white dots on zoanthids

[RLHam3]

Just noticed these white dots on some zoas. I adjusted my circulation pump recently and it moved a lot of sand so that would make since, but I adjusted it to not blow sand days ago. Could the sand still be stuck to the zoa days later? I'm guess what I'm asking is are these grains of sand or the beginning of zoa pox?

(Pics coming soon)

 

[leveldrummer]

Do the polyps seem to be bothered? usually zoa pox cause them to close and remain closed. If thats what it is, it should be easily cured if you can remove the rock and dip it.

 

[RLHam3]

Zoa number 1 (purple death)

 

[RLHam3]

Zoa number 2

 

[HVAC Guy]

Get a baster and try to blow it off. Otherwise Id pull and dip the zoas.

 

[Tschupe]

...

 

[RLHam3]

It doesn't seem to affect any zoa a as of yet. They all appear to be happy and open. The reason they are closed in the pic is because these we're taken right after feeding. Without them closing up around the food, I doubt I would have noticed the "spots " nearly as fast.

If worse comes to worse and it is The pox, is a simple iodide dip what you all are referring to?

 

[RLHam3]

So I assume that's what we were talking about so I went ahead and preformed a dip two days ago using seachemseachem reef dip on the two frags that were showing the "spots". It would appear that the dots are receding on the frags pictured above.

But now I'm beginning to see them on a third colony. I'm not entirely sure, but in fairly positive that the dots were not present when I preformed the dip. What is causing the presence/spread of this in my tank. Are there any preventative measures I can tAke or am I just going to have to point treat individual zoanthids and palys as symptoms occur?

 

[Elvis_B]

You should dip it to be on the safe side.

 

[ronhk]

How to dip it ? Use iodide ?

 

[ReefandClimb]

Just a thought, but are you 100% positive that they are all zoanthids and not palythoas? The pic where you tag the polyps as "purple Death" made me ask. I've seen purple death palys, but not purple death zoas. Where I'm going with this is that Palythoas, unlike zoanthids, are known to incorporate substrate material into their tissue. This can often look like grains of sand that won't blow off. Another indicator that they might be palys is their feeding response. Do they take meaty food and close up to eat? If so they are most likely Palythoas, and not zoanthids, and if they are palythoas and not zoanthids, then the "pox" is most likely nothing more than some sand grains that they have incorporated into their tissue.
Hope this helps
Bill

 

[jcdeng]

I have never see my palys incorporate substrate material into their tissue. Do you have a very healthy group of snails? they can be snail eggs. Or pox.

 

[ReefandClimb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpkHK1KffXY&list=UUGdAIpjFq4vygKzXAyDKKtQ&feature=share&index=2

This is the video that I got this information from. The information pertinent to our discussion here can be found beginning at the 3:00 mark and ending at around the 4:20 mark. If you want to skip to the goods, incorporation of substrate begins at 3:37 with very good images around the 3:50 mark, and ending around 4:04.
Hope this provokes thoughts and conversation

 

[fragbox]

very strange. want to say some sort of snail egg but very weird positioning

 

[RLHam3]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpkHK1KffXY&list=UUGdAIpjFq4vygKzXAyDKKtQ&feature=share&index=2

This is the video that I got this information from. The information pertinent to our discussion here can be found beginning at the 3:00 mark and ending at around the 4:20 mark. If you want to skip to the goods, incorporation of substrate begins at 3:37 with very good images around the 3:50 mark, and ending around 4:04.
Hope this provokes thoughts and conversation

Thank you for the very informative video. I think that this is exactly what my frags are exhibiting.

And you are correct that those are purple death palys in picture number 1. I'm a beginner reefer (obviously) and I thought that the term zoanthid included palys as well. It would appear that most of my true zoas are not exhibiting white dots. An it's entirely possible that even those that have the dots which I thought were zoanthids, are in fact pays as well.

 

[fai4238]

some kind of eggs ?

 

[ReefandClimb]

Excellent. I'm happy to have helped if it increased your knowledge base.

 

[Tschupe]

Just a thought, but are you 100% positive that they are all zoanthids and not palythoas? The pic where you tag the polyps as "purple Death" made me ask. I've seen purple death palys, but not purple death zoas. Where I'm going with this is that Palythoas, unlike zoanthids, are known to incorporate substrate material into their tissue. This can often look like grains of sand that won't blow off. Another indicator that they might be palys is their feeding response. Do they take meaty food and close up to eat? If so they are most likely Palythoas, and not zoanthids, and if they are palythoas and not zoanthids, then the "pox" is most likely nothing more than some sand grains that they have incorporated into their tissue.
Hope this helps
Bill

This has happened to some of mine as well. He's 100% correct