What is this on my zoas?

[gatordoc]

Just noticed these things on this colony. Took 2 polyps out last night and could not separate whatever this is from the polyps. Worried its a pest eating the zoa and taking on its color. But the zoas look to be not bothered at all???? Don't want to have this spread to some expensive colonies elsewhere in the tank.

Thanks

 

[mr chris]

can you get a better pic hard to see . thanks

 

[tjherman]

Flatworms?

 

[lReef_lKeeper]

flatworms was my first thought too

 

[phoenixstar89]

when in doubt, just siphon off the things and flush. whatever they are, I'm sure they're not beneficial for your zoos. I had a couple of hitchhiking nudis on a piece of orange zoos I just bought and I flushed them just to be on the safe side.

 

[gatordoc]

Update. I CAN NOT siphon these things. Its as if they have merged with the zoa. I did manage to grip one zoa with tweezers so it could not retract. I then scraped the zoa with an 11 blade and again didn't see anything but slime come off. So I removed the zoas with these things and did an iodine dip followed by FW dip for the colony. The Zoas are now in the sump. Should I risk putting them back in the display? or should I just throw them out (to prevent things from spreading)?

 

[flyyyguy]

dont think that putting them in the sump is protecting anything. Its the same water column.

I am kinda interested in what you have there if you really cant pull it off of the polyp. Whether it be a pest or disease/infection, its not anything I recognize from your pics

 

[Guygettnby]

+1 on moving them to the sump wont do anything for ya.

anyhow with that being said a better picture is defilently a must. but did you try to dip the zoas before you started cutting them up?

 

[gatordoc]

I cut up the zoas before I dipped them. Should I just sacrifice the colony?

 

[flyyyguy]

you can toss the colonyif you want, but Im not convinced you should have started cutting them up in the first place or necessarily done anything beyond a dip

Chances arent likely you have some stragne disease or pest that none of us have ever seen. To be sure, Im not saying it isnt possible., but the polyps didnt look to be in bad shape to begin with, and it may just be some kind of growth that doesnt in fact hurt anything. I have seen lots of odd growths. You never know

 

[luchie]

why not put the colony in a container with airstone before discarding. from there you can dose or bring to your lfs and see if they know what it is.