One of my Zoa Colonies is being difficult...

[EllisJuan]

One of my Zoa colonies has started not cooperating over the last few days. My other Zoas and everything else in the tank is doing ok. I kind of feel like something is irritating them below the surface. In the past I have not dipped my corals, and this is a practice I am planning on starting using Bayer Complete. Should I pull this colony out and give them a dip?

Temp 79.5*
pH 8.02
SG 1.025
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~5ppm
Alk 8.54dkh
Phos .03ppm

 

[Mael]

cant hurt to give them a mild dip in bayer or something like revive. If they did get irrated by something touching them or something they ate it could take a little while for them to open back up.

 

[A. Grandis]

One of my Zoa colonies has started not cooperating over the last few days. My other Zoas and everything else in the tank is doing ok. I kind of feel like something is irritating them below the surface. In the past I have not dipped my corals, and this is a practice I am planning on starting using Bayer Complete. Should I pull this colony out and give them a dip?

Temp 79.5*
pH 8.02
SG 1.025
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~5ppm
Alk 8.54dkh
Phos .03ppm

What maks you feel that, and what does that mean, exactly? I just want to understand your point.
Why Bayer?
You could be on the way to find the solution, but I want to understand the point here.
Please let us know..

Grandis.

 

[A. Grandis]

cant hurt to give them a mild dip in bayer or something like revive. If they did get irrated bysomething touching them or something they ate it could take a little while for them to open back up.

I'm interested to understand more about the irritation by food. Please let me know more..
How would Bayer be effective on that?

Grandis.

 

[EllisJuan]

OK, this Zoa colony is still being difficult and only about half of the polyps are opening. I was looking at it today and I noticed some very small thin worms sticking out of it. I will try to snap a pic.

 

[EllisJuan]

OK, here is a couple pictures. In the first picture you can see the worm that I am talking about. I could only see two when I just looked, but earlier I could see 6-8. The second pic is the current unhappy state of the colony. All other colonies are happy. Water parameters have been consistent with what I posted in the first post.

 

[A. Grandis]

Yep those worms are irritators and some of them also could feed on zoas.
I wouldn't dip the rock because it's live rock.
I have a similar species in my system that I could control the population after I added a Six Line wrasse.
Good luck!

Grandis.

 

[EllisJuan]

Yep those worms are irritators and some of them also could feed on zoas.
I wouldn't dip the rock because it's live rock.
I have a similar species in my system that I could control the population after I added a Six Line wrasse.
Good luck!

Grandis.

Ugh...would you use Bayer?

Edit: Sorry, I missread. So, you would not dip the colony? The colony is on a shell/skeleton type thing. Would you pull the colony and toss it? I do not want them spreading to my others. I had a sixline in the tank until last week when I removed him because he was getting too aggressive. He never did anything to them.

 

[A. Grandis]

Huummm...
If it's on a shell you can dip, using those conventional coral dips like Coral Rx.
Looks like live rock to me.
I don't think you really need Bayer for that. But you can try, if you want.
There are many different types of worms that could bother zoas.
Those coral dips will take care of them for you. I would try Coral Rx first.
I would treat the colony before the worms get all over the place.
Too bad the six line didn't have time to finish with them.
In my system the Six Line was hunting every second.

Grandis.

 

[leveldrummer]

Those "worms" are the arms of micro brittle stars. just for fun, have you moved the colony around to see if they would open better somewhere else in the tank? different flow patterns or light?

 

[chill86]

Looks like a nudi problem, wait a hour or 2 after the lights go out at night and give them a rodi dip for a few minutes. I put the rodi water in a bag and throw it in the sump a few hours ahead of time to match the temp. I also put a air stone in the water when Im dipping it, I also shake the zoas around in the dip to release the pest that dont want to leave on a short notice. Repeat every 4 or 5 days if the results are not clear. Also you might want to consider a six line or mellanarus wrasse to keep the pest population down. Good luck and keep it natural!

 

[A. Grandis]

Those "worms" are the arms of micro brittle stars. just for fun, have you moved the colony around to see if they would open better somewhere else in the tank? different flow patterns or light?

Yep, they are!
LOL!!
I think I need glasses!
Maybe the stars could be irritating the zoas...
That's why the Six Line "didn't do the job". LOL!

Grandis.

 

[rpmike1189]

Zoanthid Agressor

Zoanthid Agressor

In my experience, micro brittle stars have posed little to no threat to any of my corals. I think your best bet would be a short dip in a mild Coral dip(Medi-Coral, CoralRx, etc...) mainly to replenish some of the lost nutrients it may have lost as well as killing anything that may or may not be agitating it, then perhaps mess around with the flow and lighting a bit! Always works like a charm for my Palys and Zoanthids.

 

[A. Grandis]

I had some species of brittle stars that would really irritate my zoa colonies, specially at night.
I don't keep them for that reason.

Grandis.