Zoanthid eating nudibranch!

rvlcf

New member
I saw a small Aptasia anemone on the underside of a frag of Palythoa, forgot the name, and I took it out of my tank to cut it off the frag. I cut the Aptasia off and shook the frag in a small cup of tank water and put it back in the tank. I go to toss the cup of tank water a couple of minutes later and i see a Zoa eating Nudibranch cruising around the cup! The last addition to my tank, outside of Cheato, was frags from the farmers market in Stoors. I can't believe I didn't find it sooner. Hope it didn't lay eggs somewhere!
 
Ouch! hope its not too bad. i was at a buddys house after ffm and spotted nudis on some of the zoas he got too, i think they came in in some wild-types as eggs.
Check your zoas when they are closed at night under blue moonlight, the nudis will glow the same color as the zoas they are feeding off, use a pipet to suck them up andvromove it. They can't feed on palythoas, but they do lay eggs on them. Google image search for their eggs, and check the zoas while they are closed, if you see any use a scalpel or razor to remove the egg mass carefully.

Like mike said, flatworm exit will kill them, if possible dip the zoas in it, if hy are fixed then you can do the whole tank. Dose multiple times, so you are sure to kill off any babies that might have hatched from leftover eggs!
 
After reading a lot on these cool little pests, i am hesitant to dose the tank. I have a yellow corris wrasse in the tank and they apparently eat them. I also only have about 30 total heads of zoanthids in the tank. There are 4 small zoa colonies in total so they are pretty easy to inspect. I read that these nudibranch starve pretty quickly if they don't feed.
Is this a terrible idea or will daily inspection do the trick for now? I did a thorough search of my colonies and did not see any eggs or nudis.
 
After reading a lot on these cool little pests, i am hesitant to dose the tank. I have a yellow corris wrasse in the tank and they apparently eat them. I also only have about 30 total heads of zoanthids in the tank. There are 4 small zoa colonies in total so they are pretty easy to inspect. I read that these nudibranch starve pretty quickly if they don't feed.
Is this a terrible idea or will daily inspection do the trick for now? I did a thorough search of my colonies and did not see any eggs or nudis.

Not dosing the tank is a great idea IMO. You can also set up a bathing station outside your tank of dip. If you don't see anything coming off with the dipping, than I would move on. As your aware, they are easy to see, even the eggs with the spiral clutch pattern is pretty identifiable. GL
 
Have you seen anymore of these on your Zoas? Are your Zoas closing up and have white bumps? the reason I ask is because I don't beleive it was a Zoa eating Aeolid, It may be an aptasia eating berghia verrucicornis. These guys look very similar, and are often mistaken for eachother.
 
Having used that stuff to get rid of flatworms I can say avoid if possible . It does work well problem is it kills other things to like the hundreds of micro stars I used to have.
 
Picture of the culprit.
 

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I will do another inspection tonight and see what does or doesn't turn up.
Hopefully this is a one and done situation.
I did dip all my purchases from the FFM in Coral rx.
 
If you only have 4 small colonies then I would avoid dosing the whole tank, just pull them out and dip them a few times. If your sure there's no eggs then you should be safe but keep an eye on them. I found that dipping in FWE worked way better than Rx!
 
I've had them before. I just got a 10ml syringe and sucked them off of the zoas every time I saw one. Haven't seen another one.
 
Years ago I had them. I just dipped all my zoas in Lugol's and never saw them again. Like sloppy said, suck them out when you see them too.
 
I did a thorough exam of the zoa colonies and tank last night. I didn't find anything but i will be on the look out. What are the chances that was the only one?
 
I did a thorough exam of the zoa colonies and tank last night. I didn't find anything but i will be on the look out. What are the chances that was the only one?

Slim, since the most likely way you got them was eggs on a frag and they hatched. Maybe some fish ate a few but I bet you had several at one point.
 
^Agreed. Just keep an eye on them. If you have a spare 10 gallon, I would quarantine these guys. Just bare bottom and powerhead. This way you can starve your DT and have a better chance of spotting them in a bare bottom.
 
^Agreed. Just keep an eye on them. If you have a spare 10 gallon, I would quarantine these guys. Just bare bottom and powerhead. This way you can starve your DT and have a better chance of spotting them in a bare bottom.

Very good idea, and not hard to set up since they are just zoas. Most likely, you'll end up wanting to keep it set up as a new nano tank lol
 
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