Losing zoas...

[MHG]

So a few weeks ago two zoa colonies closed up on the same day....all my parameters check out in the same range they have been for over a year.... Nothing new was added to the tank in months....after a couple of weeks one colony opened up but the other stayed closed. I removed half of it and placed it in the frag tank. It never recovered and is completely gone now. The remaining half in my DT is gone as well....

So a few weeks later two colonies in my frag tank died. Makes me think it is a pest. Not sure where it came from...

Today I turned my lights on at night and noticed my large eagle eye colony is all closed up. Not to uncommon at night but it looks strange. Like it is suspended above the rock and the rock is clean white. Like some scavenger is eating it off the rock....

I will try to get some pics....

 

[MHG]

A photo....

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Bump

 

[Huskysibe]

I would venture a guess that you have pests. It might be beneficial if you dip those and see what runs out. I am just guessing though but maybe someone with more knowledge than me will speak up.

 

[ViktorVaughn]

Have you looked around for zoanthid eating nudibranch's? They can really irritate my zoanthids I have and bug me quite a bit as well. Their backs are covered in green hairs that very similar to the color and structure of the skirt/tentacles of eagle eye zoanthids. I am pretty vigilant about inspecting for them now and whenever I see one I will siphon it off with a turkey baster and usually dip the coral to inspect closer for their pesky eggs. Pretty sure my first go round with the nudibranch's wasn't successful because I only removed the adults, dipped the coral, and put back in my tank without scraping the eggs off the zoanthids. I guess the coral dips don't eradicate the eggs, only the adults.

There is also a thread in this section about pods sometimes being pests as well, maybe read through this thread and see if either the nudibranch's or what is discussed in this thread are the problem.

 

[fragbox]

pest for sure
dip the crap out of it
coral rx pro double dosage double the time they can handle it
then look carefully for small white eggs

 

[MHG]

I would lean towards pests but the carnage seems to have stopped. Also unless nothing new has been added in months...

Cant dip.... colonies are all on the rock work...

 

[FishheadJoe]

I had a similar scenario happen to me last year!I had prob 5 variations of zoa's melt on me within approx a month period. I could never find the culprit... params were fine, never saw any pests, no fish or inverts picking at them.. etc. I came to the conclusion it was prob disease that was carrying over from one colony to the next but never figured out how to treat it. It finally ran it's course after wiping out some of my fav zoas. was such a shame... gl!

 

[blackthunda77]

pest for sure
dip the crap out of it
coral rx pro double dosage double the time they can handle it
then look carefully for small white eggs

Thats probably not the best advice. The colony is already obviously weakened.

 

[MHG]

well only the one colony died... all else is well