SkolPaFisken
New member
I have not been able to identify the villian(s?) I am battling in my tank. Here is what I know about said villain:
* builds calcium tubes about 1/8 inch diameter
* makes translucent 'tents'
* dines on zoas.
* dines on candy canes
My piece-O-reef is a 20 month old system that is comprised of a 120 display and a 50 gallon fuge. Both display and fuge have a 5" DSB of large grain aragonite with a plenum. Mostly LPS with one piece of healthy SPS.
Around Feb 7th, I noticed enough issues with my zoas that I decided to take action; my problem is receding zoas and, many months before that, physical damage (white puffy tubes or tunnels) to a couple of my candy canes. Long ago I moved the candy canes and had not seen the traslucent tubes in months. Now they are appearing again near a zoa frag on the same rock.
Two weeks ago I pulled a lone Nudibranch out of my fuge.
http://www.box.net/shared/xmy1x8y10q
Also, upon further investigation of other zoas in the tank I noticed what I could best identify as zoa pox (zoas that would not open and showed white spots around some of them) on about 15% of the zoas in my display. From looking around it seemed like a fresh water dip in a 7 drop per gallon mix of Lugoul's water then a Seachem coral dip was the best course of action. The problem is that I removed all coral but one for treatment. I left one frag of zoas in the display (showed no signs of probems); yep you guessed it now that frag is receding and showing the tubes and now a 'tent'. You will notice the 'tent' to the left (lower half) of the frag plug.
"photo attached"
(also note the hole or 'door' at the bottom of the frag plug)
I can remove the last frag but I assume the critter is in the live rock and don't want to give him a chance to hide away to haunt me another day! Do I dip the live rock and kill everyting on it? seems a bit like a bull in a china shop approach to controlling the little bugger.
On the 14th I noticed an update; 80% of the 'tent' was gone and by Sunday morning the remainder is gone. The zoas were still in their receded state with no visible signs of external munching or other physical removal just a slow but steady retreat.
Other frags (on the frag rack on the wall) are fairing fine in the tank, three types of acans, favia, galaxia un-named SPS. The zoas on the frag rack (mohawaks and some other no-named frags) show mixed results. I report them as 'mixed' results because the mohawk are wonderful but the others seem to be enduring light shock (due to moving the frag rack around the tank while tearing out the corals on the live rock).
I also set up my 'night-vision' camcorder to see if I could catch any critter feasting on zoas, no luck but boy o boy do I ever have more 'pod' action than I imagined!!
The link to some of the night shot of the affected zoas:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/31193171/45f3ce9a/sharing.html
And finally tonight I hate to say it but at this point the zoas are almost gone. I tired to take another picture to see if I could get a better shot of the tubes.
http://www.box.net/shared/ne6aih85d9
To the right of the frag plug just above the middle you can almost make out a translucent tube. The tube extends down between the rock and frag plug. Also, you can barely make it out but there seems to be "chewed" or "powdered" calcium looking stuff below the lowest edge of the plug. The tubes appear to be able to go into the live rock so I am guessing that the critter can 'burrow'.
Please help me identify this beast and point me to the remedy.
Thank You!!!!!!!!!!
* builds calcium tubes about 1/8 inch diameter
* makes translucent 'tents'
* dines on zoas.
* dines on candy canes
My piece-O-reef is a 20 month old system that is comprised of a 120 display and a 50 gallon fuge. Both display and fuge have a 5" DSB of large grain aragonite with a plenum. Mostly LPS with one piece of healthy SPS.
Around Feb 7th, I noticed enough issues with my zoas that I decided to take action; my problem is receding zoas and, many months before that, physical damage (white puffy tubes or tunnels) to a couple of my candy canes. Long ago I moved the candy canes and had not seen the traslucent tubes in months. Now they are appearing again near a zoa frag on the same rock.
Two weeks ago I pulled a lone Nudibranch out of my fuge.
http://www.box.net/shared/xmy1x8y10q
Also, upon further investigation of other zoas in the tank I noticed what I could best identify as zoa pox (zoas that would not open and showed white spots around some of them) on about 15% of the zoas in my display. From looking around it seemed like a fresh water dip in a 7 drop per gallon mix of Lugoul's water then a Seachem coral dip was the best course of action. The problem is that I removed all coral but one for treatment. I left one frag of zoas in the display (showed no signs of probems); yep you guessed it now that frag is receding and showing the tubes and now a 'tent'. You will notice the 'tent' to the left (lower half) of the frag plug.
"photo attached"
(also note the hole or 'door' at the bottom of the frag plug)
I can remove the last frag but I assume the critter is in the live rock and don't want to give him a chance to hide away to haunt me another day! Do I dip the live rock and kill everyting on it? seems a bit like a bull in a china shop approach to controlling the little bugger.
On the 14th I noticed an update; 80% of the 'tent' was gone and by Sunday morning the remainder is gone. The zoas were still in their receded state with no visible signs of external munching or other physical removal just a slow but steady retreat.
Other frags (on the frag rack on the wall) are fairing fine in the tank, three types of acans, favia, galaxia un-named SPS. The zoas on the frag rack (mohawaks and some other no-named frags) show mixed results. I report them as 'mixed' results because the mohawk are wonderful but the others seem to be enduring light shock (due to moving the frag rack around the tank while tearing out the corals on the live rock).
I also set up my 'night-vision' camcorder to see if I could catch any critter feasting on zoas, no luck but boy o boy do I ever have more 'pod' action than I imagined!!
The link to some of the night shot of the affected zoas:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/31193171/45f3ce9a/sharing.html
And finally tonight I hate to say it but at this point the zoas are almost gone. I tired to take another picture to see if I could get a better shot of the tubes.
http://www.box.net/shared/ne6aih85d9
To the right of the frag plug just above the middle you can almost make out a translucent tube. The tube extends down between the rock and frag plug. Also, you can barely make it out but there seems to be "chewed" or "powdered" calcium looking stuff below the lowest edge of the plug. The tubes appear to be able to go into the live rock so I am guessing that the critter can 'burrow'.
Please help me identify this beast and point me to the remedy.
Thank You!!!!!!!!!!
