Zoanthid fungus?

[Bill Nye]

Hello everyone

I have had this frag of zoa's for about 2 weeks (maybe a little longer). I picked them up at a local store and had seen them about 2 weeks before I bought them so I am guessing they had been cut for a while before I got them. I had dipped them in 1 cup of tank water and 2 drops of Lugols about 4 days ago. This particular polyp has been looking a little strange for about 4 or 5 days but today it looked the worst and some of the polyps around it did not open for the first time today.

Here are my Params
Temp - 77 - 78 degrees
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate - undetectable
Salinity - 1.025
Calc - 400 ish
Alk - 10
Mag - 1250

I have a 5.5 g tank with a 70 watt MH hung about 8 inches above the water line. For flow I have a koralia nano and an ac 70 mod running chaeto. Ok now for a picture. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[650-IS350]

Did you acclimate it properly to the lighting that you have?

 

[Bill Nye]

Did you acclimate it properly to the lighting that you have?

I think so. I am just getting to a 7 hour light period now. I went up slowly from about 4 hours to now at 7. Before today all the polyps were open and as you can see the polyps not near that one are also open.

edit

At the store these were under 400 watt MH. The way they have their frag tank set up the frags are only about 4 inches under the water.

 

[Bill Nye]

I have furan 2 should I attempt to dip them in this? Other people on NR said they have the same thing happen to them and their zoa's die one by one in a similar fashion but dont know whats doing it. This is quite depressing haha.

 

[650-IS350]

If you don't have signs of Pox or extreme fungus, then no point of stressing them out with the treatment.

I mean where are these located in the tank? high up in the rock work, directly blasted under the MH's ????? etc etc.

 

[Bill Nye]

If you don't have signs of Pox or extreme fungus, then no point of stressing them out with the treatment.

I mean where are these located in the tank? high up in the rock work, directly blasted under the MH's ????? etc etc.

They are on the sand bed. The tank is 10 inches deep. I have about a half inch sand bed and the water is about a half inch below the rim. So id estimate they are ~9 inches from the water surface and 17 inches from the light.

 

[650-IS350]

Try moving the towards the sides of the tank or slightly away from the direct shot of the MH. but still receiving good flow.

 

[Bill Nye]

Right now they are pretty much in the front right corner of the tank. With the size of this tank the options are limited as to how far I can remove them from the light. I could place them in a cave and have them not receive any direct light. I have two other small colonies of zoas..one being directly on the sand bed under the MH and it is open and healthy.

Do you think that 1 polyp would degrade like that from too much light? Wouldnt more polyps be affected?

 

[Petar]

It's always starting with 1 or 2 polyps,and it is going worse and worse...

 

[scapes]

if it's getting worse and worse, you need to act now. the same thing happened to me, i got some pretty pinks from a vendor online, immediately they did that. i asked rc, didn't get much of a response. did some dips, didn't work. ended up fragging a good size down to a few polyps. after about 2 years now, they are beautiful. if they were mine, i'd take them out now and frag off the good parts and discard the infected ones.

 

[Bill Nye]

if it's getting worse and worse, you need to act now. the same thing happened to me, i got some pretty pinks from a vendor online, immediately they did that. i asked rc, didn't get much of a response. did some dips, didn't work. ended up fragging a good size down to a few polyps. after about 2 years now, they are beautiful. if they were mine, i'd take them out now and frag off the good parts and discard the infected ones.

Ok I was gone all tonight tommorow Im going to frag all the surrounding polyps that arent opening off. Only problem with that is the substrate its on. Its a dead coral skeleton I believe so there are deep ridges the zoas are growing in. Is there a best way to frag a zoa i have no experience doing this.

 

[Petar]

on you tube you have many video regarding that matter,good luck !

 

[Bill Nye]

if it's getting worse and worse, you need to act now. the same thing happened to me, i got some pretty pinks from a vendor online, immediately they did that. i asked rc, didn't get much of a response. did some dips, didn't work. ended up fragging a good size down to a few polyps. after about 2 years now, they are beautiful. if they were mine, i'd take them out now and frag off the good parts and discard the infected ones.

Ok well earlier tonight I fragged off the polyps that looked suspect and some healthy ones as well unfortunately. The coral skeleton these polyps have grown on/in is possibly the worst substrate to attempt your first zoa frag on. Many of the "connections" between polyp heads were hidden deep in the crevices so I had to scrape a few heads clean off. Two of the heads I was forced to remove left some flesh on the coral skeleton after looking at them again in the tank so I may have to go back in and clean it up tomorrow.

Do you know if this type of thing is contagious to the other colonies in my tank? I have two other separate colonies right now and would hate for them to be affected as well.