All Zoanthids are closed. Cant find a diagnosis.

[GigaFish]

For the past six weeks I have had an issue where all of my zoanthids just closed up one day and never opened again. At first I was assuming it was due to poorer than normal water quality as I had been slacking on maintenance but as it turns out my water quality has been just fine the whole time. All of my sps and lps are doing great. I do have some anthelia which has also been shriveled up along with the zoos but thats it. I have read every page I can find on symptoms, pests, etc and I cant put my finger on what is causing this to happen.

Last night I decided to pull out the magnifying glass and get a closer look to see if I can spot any pests. I noticed that all of my zoanthid colonies have these little white spots (not zoa pox) that move around. They are no bigger than a copepod so they are very hard to make out. They can move pretty fast so I wouldnt consider them baby snails or anything. I cant find anything describing this in any zoa pest documentation and have no idea if it could be the cause.

Any help would be much appreciated. The past few weeks have been very discouraging and I am on the edge of calling it quits for a while if I cant get my tank looking good again.

Here is a photo of the tank when the zoo's looked good. As you can see, if it is a pest problem, its practically a whole tank tear down to quarantine all the zoo's.

 

[RedAnt78]

I don't know what they are, but do you have anything that eats pods? It might be worth trying a couple mandarins or a hawkfish or something if the white "bugs" are small enough. I just found some huge pods eating my zoas and am trying to think of what preditor I need to get to take care of them.

 

[GigaFish]

I have a mandarin and a sixline wrasse.

 

[sedor]

Everytime I have had problems with zoas staying closed its been because of something irritating them. Check to see if sand is blowing across them, or if you've got some sort of pest in them. Its easier to see if you've got a pest by using a flashlight at night.

 

[GigaFish]

Its easier to see if you've got a pest by using a flashlight at night.

Thats how I found these little guys to begin with. I really wish I could figure this out.

 

[dalston]

Can you get a pic of the closed polyps?

Have you checked your Ph and alk on a regular basis? Polyps don't do well with Ph swings IME.

I know you checked at night already, but do it with a red bulb flashlight, it doesn't spook everything so you can get a better look at the critters.

 

[GigaFish]

My pH is monitored 24/7 with an aquacontroller. Alkalinity is dosed with a litermeter and stays between 8 and 9dkh. I havent used a red bulb, but I can see these little white guys with a standard flashlight. Now that I have observed them under the halides, I can see them there too. They are all over every colony.

 

[dalston]

Do they move around on the colonies or are they swimming?

Also, does it look like the mats of the colonies are being eaten?

 

[GigaFish]

Do they move around on the colonies or are they swimming?

Also, does it look like the mats of the colonies are being eaten?

They do not swim. They crawl around decently fast. I cant even make them out with a magnifying glass because they are so small. They dont look like they are eating the zoos, but I think they are laying eggs all over them. These eggs are individual and randomly placed all over the zoos. I did a freshwater lugols dip on a small removeable colony a few nights ago. All of the little critters were gone but the little egg spots were still there. By the next night, I saw new guys walking over the zoos.

 

[dalston]

Hmmm, my first thought was zoanthid spiders but IME you would see the mat dissapearing, just by your description it seems this is a new one to me. I would consider an Interceptor treatment, you could start by removing an infected colony and testing it out, then if successful, move on to treating the entire tank.

I would also look into dosing vitamin C, if you are not already. It should help your polyps recover quicker once the problem has been irradicated.

 

[Takifugu3469]

You can try to dip your zoas in Coral Revive by Two Little Fishes. I had a colony that won't open and I dipped it. I can see lots of worms and spiders in there....died. Few days later...the colony is open again. :bounce1:

 

[dalston]

You can try to dip your zoas in Coral Revive by Two Little Fishes. I had a colony that won't open and I dipped it. I can see lots of worms and spiders in there....died. Few days later...the colony is open again. :bounce1:

That is a good remedy for pests however in this case i'm assuming its not possible, the pic the OP posted above shows most (if not all) of his zoa's are on the base or main rockwork. That's why I would suggest Interceptor, as you can treat the entire tank.

 

[reeflord]

interceptor is the way i would go