Trouble with certain zoas

[J2T]

Ok, just gonna say I am a bit frustrated and at a loss. I'm not much with naming corals so I'll describe by colors ha. I have two separate colonies of the 'standard' green/red zoas that are doing great, both started from frags of maybe 10 heads and are now 50+ each now. No issues, they are growing great and have been in the tank for at least 4+ months.

Now my experience with other colors has been less than stellar. Three months ago I picked up some light purple colored zoas along with a single polyp of what were called X-men (purple with pink lashes). I was told they were deep water species so I placed them towards the bottom. The x-men polyp was removed from the plug and glued onto rock that was in the sand bed. The light purple frag was glued about midway up my rockwork.

Fast forward 2 months and the light purple had grown to about 15 heads then one day I notice that it seems a few heads are missing. Then it seems every couple of nights a head goes missing. I immediately suspect either my foxface or coral beauty though I have never seen either touch any corals in my tank. To be on the safe side I remove the plug and do a dip in Revive and then place it on the sandbed to watch it better. At this point there were about 3 heads left and they just seemed to slowly disintigrate and disappear

Meanwhile the x-men had multiplied to about 7 heads and was looking great. Then the other day I notice two of the heads partially closed, looked odd but I don't see anything on them. Yesterday all of them were closed up, this morning one is gone, looks almost like it melted away or something. Again to be on the safe side I pulled the rock out and did a dip and put it back in.

Completely frustrating as every other piece of coral is doing great: xenia, capping monti, frogspawn, torch, other zoas/palys. I have yet to see either the foxface or coral beauty touch any coral so I'm not sold that its one of them. I have repeatedly looked in the tank hours after lights out and have seen nothing on the zoas. Any ideas?

 

[J2T]

here is a pic to show what they look like at the moment

 

[rogersb]

Can you checkfor pests, there may be nudibranchs messing with them.

 

[J2T]

That was an initial thought I had but I haven't seen anything on them...at least nothing I could see with my eye..day or night.

 

[rogersb]

We moved in February or March and I have only done two water changes. I have an ATO that I have kalkwasser in but for a month or so I stopped and only used RO water. My alk and calcium went very low but did slowly. My tank has a decent amount of sps, lps, and zoas. Most lps/sps lost color and browned out but my zoas got very irritated and I lost a lot. not whole colonies but I had some meltage. I have since brought both back up and everything is great. I tell that long winded story to say - what's your alk and ca?

 

[J2T]

Honestly not sure as I haven't measured in a while, but I change out 10g every week or two. Would it makes sense that some zoas get hit while others do not? Also the fact that they seem to start growing but then eventually they go downhill.

 

[rogersb]

I have some zoas that the entire colony was effected and I lost half of them and other colonies did not even skip a beat. I certainly believe that some are just more sensitive, especially ones that may have fewer generations in your tank or in a tank in general.

 

[J2T]

So not sure what is going on, just went by the tank and took a look and one of the polyps was sort of torn and open. Inside it looked like white specs, couldn't really get any sort of decent picture. When I poked at the open 'wound' there was a grey substance that sort of oozed out, is this normal? I didn't see anything moving but I'm at a loss here.

edit: tried to get a pic, best I could do. You can sort of see the small white specs in the middle.

 

[Aqua firemedic]

Have you tried an iodine dip yet?

 

[J2T]

No, just did the dip in Revive today. I'll look into the iodine dip

 

[A. Grandis]

First thing to do is to remove the angel and the fox face from the system.
As far as I know the last picture shows what normally is done by predators, not infection of any sort.

Grandis.

 

[J2T]

My initial thought was either the angel or foxface but everything seems to go wrong/disappear after lights out. For example that damage above happened after lights out and this morning both that head and the one next to it are gone. The fox and the angel are tucked in behind the rocks after lights out and do not come out so I highly doubt its them.

 

[philmarine]

Hi,I wonder if this could be zoa spiders they burst out of the zoa feeding on the inside of the polyp.

 

[reefwars]

id look for zoa pox, id also do a h2o2 dip asap, followed by a dip in coral RX.....as mentioned remove the rabbitfish and angel


hth

 

[J2T]

Ok, so as kids do, seems my tank wants to make a liar out of me. Came home from work and more damage was done, there goes them always disappearing at night. I still don't really think its the angel or foxface because of the majority of damage at night.

Is it possible for a hermit to eat zoas? I have a mix of hermits in the tank.

Ok, what ratio of hydrogen peroxide to do? 50/50 with tank water? How long to dip?

 

[reefwars]

Ok, so as kids do, seems my tank wants to make a liar out of me. Came home from work and more damage was done, there goes them always disappearing at night. I still don't really think its the angel or foxface because of the majority of damage at night.

Is it possible for a hermit to eat zoas? I have a mix of hermits in the tank.

Ok, what ratio of hydrogen peroxide to do? 50/50 with tank water? How long to dip?

hermits are a def culprit and would be looking into that for sure..

do a 3:1 ration of tank water to h2o2

example: 3 cups of tank water and 1 cup of h2o2


provided its the 3% solution.

i would not dip for more than 2 mins if it was me i would be doing a 30sec - 1min bath.

i would rinse and follow with a 5 min soak in coral rx at the recommended dosage.


manually inspect and remove any unhealthy looking polyps(half melted)

 

[A. Grandis]

Check for bristle worms, amphipods, nudibranchs and snails at night.
You'll find if you be patient.
Good luck!

Grandis.

 

[J2T]

OK, I did a 45 second hydrogen peroxide dip followed by a rinse and then a dip in Revive for about 3 minutes. Didn't really see anything fall off other than the typical brittle stars and pods. After the h2o2 dip there was something moving around in the mixture but it was honestly too small to get any idea of what it was.

Now this morning there was some damage to another polyp. I did see my coral beauty hanging around that rock quite a bit this morning but never saw him nip at the polyps. But this makes me wonder if maybe its a tag team effort because of the overnight damage. Maybe a hermit and the coral beauty?

Either way incredibly frustrating as it seems its always the zoas that are not the norm that seem to get it.

 

[reefwars]

OK, I did a 45 second hydrogen peroxide dip followed by a rinse and then a dip in Revive for about 3 minutes. Didn't really see anything fall off other than the typical brittle stars and pods. After the h2o2 dip there was something moving around in the mixture but it was honestly too small to get any idea of what it was.

Now this morning there was some damage to another polyp. I did see my coral beauty hanging around that rock quite a bit this morning but never saw him nip at the polyps. But this makes me wonder if maybe its a tag team effort because of the overnight damage. Maybe a hermit and the coral beauty?

Either way incredibly frustrating as it seems its always the zoas that are not the norm that seem to get it.

put a strawberry basket or some other cover over the zoos if its the fish youll know within a couple days

 

[J2T]

assuming (hoping) I have one or more left when I get home, I'll give that a try.