gallon system sounds like i need 6 packets of 2 gram pouches for my system.
thank you very mch for your help
Max,
If there was a marine aquarium division of the Nobel Prize, you would be a winner. Like everyone else here, I was just about to do the tear down my tank when I found your article. Thanks for taking the time to document the way you did.
My system is around 150 gallons with lots of sps, lps, zoas, fish, shrimp, lobster, oh my. In preparation I have removed all my snails, serpent stars, and a small leather coral and placed them in a separate tank. I made 50 gallons of salt water for water changes. I purchased this product to use, which has 250mg of Febendazole per packet https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRC40BD/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and I’m going to stick to your recommended dosage of 2mg per gallon of water to be treated
I’m going to start treatment tonight. Wish me luck!!
Good luck, I wish you the best!
72 hours…everything is right on schedule. I couldn’t be happier with how its going.
I did only dose 1mg per gallon. Based on results It looks to be sufficient to do the job. I turned my skimmer back on earlier today and will begin using a media filter with carbon shortly.
Mitch Thanks for the update, are you able to post a picture of what the BCP’s look like?
I have been taking pics. I will try to post tonight when I get home
Hi Mitch, Was looking at the amazon ad for what you bought. The add says that it is a 250mg packet with only .25mg of Fenbendazole per packet. Is this a typo and does the package say something different? How many packets did you mix? If it is only .25mg per packet sounds like your getting success with a much lower dosage.
I believe that’s a typo. If you look at the picture of the individual packets on the 3 and 12 pack versions you can see it says Fenbendazole 250mg. Also, I wanted to to only dose 150mg for my 150 gallons so I thought I would weigh out 150mg of the 250mg and use that. But when I threw the contents of one packet on a scale it weighed close to 2g. So I weighed out 60% of the total powder and used that to treat. Also, when I did my initial calculations I made a mistake and ordered the 30 packet version instead of the 3. Thankfully I recalculated at some point and it turned out I needed less that one packet. If anyone wants a packet for just a few dollars, hit me up on reef2reef. One packet should be enough to treat 250 gallons
Nice Zoa’s! Once I get the BCP’s done then I hope to expand my Zoa’s!
So I have been treating for 72 hours now. The BCP are shriveled up to a small stalk with a white dot, looks like the polyp is just really sucked in on it self. Some seem to have shriviled and are no white dots. I dosed at 1mg per gallon. Is this what others looked like at this point? Once I turn carbon and Skimmer back on and do a water change will the BCP continue to decay and disappear or will this stuff possibly come back?
Your description of the BCP sounds about right for your progression. I would start skimming/carbon at this point. The BCP should continue to melt away.
Thanks! That is good to hear. I started carbon this morning and will start Skimming when I get home from work. At what point should I do a water change?
Like Mitch and others I was about to do a tear down tonight to bleach the LR with the BCP on it to try and get rid of it! But before I try this method I am curious how ricordia mushrooms will react. Will they die off? I’ve invested some money into having a nice corner of the tank a mushroom corner and would hate to have it die. Also, will all star fish die from this? I have a brittle starfish and some sand sifting starfish. And if I read right all SPS and LPS seem to be fine after treatment? Did pods die off, I have a mandarin I don’t want to leave without food.
I have a 180 display tank with about 150 lbs of rock and a 40 gallon sump.
Thanks so much for the awesome post and hope!!!!
I have lots of Yuma and Discosoma…almost 72 hours in now and they look just fine
Thanks Mitch! That makes me happy! I ordered the below today. Went with the safeguard since it was a bit cheaper. Do you have any Zoa’s? how are they fairing? I’m going to do a water change tonight in prep for the die off of worms and then start my treatment tonight after the water change. Excited but nervous!
Anyone know if Pods will die from the treatment? or Sand sifting or brittle starfish?
My tiny Astrea stars and Micro brittle stars survived, and I remember my pod population being active, but it’s hard to tell if or how that was effected. Your zoas will be irritated and close up, but they should survive, although Jimmy mentioned that he had lost some that been covered by BCPs. I don’t know about your sand sifter or brittle star will survive it, but Dan commented about reading how Linkia stars had died. I haven’t heard of any reports about those being effected, although I don’t follow many forums, and some people have only posted their experiences on those sites.
Thanks for the info. I will try and put my starfish in a separate Tank during the process, but the brittle star is in a rock and wont be able to get him out so I will report if it kills him or not.
Do I have zoas?…a couple. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/im-not-addicted-i-can-stop-whenever-i-want.132923/
So far so good. I have one colony of Sunny Ds that was completely covered in bcp, its doing fine. I did notice a large colony of Grandis was completely closed up and I don’t recall ever seeing them closed before. I’m not really worried yet .
I also removed 2 large brittle stars before treatment. I had one harlequin for many years that awesome and didn’t want to take the chance he would die. I put him in a plastic cup with a top that I drilled holes in, and threw it in another tank I have for now. I will put him back next week or so.
HI Max,
I have a 50 gal. aquarium that’s infested with hydroids. I plan on treating the tank with canine deformed from safeguard. The box contains three 4 gram pouches. Am I time understand that I should use 1/4 of one pouch mixed with a gallon of water to treat the Tank? I’ve been prepairing/procrastinating about this for about 8 months now and plan to finally treat the tank.
It technically should be based on the amount of Fenbendazole in each packet (should say on the box). Based on that amount, then you can figure out how much of a packet to use.
Thanks for you help.
Frank
One week after my initial dose….there is not a single Blue Clove Polyp to be found anywhere in my system. Its unbelievable, but they’re gone gone gone. I can’t tell you how thankful I am, this literally saved my tank. I have lost no coral, fish, shrimp, lobsters, even the few snails I left in are still alive. I did a large water change today…I still cant believe they’re gone.
I couldn’t figure out how to post a pic here, I created a thread on Reef2Reef with pics.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/eliminating-blue-clove-polyps-with-fenbendazole.308994/
Thanks Again!!!!!
Glad it worked! You’ll might encounter an Algae bloom depending on how much die off there was, but good maintenence should get you through that in short time.
Finally got the nerve up to do this, and with a packed generously donated by Mitch, I’m dosing on Friday (have the long weekend off to monitor the tank).
Doing the “half dose” and wondering if I should re-home my Cleaner and Peppermint Shrimp, and also my Cerith and Nassarius?
I have doubts I can even get my peppermints but likely the cleaners.
I left 2 scarlet cleaners shrimp, 2 ruby red shrimp, and a purple lobster in my main display while dosing. No issues. All are doing fine today.
Good luck Brad!!!
Awesome, I tried catching my cleaners to no avail last night so in they’ll stay.
I’ll probably pull all my snails/hermits just to be on the safe side.
Here goes nothing!
I finished the treatment a few weeks ago at a half dose and left my Cleaner and Peppermint shrimp in as there was no way I was getting them out. They have been just fine and I saw now affects to them during or after the treatment.
Awesome, thanks Rick. Dosed the tank last night! Fingers and toes crossed.
Just a quick comment for anyone considering this treatment. I’m on day 9 of the treatment and BCP is a thing of the past. Used the 1mg dose in a 46G bowfront. Used Panacur C (1 packet in 1G of RO/DI and then about 51 oz. of that into the tank). BCP had covered every bit of live rock and even started on the sand bed. All are now tiny white dots and are being cleaned up by an emerald crab and some blue leg hermits. My experience is very similar to comments above – I did remove my trochus snails and my pipe organ coral. All other corals including a bunch of rock flowers are just fine. Zoas are still not real happy but they seem to be coming back.
All in all – I’m thrilled with this treatment. It DOES work. Thanks to all who posted their observations 🙂
Glad it worked, keep us posted on long term recovery too.
could anyone give me simpler dosing break down. If i have a 180gallon system, 140 display, and mix half of the packet of safeguard which is a total of 2g, would that be enough if I dose the whole gallon?
It depends on the amount of Fenbendazole in your 2g packets. If the listed ingredient is 22%, then 1/2 a packet should suffice. Also you’d need about 1.5 gallons to treat 180gl or 3/4gl for a half dose treatment.
Just completed this process following all directions – dosed at 1mg per tank/sump volume using 22% Fenbendazole – and virtually no trace of dreadful Xenia! Lost snails, but no other livestock. I did relocate leather and mushroom corals to QT tank during the process and will keep them there for another couple of weeks to be safe.
WOW!!! I have been debating doing this for months now, and what can I say this was so worth it! I’m in 84 and they are gone! I’m sad I lost my fireworks polyps and it looks like my Kenya Tree is on its way out. But my Zoas can breathe and have already started to open back up. I would highly recommend this treat meant, especially if you’re like me and find yourself with Blue Polyps as an unwanted or unseen hitchhiker. All of my LPS look great and my Rock Flowers never closed up or looked stressed!