Zoa Irritation - what is it?

Tamarae

Tamarae

New member
This fuzzy greenish brown stuff has been on the top of the zoa frag since I got it a couple of weeks ago. Any idea what it is? Its been dipped twice in Coral Rx. Noticed that it normally almost always has opened most of its polyps but today its only got about half. Thought yesterday maybe it didn't like the new flow pattern so I moved it out of the higher stream this morning. Thanks for any ideas.


DSCN0989 by nometank, on Flickr
 
I would think That's algae. If so, you can dip in a hydrogen peroxide solution:
20% Hydrogen peroxide to 80% tap water mix for a minute should do it.
Make sure they are closed when doing the dip and return them to the same spot or lower in the tank.
No need to scrape off the algae. If it comes off easily you should remove it.
Leave them alone after that, in the system, until they open.

If you feel a rotten smell when you remove them from the water it's probably a bacterial infection.
You could choose to remove the rotten polyps first and treat the plug.
Treat then with Lugol's: 8 - 10 oz of tank water and 3 - 5 drops of Lugol's solution for a minute or 2.

If there are both, algae and bacterial infection, I would use the first treatment (hydrogen peroxide) after removing the rotten polyps.

I believe it's only algae though.
Good luck!

Grandis.
 
Ok, this afternoon I dipped as directed with 20% hydrogen peroxide and 80% water for 1 minute. Rinsed briefly and then used a cotton swab to gently remove part of the brownish green gunk. I'm pretty sure now that it is algae and I hope to see the very angry Zoas open up soon - its one of my favorite because I haven't yet exactly figured out what color they are.. hehe

More to come soon!
 
Quick update - no luck with the zoas yet. They still have yet to reopen after their treatment. Some of them have melted away or disappeared. I'm hoping for at least a few polyps to survive, I really liked them. Maybe tomorrow they will go ahead and open up.
 
Some of the zoas are sensitive to the hydrogen peroxide. That's why I suggested only 20% of it instead what others normally used to tell (50%+). I would just leave them alone for now and wait without moving them around too much. They will need some time to recover, I guess.
Just make sure other things aren't bothering them and water chemistry/lighting are fine...
Grandis.
 
I've been keeping a close eye on the chemistry and the other zoas are happy and even multiplying already! Not something I expected to see this soon. Every morning I wake up hoping to see my little injured ones wake up again, but as I remember they were more sensitive than my eagle eyes when I brought them home from the LFS and took longer to initially open. Haven't touched them. Hope to see their little colored faces soon! I'll keep ya posted.
 
They still haven't opened. I cleaned some of the gunk off again today with a cotton swab and the green stuff actually started to flake off. Maybe they'll be happier now and open soon. It still doesn't smell like rot or death, just like reef tank.

 
The rocks look so new.
Perhaps the system is way too new for the polyps and they are having a hard time with the algae cycle.

Grandis.
 
It's just that one rock, that is the one I had to remove a eunicid worm from a bit ago so it got scrubbed a bit. All the other corals and fish are great.
 
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