Zoanthids Melting - All other coral are fine - timelapse - need help!

[R_Mc]

All coral in my tank are fine with the exception of zoanthids - even some of the larger palythoa are only mildly irritated - vs the smaller zoas which have all but melted away.

LPS/SPS/Shrooms/Pipe Organ/Leather all fine

Can you spot anything in this video that might be irritating them? This is one plot of zoas - there are 7 others in the tank. Also this is the only patch with blue cloves so it's not that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os1ptRtwyEU&feature=youtu.be

Ammonia is zero, nitrates/phosphates are very low, salinity is 1.026, temp is 80, light has been stable. Problem exacerbated by the addition of ALA last week - but all other coral has recovered. Zoanthids were not doing well before that.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[reefwars]

Well one thing is for certain those asterina stars are munching on your zoas , as well between the cloves on a few polyps looks to be digitate hydroids. Both of these animals are zoanthid irritators

 

[R_Mc]

Thanks - I'll have to take a close look for those hydroids - wasn't aware. The areas have been in my tank forever though and I don't think they're a problem.

 

[R_Mc]

Larger palythoa are recovering but the smaller zoos seem to be having the hardest time (across my tank) - the bigger the polyp the less trouble.

Today the rastas in the video above are even worse - I've all but lost hope for them. Does anyone have emergency tricks which may work?

 

[650-IS350]

Those stars are having a fun time munching on your Z's and P's, manually remove every single one you see.

What's your pH and Alk?

 

[rbla51]

Well one thing is for certain those asterina stars are munching on your zoas , as well between the cloves on a few polyps looks to be digitate hydroids. Both of these animals are zoanthid irritators

this......those zoas have no chance

 

[R_Mc]

But I've had astreas forever - I think they're jus munching on the ZOA's because they're dying. Correlation but not necessarily causation.

 

[reefwars]

But I've had astreas forever - I think they're jus munching on the ZOA's because they're dying. Correlation but not necessarily causation.

Yes and they munch healthy ones to , this is fact may not be your cause but certainly isn't helping Either

 

[650-IS350]

Just because you don't see them munching on your healthy pieces doesn't necessarily mean they aren't when your not watching your tank or at night.

I'm sorry but if I see any star resembling an asterina, its being chucked into the trash.

 

[R_Mc]

Is this proven or is it anecdotal? I worry it's like the reports of peppermint shrimp or small hermits killing snails - they eat the dead snails, but they do not kill them.

 

[reefwars]

Is this proven or is it anecdotal? I worry it's like the reports of peppermint shrimp or small hermits killing snails - they eat the dead snails, but they do not kill them.

this is proven

in any case whether or not you have the small percentage that eat corals if you cant be sure that yours arnt then is the risk worth the benefit?

i dont see the huge benefit these would offer and most experienced zoanthid growers will tell you( like on this thread) that its best to pull them out

 

[jda]

I have thousands of asternias in my tank and they don't bother any of the coral. Please don't think that getting these out will help at all - it probably will not.

80 is too high. Get it down to 77. Some of the deeper water zoas (circular ones) will melt when up that high.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

What's happening with your Zoas? Looking at your time lapse ( which was cool BTW) it did not look like the Asrerinas. If it were me, I'd frag as many Zoas as I could and get them into another tank. Treat for infection. That's just me.
If you want to get rid of your asterinas, there are harlequin Shrimp and Speckled Linkia Starfish that will eat them.

 

[R_Mc]

Yeah I lost all my smaller zoas - no idea what happened... they're completely gone off the rocks now. Probably about $300 in damage

 

[Jone]

how long has this tank been running??
did you put a large amount of corals or live animals in your tank lately???

 

[R_Mc]

Tank has been running ~1.5 years. Zoas were slowly failing starting around 1.1 years. Added some ALA which essentially was like a mega carbon/sulfur dose. Zoas really did not like this. Basically replaced all the water and all coral bounced back. Zoas continued to have more trouble and as seen above melted away to nothing.

 

[nate12]

do a freshwater dip, use turkey blaster to blast off the film on the mouth of zoanthids. change like half of water in your tank. You might have a bacteria infection. those infection won't show up on the test.

 

[R_Mc]

Was in fact the asterinas... Specifically a variety with red dots

 

[reefwars]

Was in fact the asterinas... Specifically a variety with red dots

It sucks for sure man but I've seen them all to often do it , the way I see it is any animals population you can't control or behavior you can't monitor should be welcomed with caution or not at all.

While im sure asterinas are beneficial for some things a reef does do just fine without them and in cases like this better without.

 

[650-IS350]

people never believe till it happens to them or see it for them selves.