WEIRD stuff came with Zoa colonies

[AkoAung]

I bought two zoa colonies the past two weeks. Here's the first one - it was dipped in coral RX and then quarantined in a nano by itself. today I dipped it again, and cleaned it for pests. That's when I encountered an orange thing growing between the polps, and yellow things wrapped around the polyps. they weren't wiggly when I pulled them out after dipping them in coral rx.:

Now the next one takes the CAKE. I got this colony and right when I opened the bag, it just smelled PUTRID. So I dipped it in a strong coral RX dip for over an hour, and began to look to clean it. When I pulled it out of the water, it just smelled BAD still, overpowering coral rx smell. when I turned it over, this is what I found:

brown hard thing wedged in the live rock. I used a plier to pull it out and it actually broke. inside was hollow. I took a pic of it but didn't realize it came out fuzzy. and yeah the smell. oh that smell! So I spent more than an hour dipping it, pulling out every single piece of that thingy. then diped it again. when I turned it over and looked at the zoa colony, I saw that there were a few small pieces that looks just like zoa polyps too. I crushed them with the plier and threw it out. dipped it in prazipro. then in RO water. then put it back into quarantine. now the problem is, after crushing that thing, the whole colony is giving off that putrid reek from that thing in my living room. and any of the containers that had that coral colony in it, stank like it. I took the buckets into the shower and washed them twice with dish soap and sponge. there was still a slight smell so I have left them in dish soap water to soak in.

oh man never seen anything like it. have you guys encountered it?

 

[degibson84]

the bottom one just looks like a sponge on the rock

 

[AkoAung]

the bottom one just looks like a sponge on the rock

do they STINK? that thing STINKS like MAJOR time. like really nasty putrid smell.

 

[Cowdogz]

Never smelled a dying sponge before, but sponges shouldn't be allowed to come in contact with air. If no one was aware that sponge was there, it probably contacted air every time it was transferred from a bag to a tank and vice-versa.

As to the yellow and orange things, my guess is they are sponges as well.

 

[AkoAung]

As to the yellow and orange things, my guess is they are sponges as well.

you know what I was thinking the red thing was a sponge. but the yellow things - they were growing like rings around the zoas.... so then I got... paranoid and pulled them out.

 

[x1C0DE1x]

The orange thing is a sponge, I have one just like it on one of my zoa rocks except its yellowish orange, and I assume your yellow one is a sponge also. A sponge can never be in contact with air because the air bubbles will get trapped in the tunnels of the sponges body and cause it to suffocate. They will probably die now, I had a sponge that the store didn't know about on another of my zoa rocks and it came in contact with air at the store and it disappeared several days later. The one that I currently have under my zoa rock is huge and is doing fine.

 

[A. Grandis]

Your zoanthids are attached to live rock.
All of the organisms are sponges (yellow, orange on the first pic, and the brownish on second pic)!
The smell isn't only from the sponges, but from all the other organisms within the rock that were dying in the whole process (shipping and dipping). The dipping methods are ONLY for plugs, not live rocks.
The smell will still be there for a while. You did a lot to the live rock and I would suggest to leave it alone in the quarantine for about 3 to 4 weeks before put it in the display tank.
Normally the zoas would be fine with the dips.

Grandis.

 

[AkoAung]

cool! that brown sponge's a bit nasty. it's got these hairs on it. lol.

 

[AkoAung]

Is there any suggestion for reducing the smell from that colony? (the one that came with brown sponge). It's in its own 5 gallon tank with a filter and sponge filter material in it. it just stinks sooooooooooooooo much.

 

[A. Grandis]

Basically what's happening is a cycle. Just wait, nothing to do, really.
Doing partial water changes will give you some relief on the smell, but will also retard the curing process to some extent.

Grandis.

 

[Cowdogz]

I'd try some carbon.

 

[x1C0DE1x]

The sponges that you have will probably not survive with it being in contact to the air. They could be dying off and cause the smell.

 

[AkoAung]

yeah I added some carbon to the filter last night and that helped. there was also a milky white film that covered the polyps. I brushed it off gently with an old tooth brush.

 

[aguila88psi]

that bottom brown smelly thing I believe is an animal, Lol, I forget what they are called but its a filter feeder, it probably died from shipment or the dipping process, I would frag it off the rock or even better frag the zoas off that rock, good luck

 

[AkoAung]

that bottom brown smelly thing I believe is an animal, Lol, I forget what they are called but its a filter feeder, it probably died from shipment or the dipping process, I would frag it off the rock or even better frag the zoas off that rock, good luck

the zoas are still closed from all teh shock of all the dippings lol. yeah I think fragging is probably the best option here as I'm quite suspicious of the rock now. the other colony didn't have any smell after cleaning off the sponges. I think I'll wait a week and see if the cloudy water or the film on the polyps clear up naturally before fragging them off. I wouldn't prefer to but may not have any choice. colonies grow best.

 

[A. Grandis]

After the rock is cycled the smell goes away.
You will be ending to loose some nice healthy zoas fragging them off the rock..
Not worthy.

Grandis.

 

[AkoAung]

New development

New development

so this is the white milky crud I was talking about. this pic was taken AFTER I had brushed off as much as I can. you can see some of the residues on the bottom. it is some sort of protein as it cloudied the little tank for a day or two and then cleared up. but this stuff remains on the polyps. I have put in a snail in there to see if it'll clean that up.
with flash

without flash

what is that crud?! WHAT do I do?

 

[lostintheocean]

were the sponges bothering anything? you may have caused more harm then good by scraping them off.

 

[A. Grandis]

Yep, I agree. You did bad scraping and doing all kinds of things.

I would say that the white stuff could be tissue deteriorating. Looks like the rotten flash or deteriorating process common in live rocks, normally by the sponges.
I'm not sure if only sponges in your case.
Perhaps the zoas were damaged and ow they are rotten.
That's what it looks like to me.

Grandis.

 

[AkoAung]

Zoas werent damaged when bought. Perfect colony. They r still closed. Someone thinks its zoa pox?