First coral - first mistake?

[Grins]

Yep, remove it if it is a sundail. They are hard to see if the colony is all open. I thought I had inspected mine well and even after removing one in a dip I found a smaller one crawling on top of the colony that night.

 

[Aquarist007]

nope on the sundial----but I have a good suspect on the nudibranch--thanks I'll check when I get home.

I believe there is a fish that eats them?

I will fresh water dip also just in case there are others

 

[Grins]

Yes, there are fish that will eat them. The zoa forum here has a good list of nudi eating wrasses.

 

[hmello@bermexin]

Here is some more infor about getting rid of them Plus be aware you need to address their eggs also.

Discovered I had an infestation of zoanthus-eating nudibranches. Removed all the zoanthids from the aquarium, gave them a freshwater dip with Lugol's iodine solution, scraped off eggs where I could see them, and then placed them in a separate aquarium. I will wait to see if this all works before reintroducing any to the main display.

[For anyone interested, the recipe for the dip is 2 drops of Lugol's to 4 litres of fresh pH and temperature adjusted RO water. Immerse zoo colony for 5 minutes, then swirl it vigorously to shake off any dead critters, then return to salt water.]

From the thereef.info site

 

[LockeOak]

Note, a common hitchhiker snail called Collonista looks pretty similar to sundial snails, the Collonista are beneficial grazers (about the size of a BB, white with brown markings). Check melevsreef.com for pictures of it.

Zoanthids are a great starter coral, they're really hardy and difficult to kill. They'll survive just about anything short of dropping them in bleach or squishing them between your fingers, nudibranchs and sundials excepted. They can also survive air exposure for a while, often they're shipped just wrapped in a moist paper towel. Wear gloves when handling them though, and goggles/glasses if you're fragging them so they don't squirt at you, they contain a potentially dangerous palytoxin. One frag of mine took a dive into a frogspawn coral which has a pretty fierce sting. The zoanthids lost a few tentacles from their skirts and looked kind of "burned" (i.e. discolored patches) but they completely healed up within a week or two, no polyps died.

 

[Aquarist007]

thanks hmello--the pictures and info are great.
I did look at home and can't see any evidence. The zoos doing badly are placed high up on the reef near twin 150watt 10,000 halides and twin blue attinics. they are also in a high flow area. Still can't figure why they are dying off?
They actually did better at the bottom of the tank with low light and low flow area.

 

[LockeOak]

That sounds like it's probably too much light. PC's are enough for zoanthids, metal halides can hurt them if blasted with light. Put them back near the bottom and gradually move them up.

 

[Grins]

I keep mine in moderate flow. You might try adjusting that.