Sudden colony die offs

[JJ650]

I had part of a purple people eater colony close up one day, to never reopen. I tried what I could to fix the issue but never could peg down the reason. They were not covered in Zoa pox, but they did get coated in a brown slime. No amount of light cleaning, dips (Luguls, freshwater, Coral-RX) would clean this slime off. The affected area was only in one spot and did not spread. Eventually the whole affected patch died off. No surrounding zoas were afflicted.

Fast forward a month later:
I now have a second complete colony that will not open. This colony was fine and dandy on Monday with all polyps open. Tuesday I noticed it would not open fully. Yesterday and today, none of the polyps will open. I took it out to inspect, and once again, this brown slime was coating some of the polyps. The entire colony will not open (100+ heads). The brown coated polyps are really slimy and literally sloughing away, while other heads are not coated, but also not opening. They don't smell rotten or anything. I don't see any sort of worms or anything that would be predating. I have no Asterinas thanks to a Harlequin I added a little while ago.

Forgot to mention:
Mixed reef tank.
water parameters are good.
Organics are non observable on test kits.
pH @ 8.4
Alk @ 10.2


Any ideas on what this issue could be??

 

[zn00py]

Zoanthids sometimes give off some brown slime when they are overlit. Leds are very harsh on zoa's . Try putting in shade

 

[JJ650]

Would they do this all of the sudden? They have been spreading and growing in this spot for months.
Will try moving anyway.

 

[JJ650]

I think I have a fungal infection. Given what I have seen and looked up the past couple of days, I am going to try a Furan-2/ Hydrogen Peroxide dip. More heads have sloughed off. Not good and I really would hate to lose the entire colony!

 

[organism]

Trying Furan 2 is a great idea, just make sure you give them good flow after dipping. Usually the issue you're describing happens due to them being in an area with too little flow since it makes them more prone to infections.

 

[JJ650]

Trying Furan 2 is a great idea, just make sure you give them good flow after dipping. Usually the issue you're describing happens due to them being in an area with too little flow since it makes them more prone to infections.

They are right next to the outlet for the main circulation pump. If anything, these guys were getting great flow.
I am amazed at the speed of the decline. One day, there is full extension. Next, about 50% of the colony is open and then 3rd day none are open. 4th day I notice polyps missing with the brown slime/ooze/whatever is covering about 1/3rd of the colony.

Any possibility this could be tied to a diatom issue I have been having?

 

[organism]

Yeah that powdery brown stuff is probably diatoms, but I'd still treat with Furan 2 and give good flow since all diatoms do is smother the colony and prevent it from getting enough oxygen which can cause infections.

 

[JJ650]

Maybe you have some kind of critter eating your zoas?

I don't think this is predation. I have no asterina stars (thank you Harlequin shrimp) and have done the necessary dips for worms, etc.


I also have another colony in a different part of the tank succumbing to the same thing. I have caught this right away but still worries me that this is going from colony to colony in different areas of the tank!! These are established colonies. One has been in the tank since the day I could add coral. The other is roughly 8+ months in my tank and never an issue until this week. I should also note that these are both button polyps and not the larger palythoa types. I don't know if that would make a difference, but it is an observation.

This really has me perplexed!!

 

[BeanMachine]

I don't think this is predation. I have no asterina stars (thank you Harlequin shrimp) and have done the necessary dips for worms, etc.


I also have another colony in a different part of the tank succumbing to the same thing. I have caught this right away but still worries me that this is going from colony to colony in different areas of the tank!!

I'm not saying you have a pest, but dips do not kill eggs in general ie. eggs from Zoa Eating Nudis or Acropora Eating Flatworms.

 

[JJ650]

I'm not saying you have a pest, but dips do not kill eggs in general ie. eggs from Zoa Eating Nudis or Acropora Eating Flatworms.

I have checked. I see no adult versions of pest that could leave eggs. When I do a dip, the only things that come off are pods, the occasional bristle worm and small brittle stars.
So far, I have seen no evidence of these

I will continue to watch for spiders/worms and nudis just in case though.

 

[lviva003]

I don't think this is predation. I have no asterina stars (thank you Harlequin shrimp) and have done the necessary dips for worms, etc.


I also have another colony in a different part of the tank succumbing to the same thing. I have caught this right away but still worries me that this is going from colony to colony in different areas of the tank!! These are established colonies. One has been in the tank since the day I could add coral. The other is roughly 8+ months in my tank and never an issue until this week. I should also note that these are both button polyps and not the larger palythoa types. I don't know if that would make a difference, but it is an observation.

This really has me perplexed!!

my comment was removed by mods by suggesting a solution.. lol.. anyways... I also have bunch of zoas in my tank and from what I have seen if something like that happens they were being eaten by something.. is there anyway you can list your fish and inverts... if something try to wake up in the middle of the night when all the lights are and see if you noticed any unknown critters with a flashlight...

 

[JJ650]

my comment was removed by mods by suggesting a solution.. lol.. anyways... I also have bunch of zoas in my tank and from what I have seen if something like that happens they were being eaten by something.. is there anyway you can list your fish and inverts... if something try to wake up in the middle of the night when all the lights are and see if you noticed any unknown critters with a flashlight...

Inverts:
One peppermint shrimp
2 small female emerald crabs
Hermits that are part of cuc
Harlequin shrimp

Fish: 2 true percula clowns
One royal gramma
One exquisite fairy wrasse
One ruby dragonette

I am seeing more heads slough away. They look like they are just dislodging and floating off. The brown film is slowly covering more heads of the newly infected colony and that was after a furan-2 dip!

 

[JJ650]

So, I stayed up relatively late last night (3:30) to spy on the corals. Got a nice revealing flashlight (read: landing beacon) and I didn't see a thing. No worms, nudis or any other sort of predating critter. The most action I saw was a peppermint shrimp desperately trying to escape the light. SO, I am going to rule out predation.
The 2nd colony is now starting to shed heads. They are just popping off and floating away.

Furan-2 doesn't seem to have worked.

 

[TheDragonMoray]

Furan 2 takes multiple dips to work and even if you do them, it might be too late. When you dip try dipping in a clear container and shine a light through the side and see if any pods fall off. I've noticed pods tend to start munching on sick colonies and speeds up the death. It's possible the colony succumbed to fungus or even an internal bacteria infection. The little pods just help destroy it more. I keep a sixline or fourline now to eat the little buggers or atleast keep them in control.

By the way i use Coral RX Pro to dip and more than recommended dose.

 

[JJ650]

I didn't see many pods. A couple big ones. I have an exquisite wrasse and a ruby drangonette that munch on pods. I have done 4 dips of Furan. It doesn't seem to have phased whatever ailed my colonies. One of them is nearly gone completely and I don't have much hope of recovering. The other is still closed up but the polyps are not detaching like the other colony. The brown "stuff" covering the polyps is still there and not coming off with a light scrub using a soft brush.

About to give up on both colonies and pray I have no more issues.

 

[lhm nole]

I didn't see many pods. A couple big ones. I have an exquisite wrasse and a ruby drangonette that munch on pods. I have done 4 dips of Furan. It doesn't seem to have phased whatever ailed my colonies. One of them is nearly gone completely and I don't have much hope of recovering. The other is still closed up but the polyps are not detaching like the other colony. The brown "stuff" covering the polyps is still there and not coming off with a light scrub using a soft brush.

About to give up on both colonies and pray I have no more issues.

I have kept zoas for a decade and thats something I have yet to figure out I have had zoas melt away for no reasons or just detach after looking healthy days prior just all part of zoa keeping and have had friends who also very experienced have had the same thing happen..

 

[JJ650]

It's annoying. I have...or had... a nice colony of eagle eyes (nothing too fancy, but I liked them) and now I am afraid it is 100% mortality on them. Out of a few hundred heads, they are about 6 left. They all melted away or detached. So aggravating.

The other colony looks like it will suffer the same fate. Not sure which they were, but had nice fluorescent yellow tentacles and metallic green mouths. I am going to assume this one will be a complete die off as well.

 

[BeanMachine]

It's annoying. I have...or had... a nice colony of eagle eyes (nothing too fancy, but I liked them) and now I am afraid it is 100% mortality on them. Out of a few hundred heads, they are about 6 left. They all melted away or detached. So aggravating.

The other colony looks like it will suffer the same fate. Not sure which they were, but had nice fluorescent yellow tentacles and metallic green mouths. I am going to assume this one will be a complete die off as well.

I would frag off the healthy polyps and remount them.

 

[JJ650]

I would frag off the healthy polyps and remount them.

Unfortunately, there isn't a healthy polyp. All have the same symptoms and I have not been able to reverse.

 

[DaveRaz]

I have 5 or 6 zoa colonies. After a few months none of them looked good. One large 200+ colony closed for up for a week.

I removed all if them and dipped in lugols for 10 minutes. Some little tiny snails fell off the zoa's and a very small worm looking creature. Since the dip they are back to normal. The lugols iodine seems to have cured them. I was blaming my coral beauty for the longest.

Good luck.