I just wanted to share my story with Zoanthid Eating Nudibranchs
I bought this beautiful zoa combo rock from Aquarium Village in L.I last month. I placed straight in my tank(without taking necessary precaution, I should have known better) , everything was fine for several days, they were fully open, I was really happy and feeling lucky to have this large combo colony. A week later, I have noticed my zoas stopped opening, some area's were fully open some were close and then I see the polyps start to melting away. I never had problems like this before during my 12 years in this hobby. I guess it was my turn. So start to observe closely and seen these nudibranches looking exactly same as polyps, especially the color, they were green, after reading more articles, hobbyists who shared their experiences on RC. I've learned more about them. The nudibranchs will develop pigment that matches the zoanthid that they are predating, its very difficult to see them. First, I spotted on the glass during dark cycle. I sucked with syringe. I was using flash light to locate them and I was sucking these suckers with syringe and picking them with tweezers, I tried turkey baster. Most importantly I start to diping process immedialty. I went to get a lugol solution from closest store but they had only coralife iodine supplement, so I bought one and I follow the the rules 50fw/50sw 15-20 drops of idone but It really didnt help, I was racing against time. After reading more online I came a cross to Api-Melafix. I decided to give it a try. I couldnt believe it, after dipping 3 times 10-15minutes in one week with Melafix mixed with iodine I was able to stop my zoa's wasting away. I saw all the nudis, worms were falling off the rock. I'm lucky that I still have some polyps left. They are healthy now, growing back again.
I think it is our responsibility to notify others that we may be trading with infestations so that they can prevent passing these critters to one another and I think the number one rule to avoid this problem is to Dip-QT and Observe.
Placing a new coral to my tank without Dip-QT and observe ? Never again.
Happy Reefing.
I bought this beautiful zoa combo rock from Aquarium Village in L.I last month. I placed straight in my tank(without taking necessary precaution, I should have known better) , everything was fine for several days, they were fully open, I was really happy and feeling lucky to have this large combo colony. A week later, I have noticed my zoas stopped opening, some area's were fully open some were close and then I see the polyps start to melting away. I never had problems like this before during my 12 years in this hobby. I guess it was my turn. So start to observe closely and seen these nudibranches looking exactly same as polyps, especially the color, they were green, after reading more articles, hobbyists who shared their experiences on RC. I've learned more about them. The nudibranchs will develop pigment that matches the zoanthid that they are predating, its very difficult to see them. First, I spotted on the glass during dark cycle. I sucked with syringe. I was using flash light to locate them and I was sucking these suckers with syringe and picking them with tweezers, I tried turkey baster. Most importantly I start to diping process immedialty. I went to get a lugol solution from closest store but they had only coralife iodine supplement, so I bought one and I follow the the rules 50fw/50sw 15-20 drops of idone but It really didnt help, I was racing against time. After reading more online I came a cross to Api-Melafix. I decided to give it a try. I couldnt believe it, after dipping 3 times 10-15minutes in one week with Melafix mixed with iodine I was able to stop my zoa's wasting away. I saw all the nudis, worms were falling off the rock. I'm lucky that I still have some polyps left. They are healthy now, growing back again.
I think it is our responsibility to notify others that we may be trading with infestations so that they can prevent passing these critters to one another and I think the number one rule to avoid this problem is to Dip-QT and Observe.
Placing a new coral to my tank without Dip-QT and observe ? Never again.
Happy Reefing.
