Another "My Zoas are melting!!" thread, but this one's a bit different...

Myka

Myka

Reefing since '93
Hi all,

I am having troubles in my mixed reef. I am having Zoa frags/colonies suddenly melt in 12 hours. The tank is probably 50% SPS, 25% LPS, 15% Photosynthetic Gorgonians, and 10% Zoas/Palys.

Ok first things first...here are my tank parameters:

Temp 78-81
SG 1.025-6
Calcium 420-440 ppm (Elos, dose with Fauna Marin)
Alkalinity 7-8 dKH (Elos, dose with Fauna Marin)
Magnesium 1350-1400 ppm (Salifert, dose with 8.5:1 Mg chloride:Mg sulfate Bulk Reef Supply pharmaceutical grade)
Potassium 360-380 ppm (Korallen-zucht, dose with Zeovit)
Nitrate not measurable (Salifert)
Phosphate 0.008 (D-D Merck)

90 gallon w/ 30 gallon sump
RS-180 EuroReef skimmer
2x250w DE 20K PlusRite halides (burn close to a 12-13K)
2x39w T5HO UVL Super Actinic

I also dose various ZeoVit products: Bak, SP, CV, AALPS, B-B, PIF, Iron, PX, PCS. I don't use the Zeo rocks (my tank is low nutrient as it is).



Ok so this all started about 10 days ago. I usually buy Zoa frags on disks, but this time I bought a whole live of live rock with 5 different Zoas. I dipped the whole rock in TMCC as directed for about 10-12 minutes. Put the rock in the tank, most of the polyps opened within 30 minutes. The next morning the polyps looked ok, and I left out of province for work.

I arrive back two days ago to find all the Zoas on the rock melted as well as all 3 frag disks of my Japanese Zoas (were in tank for 3 months, growing well).

On my way back home I bought 5 new Zoas frag disks (not knowing I was having a Zoa meltdown at home). They all opened within 30 minutes of putting them int he tank (dipped with TMCC as usual). Next morning, they all look ok. 12 hours later the Candy Apples have completely melted ... totally disintegrated off the disk.

The same thing continues to happen to about 8 frags/mini colonies I have. They look great at 9 am, by noon they are closed up, by 9 pm they are totally disintegrated. These are Zoas that have been in the system for months.

I am an experienced reefer (albeit Zoas are a new thing for me), and I have searched up and down for parasites. Can't find a thing. I just took the Zoa rock out and freshwater dipped it to see if I could get something to fall off the rock, and figured at this point it won't hurt. There may be a few polyps on there that aren't past the point of no return.

Another "interesting" thing to note is that I have 2 large patches of GSP growing on the back wall of the tank, and one of those large colonies has not been open since I have been home for the last 3 days. Not sure when they closed up.



I do wonder if my nutrients have finally gotten to a low enough point where the water can't sustain the Zoas anymore.

My only other idea is maybe my Bristletail Filefish (aka Aiptasia Eating Filefish) has suddenly picked up an appetite for Zoas. He does pick at brain corals, but not enough to damage them...just irritates them. I just caught him and put him in the sump about an hour ago, so I can see if that's the problem.

There are no new inverts/fish. They have all been in the tank longer than the Zoas.

Anyway...sorry for the book. Thanks to anyone that read this far!!! Please help if you can. :bounce3:
 
Zoa melting takes way longer than 12 hours unless you dump bleach in your tank water. your filefish can be a strong suspect, I had a hippo tang that enjoyed eating Armor of Devil palys out of the blue one day. He ate a colony of 50+ in one afternoon. I have a theory, I think your zoas were not diseased, I think something hitched its way into your tank via the live rock you got. It sounds like something ate your stuff. Look for crab or pest worms after dark.
 
can we see pictures of the suspected melting colonies?

I personally don't trust file fish or any tangs with the exception of the yellow tang
 
Ya, I don't know...I've never seen Zoas melt in 12 hours either. But they are melting during the day, and I don't see any critters on them. I haven't seen any fish bite at them. I'm at a loss!

When I freshwater dipped the rock I did notice little tubes like mini feather duster tubes except they were even smaller and made out of black sand instead of white. It's possible they could be poo not tubes too. Nothing of interest fell off the rock...did a good 10 minute dip with flushing from a turkey baster. Got lots of that black sand off the rock, and a couple teeny tiny bristleworms.

The frags/colonies that are melting are scattered around the tank, there isn't a target area or anything like that. Some melted colonies are only 1" from a good colony.

Ok these used to be Japanese Supermans (not sure when they melted or how long it took):
IMG_2225.jpg




The plug was Candy Apple, those melted in 12 hours. Then on the right there is a blob that used to be Radio Active Dragon Eyes, they looked great this morning, you can see on the left some Lunars that look a bit bleached for some unknown reason (maybe related?), but are open ok:
IMG_2226.jpg




These I had not IDed yet (purple with green centre and green skirt):
IMG_2227.jpg




If these pics aren't good enough, I will move the Zoa mush pieces closer to the glass and take a pic through a magnifying glass. Let me know.

Fish are: Bristletail Filefish (now in sump "just in case"), Yellow Eye Kole Tang (being re-homed, he harasses the Jawfish), Bangaii Cardinal, Blue Assessor, 2 Yellow Head Jawfish, 2 True Percs.

Inverts: Black brittle starfish, 2 Emerald Crabs, 2 Fighting Conch, Astrea snails, Trochus snails, Ring Cowries.
 
Probably an already stressed colony and maybe the TMCC dip is too strong on them?

Can you get a regular frag and put it in the tank after just a FW dip?

Tough one...
 
I took a flashlight out lastnight as 3 am, and didn't see anything. I guess it's a waiting game to see if I lose any today now that the Filefish is in the sump. I'm not convinced it is him though.

pH is 8.0-8.1 depending if lights are on or not.

If the TMCC was to blame for the death of the rock, it doesn't explain the death of any of the other colonies.
 
The Japanese deepwaters are not the most finicky Zoas in there. The Blue Steels are strong as ever. The Japanese were pretty hardy for me.

Hmmm, well I do have Asterina starfish in my tank, and one did fall off the Zoa rock (it was underneath), but it says not all are predatory to Zoas. So I guess that's a possibility, but not very definitive.

Water quality should not be an issue. My tank is primarily SPS. Too low nutrients would be a possibility though.

Lack of lighting or flow shouldn't be an issue.

Fish nipping? Jury is still out on that one. LOL

The Kole Tang is getting a new home anyway...he is harassing my Jawfish, so if he's the culprit that will be removed soon too.
 
yeah, I don't trust tangs with zoanthids/palys... one I can trust is the yellow. but still watch him from time to time. If the issue still goes one whent he 2 questionable fish are gone, I'd suggest doing the late night viewing with a red light when all lights are off... you can also have a hidden predator at night.

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm
 
Haha, ya I've seen that worm article a few times. Grosses me out every time. I seem to remember following his thread along when he first discovered the worm, and decided to pull his reef apart.

I did take a regular flashlight to the tank last night about 3 am and didn't see anything. I will have to try some red cellophane over it.

The Tang is a pest...I would suspect him before the Filefish.
 
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