Eliminating Blue Clove Polyps with Fenbendazole

TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

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#1
#1
I'm 72 hours into my journey to eliminate blue clove polyps (BCP) from my system, and thought I'd share my experiences. A while back, like 6 months or so I tried Fluconazole to get rid of them, initially I thought this worked! They got pretty ticked off, but only for 48 hours. Then they resumed their normal existance. I was discouraged, but wanted to wait a bit before trying something else. Over the last month I'd estimate that my BCP population doubled, the patches of them were getting pretty large and extremely noticeable. It was no longer a pest that just lives over in the corner...it was spreading everywhere.

So I decided to give the Fenbendazole a shot. @Andrew_bram had some left over after successfully treating his BCP, and he generously let me have a packet. Each packet treats 250 gallons of water, and I estimate that I have 225 total gallons...so I figured I would be a little high on the dose, but not drastic. So I emptied the powder onto a piece of paper and used the back of a spoon to pulverize it into an even finer powder. I added this powder to 1 gallon of RO water. I then shook it all up and it dissolved really easily. I got out my turkey baster and blasted the medicine directly on the patches of BCP. Then I dumped the remaining mix into high flow areas of my display tank. It was in, there was no turning back now! At the point I realized there was no turning back now....I also realized that I isolated my 40g breeder because it contains a ton of green star polyps! Oh crap, I just went from overdosing a little bit...to overdosing by a lot. My effective gallons were closer to 185 rather than 250 gallons. I'm no rocket surgeon, but that seems like too much. But short of doing water changes, and adding carbon immediately I decided to just monitor closely.

Here is one colony of BCP at hour 0, right before I added the Fenbendazole. I have several larger colonies than this, this one was just close to the front glass and easiest to photograph. I labled it day 1, which is confusing and not to be confused with the 24 hrs. picture. This is really 0 hour:
View attachment 16934
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

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24 hour mark. Looking a little bit more PO'd now:
View attachment 16935

At this point everything in the tank appears to be normal, minus the BCP. Anemones look fine, zoas are all out and happy looking. Even snails look to be moving around as if all is normal.

The 40b is isolated and the Green Star Polyps are doing fine, none the wiser really.
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

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48 hours, and you can really see them hopefully entering the "white dots of death" phase. At this point I'm starting to get excited and encouraged that this might actually work! Every colony I can see looks like this, they are all rapidly declining.

View attachment 16936

Again, rest of tank life appears normal. Nothing else appears to be effected. Anemones, zoas, LPS, SPS crabs, snails, and fish all appear to be unaffected by anything else going on inside the tank. I am most concerned with adverse reactions to SPS, since I have been working really hard to get that going and don't want any setbacks. So far, nothing out of the ordinary noticed!
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

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#4
#4
72 hours. I awake before my aquarium lights turn on and have a cup of coffee. I sit there staring at a mostly dark tank, wondering if I should try to sneek a peek at them....also fighting off the urge to chant "die, die, die!" at the BCP, but realizing that I am the only one awake in the house. Lights come on, and I am happy to see even further spiraling into the throws of "white dots of death" stages!

View attachment 16937

The 72 hour mark is also important because this is when I am supposed to put skimmer back online as well as add carbon to start pulling out the medication. So I start skimming and add carbon, and also do a small water change on the 40b just because it has circulation only....no sump or other filtration. It may be that way for a while, I've heard that the medication can last in the system for months.

Next up will be water changes beginning on Saturday, which will be the 1 week mark. I will do several big water changes, but maybe spread them out to every other day unless I see anything adverse, in which I can do more or less as needed. But at 72 hours, they are not happy...and everything else is. Including me.
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

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M.A.S.C Club Member
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#11
#11
I know, I know.....you're saying to yourself "is this guy seriously still labling his blue clove pictures by the hour?" Me: "Yup!" And I actually asked Alexa how many hours are in a week, so you get to look forward to that 168 hours photo!

The BCP looks to be disappearing completely. Even in the "white dots of death" stage, the white dots seem to be decreasing in size. All SPS, zoas, LPS, nems, and fish are looking 100% normal. I don't see any real change in any of them. I'm going to do a 24 gallon water change today. Carbon and skimmer are still running. To my knowledge there is no way to tell when the fenbendazole is fully removed. From what I read it can stay in the system for a long time.

View attachment 16962
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

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#12
#12
144 hour update and picture. I'm pretty sure 144 hours is 6 days. The water change I planned for yesterday didn't happen, but should get done today. Part of that was just laziness on my part, but also with everything looking so good (except for the BCP of course) I wanted to leave the fenbendazole in there for as along as possible. But I'll do a change today.

View attachment 16964
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

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M.A.S.C Club Member
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#14
#14
Yours look a little different to me, but I believe they are in the same anthelia family so it should be effective. I think the fenbendazole goes after GSP, pulsing zenia, Blue Cloves, and maybe hydroids. Maybe post it up on the forum for a positive ID.....?
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

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#15
#15
Ok so the 168 hour (1 week) mark. I did the water change, and hit the BCP areas with a brush. The BCP polyps are completely gone! It was so hard just to try to remember where they were. I was attempting to siphon water at the same time as scrubbing in an attempt to get as much of the BCP out as possible. It came off so easy, I really hope it was thuroughly dead!

Under Blues:
View attachment 16972

Under whites:
View attachment 16973
 
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