Zoa Questions?

[Guygettnby]

i bought some frags about a week ago and i found a little critter on 1 of the frags. honestly it looked like a spider and moved very slow. it was too smalll to take a picture that would have come out.

second, 1 of the frags has not opened up yet. when i bought it at least 1 poylp was open out of 10 and now not even that 1 poylp has opened since i put it in my tank. normally all the frags i buy open up after like the 3rd day and im afraid i may loose these.

i will try to take some pictures tonight so i can show you what it looks like. but they are baby blues and the head doesnt look like there is even a slit in it.

thanks for your answer in advance.

 

[Indermark]

The critter could be a zoanthid eating spider. Zoaid.com has pictures of them. I've had zoanthids take 4 days until they reopened. I've had some open right away. Make sure your not blasting them with too much light or current.

 

[flyyyguy]

you probably didnt see it from this angle........if it looked like a spider.......it was a spider......

qt, inspect and dip...dont put in your display until you knwo you are clean....

 

[Guygettnby]

that could be a problem. i have them pretty close to 1 of my power heads. hmm, i guess i can try moving them to see if that helps.

all the other zoas around it though are doing fine with just as much current and lighting. so im kinda confused about that. thanks for the quick response!

 

[Guygettnby]

thats not it, this was black and very skinny. i wish i took some pictures of it to show you. i am going to go look around that site and see if i can find a pic of it.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Ewwwwwww!!! Now I'm gonna have nightmares of giant, zoa-eating spiders! Did you have to make it so BIG???

 

[flyyyguy]

It was really almost that big......it was amazing, it was about 1" across..........

 

[SSalty]

I had the same problem.

 

[Guygettnby]

well i waited and they actualy seem to be shrinking up and not opening at all. they are just getting smaller. i tried moving them away from the flow and light some to see if that helps but its not looking too good for them. some of the star poylps i got the same day have also not opened up since i bought them.

finally got some pictures of them and will be posting them when i get off of work today.

 

[Guygettnby]

well here are some pictures sorry it took me so long to upload them...they also arent the best pictures, but i cant get my camera to take good pictures thru my tank.





these are just some quick pics of the other zoa frags i picked up.



excuse my clown, he wouldnt move outa the way for the picture. he is photogenic.

 

[Guygettnby]

oh yea and i am still having an algea problem if you can notice it in the pictures. trying my hardest to get rid of it again. it goes away for about a week then comes back stronger then before.

 

[theROYSKIE]

what type of algae?
micro or cyno?
is your tank located near any windows or exposed to natural sunlight while your lights are off? if so that can be a contributor.
if u dont have any macro algae in your tank i highly recommend some.
calurpa is a cheap and heardy choice i have a bunch in a 60 gal reef and i scrape the glass probably once a week, it competes for the same light and nutrients the micro needs and as long as your water quality is good u wont be able to prune it fast enough! even with a big tang i prune it about once every couple weeks. i also have a big abalone that acts as the in house maid

 

[theROYSKIE]

holy crap SSALTY! those spider dealies r scary
does anyone know if they react to freshwater like flatworms or other parasites?
i have quite a bit of zoo's and always do a freshwater dip before putting them in quarintine. hopefully
those "spiders" arent to tough
and is there any other way other then manual removal to get rid of them?

 

[Guygettnby]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11960692#post11960692 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by theROYSKIE
what type of algae?
micro or cyno?
is your tank located near any windows or exposed to natural sunlight while your lights are off? if so that can be a contributor.
if u dont have any macro algae in your tank i highly recommend some.
calurpa is a cheap and heardy choice i have a bunch in a 60 gal reef and i scrape the glass probably once a week, it competes for the same light and nutrients the micro needs and as long as your water quality is good u wont be able to prune it fast enough! even with a big tang i prune it about once every couple weeks. i also have a big abalone that acts as the in house maid

cyano is the biggest problem right now. red slime, but i also am getting some green and brown algea that forms pretty fast. my nitrates were outa whack and i am fighting to get them back down. i get no sun light at all on my tank and every time i put macro algea in my tank it dies off???

 

[theROYSKIE]

hmm
thats a bummer. the reason that the macro algae dies off could be that your nitrates were high. macro algae in a sense can be used as the canary in the coal mine. if the algae is not growing, wilting, or in your case dying off it is most likely reacting to adverse water conditions. once u get your nitrates back down and all other levels r ok try some macro algae again and see if that was the prob.

or if u have a tang, or in my own expierence, some crustaceans including mithrax crabs and nimble crabs( sally lite foot) will sometimes eat macro algae

and a big help for controlling cyano bacteria depending on if it is red or green is a powder that i believe "red sea" offers. i dont know the exact name but will go find out exactly what it is and get back to you

good luck on the water parameters
if u dont mind me asking what were the nitrates at?

-royskie

 

[theROYSKIE]

it is called "red slime remover" and is not produced by red sea. i used this product in a nano cube reef for the treatment of both red and green cyano and it got rid of both. i believe i had high nitrate levels in the nano which caused the cyano bloom

in my expierence with marine systems i have found that cyano bacteria usually appears or goes hand in hand with adverse water parameters such as nitrates. so hopefully when u get everything under control the cyano will disapate and eventually disappear. but if u still have a cyano problem this "red slime remover" may help.

i think it comes with directions 4 dosage but this is what worked best for me. try to siphon out as much off the rocks and glass before the first treatment. dose the system with the first dose and after 24 hours do a water change, 8-10%, and redose. 48 hrs after second dose perform another water change and redose. then 48 hours after third does perform another water change and hopefully all the cyano bacteria is gone

good luck!

-royskie

 

[flyyyguy]

dont use red slime remover.

fix the problem

siphon out what you can, evaluate your feeding and stocking habits and how well your system is set up to get organics suspended and to yoru skimmer, as well as evalutate your flow and eliminate dead spots in the tank.

cyano doesnt need a miracle potion. it needs fixed at the source as putting a bandaid on it isnt helping your system one bit

jmo

 

[theROYSKIE]

yes with that i agree, in my last post i offered the remover as a last option after water parameters and other problems fixed. the natural way is always better then chemicals. however in my experience sometimes even when everything has been corrected naturally, the cyano can still linger after it gets its foot in the door.