Zoanthid Fungus

[Senn]

Well one of the items I had purchased was a colony of Green & Blue Zoo's with at least 100 polyps on the rock. Well the colony developed a fungus and it basically took it over and also another colony I had of Brown/Pink ones. Needless to say after surgery and such there wasn't much left to even think of keeping so both colonies are gone. I have 2 more colonies left hopefully they will make it thru the night. I did a Lugol's dip on them, performed a massive water change and we shall see what happens. I should have taken pictures but the wife has the camera at work.
Here is a link to show what it does to Zoa's.
http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?mode=hybrid&t=13590

 

[Satori]

Sucks to hear. The link doesn't work though...

 

[Senn]

Linky do worky now.

 

[Satori]

I see it now. I hadn't heard of that problem, but I don't like it. I'm sure you've done some recent research; is there any kind of reactive or prophylactic treatment that will work? (that you've found)

 

[Senn]

From what I info I can interpret is that the fungus occurs during shipment I don't know if its due to stress or not. From there it just blooms and from reading the forums and sending a few emails out the only way to get rid of it is to catch it right at the get go. The main colony I had was approx. 7"x4" and when I got done doing surgery all that was left was a clump of about 20 polyps. IMO not worth the risk of keeping it. The other colony that was in my tank wasn't big at all but I'm not taking the risk so they ended up going as well and talk about a horrendous smell they just plain smelled awful.
I did a Lugols/Hydrogen peroxide dip for 5 mins. on my 2 other colonies and we shall see if it works. I'm just hoping it doesn't attack the Palythoas I also purchased.
Maybe Olin can piggyback onto this as he might know a a little bit more than me.

 

[olin]

Hey Chris, sorry to hear about the problems- I've had that in some of my new arrivals from time to time as well. Pinks, Protopalythoa and Palythoas all seem especially vulnerable. It does sound like you are doing everything right, the lugols and H2O2 dips can be pretty effective in treating this malady if caught early enough. It is generally considered to be a fungus, but I'm not entirely convinced. In terms of its rapidity of spread and general appearance under a scope, it seems more like a bacterial disease that takes up residence in the mucus, giving the fungus-like appearance. But, I could be totally wrong, I've just looked at a couple of infected tissue slices. I've seen most of the cells in the mucus, rather than directly on the coral tissue, so it may be that pathogenesis occurs from a secreted toxin. Adding some activated carbon to the tank could possibly help diminish toxin levels that could irritate your other corals and predispose them to infection. On some pretty far gone colonies I've had success using the antibiotic chloramphenicol, but it's not generally available due to rare but severe toxicity in some humans. Maracyn II has a lot of the same spectrum of activities, so it might be useful to try treating infected corals with this in a separate bucket for a couple of days. Increasing flow around infected palys has also helped a lot on its own. Colonies I have written off have completely rebounded. Hope that wasn't too long...good luck, and keep us posted, I'd be curious to hear how things are going.
Olin

 

[Senn]

I did up the flow and I added alot more carbon. Doesn't seem to be bothering the other corals at all except for maybe the Frogspawn. I'll see how things look in the morning. Worst case scenario is I have to QT with Maracyn II. Good thing I have some water mixed, a 10g tank, heater, and powerhead ready to go. All I know is when I got them home I did a Lugols dip on all the corals and the Zoa's had a real rotton smell to them and they were naturally closed up and I say within 24hrs. they had a WHITE substance over the top of them. Anyhow worst case scenario I have to break down the tank and start over.

 

[owsi]

I agree Olin, although it usualy looks like fungus, it seems like bacteria. I used to turkey baste and Iodine dip/cut with good results. Always trashed any that did not look good because it spread like wildfire. I always thought it was aggravated by the toxicity of the Zoa's, especialy since they were probably putting out more toxins due to stress. Peroixide is something I never thought of, I used that surgical soap in the green bottle (Physohex?) that I have not seen in a few years after they found out it was bad for you. It seemed to work also as a paint on infected areas and rinse off in a few minutes treatment, used it for Lympocysts also after surgury, but thats another story.

 

[Senn]

Well looks like I lost a brain as well, don't know if this is from the fungus/bacteria. Seems the Brain just sloughed off all its tissue. This is really starting to upset me. The real sad apart about this is that I called and stopped by the fish store to let them know and I got those proverbial words "It's your problem". Dam Dam Dam

 

[owsi]

which store and employee?

 

[Senn]

U got a PM owsi. I don't think it would be apropriate for me to mention names but if anyone wants the name feel free to PM me about it.

 

[Senn]

So far everything is looking good. Just watching a little colony of Zoo's. Did another dip on them today we'll see how it goes. So far the damage has been 2 Zoa clonies, 1 Brain, 3 water changes, and still running carbon.