Zoanthus Fungus

[fijizoos]

Just a quick question for you guys. Whats the salinity of your water? Some zoanthids come from low salinity areas where rivers empty into the ocean. A discussion with a few other reefers has led me to believe some of the zoanthids we keep suffer from "too high" of a salinity level and actually do better in water with a 1.022 or so salinity rather then full 1.025 salinity.

Just a thought and something to possibly help eradicate the plague...

Nagel...I keep my salinity at 1.025 to 1.026 and everything seems to be OK with my pieces. For some reason the pieces that are getting infected seem to be either bad before the vendor ships them or it's happening during shipping. Your making a very good point about the salinity being to high.

Just an update on the peroxide dip. I had a newer piece that I received a week ago show signs of the fungus so I gave it a bath last night. I cut down on the dip time to under 5 min and used my turkey baster to wash the piece and I think the zoos look much better then when I dipped for 15 min.

-J

 

[TippyToeX]

Amy has the ozone helped at all?

Not for the pinks. Dead sorry to say. So are my Jakarta. I am with you on that, will never order those again. FWIW, they were probably too stressed at that point for the oznoner to have helped.

Nagel- My salinity is at 1.025. Do you think maybe putting new zoos in QT with lower salinity (1.022) and slowly bringing it up is worth a try?

I think it was Matt I chatted with that is going to try UV next. I am thinking of doing the same with my next shipment. Or just try the short dip that fijizoos mentioned and give the ozoner one more go.

 

[melev]

I may be onto a solution for the loss of larger zoos, as pictured in my posts above. What I did was use my turkey baster to pull/suck off the 'cap' that had formed on the polyp where it seemed to shrivel up and harden. Below is a picture of what has occured with one polyp. I felt I had nothing to lose trying this method out, and it seems I may be onto a resolution.

Of course, today I went after about 10 polyps, much to their dismay, but I'm hoping that removing that dead cap will allow the polyp to reopen and form a new healthy head. Look at the new formation of the single polyp dead center, below. Part of the cap is still attached, basically flipped back:

 

[TippyToeX]

Marc, I hope you keep us updated on your "fat head" zoos. Best wishes that you have found a way to treat and help them recover.

 

[fijizoos]

Marc after some thought I think that's the affects of the new bulbs you you added a month or two ago.

After my dip on the piece that was affected it's showing signs of life. The fungus is gone but so are most of my polyps.

 

[clsund]

I just stumbled across this thread and I have experienced the same thing. What was really funny was that the frag was huge and healthy for months before I even started noticing anything. Then the diseased heads (which I didn't immediately recognize as such) started closing up and just slowly spread and eventually took the whole colony. (suggesting that it may not be the stress of shipping but something else).

I tried saving it by putting the frag in QT with high flow directed at it but that did not help. I think by then, it was too far gone for any help. You should have seen the hermits congregate on that piece and pick away.

I was speaking with an LFS employee who seemed pretty knowledgeable and has been in the industry for a few years and he guessed that it might have been a sponge. What he thought was that the sponge lived intermixed with the zoos, but when the zoos took off and covered up the entire rock, the sponges were in essence, suffocated and died, taking the zoo colony with it but contaminating the immediate area around the colony. Sounded like a very plausible explanation to me.

Any thoughts on this theory?

 

[clsund]

Actually, now that I think about it, this may explain some of the efficacy of the peroxide dip, which might more readily kill a sponge which "ingests" or takes in the peroxide but not harm a zoo.

 

[musicsmaker]

I'm tagging this thread. I have noticed some zoa's doing this in my tank the past few weeks. It seems like random polyps become infected and slowly die. Sometimes it starts at one side leaving the polyp half closed for a few days.

 

[fijizoos]

Actually, now that I think about it, this may explain some of the efficacy of the peroxide dip, which might more readily kill a sponge which "ingests" or takes in the peroxide but not harm a zoo.

WOW....we might be on to something here. Glad to see you joined the party.

 

[musicsmaker]

For what it's worth, a few of my zoanthid colonies have sponge growing between the polyps and have been that way for about a year. Strangely enough, those colonies have yet to be affected negatively. They're my best looking ones health wise.

 

[TippyToeX]

clsund- You wouldn't happen to have a picture of the zoanthids you lost while they were "infected" would you?

 

[clsund]

Amy, no I don't. I'm really bad about taking pics.

As for musicmaker's zoos, I think something that might be critical (and something that was definitely noticeable in my case) was that the zoos, when expanded, completely covered the rock. Not one little speck o rock could be seen. But that doesn't explain why some people had one colony die but another right next to it doesn't. Really puzzling.

 

[musicsmaker]

Something else worth taking exceptional note to are Nagel's comments. He says that some zoanthids live in water that has a lower specific gravity (like 1.022). I have heard this before in the "can't keep you pinks alive?" threads, and in threads relating to Solomon Island zoa's. Purely anecdotal, but if that's all we have to work with for now...

 

[TippyToeX]

I know with my next order I will put them in QT with a lower SG to see if that helps. Then slowly bring them up to my main tanks salinity (1.025).

I am just afraid that what ever this fungus/sponge/junk is, it has already developed in the dealers tank. The shipping and stress of that pushes it over the edge. By the time it arrives in our main tanks or QT it is a matter of treatment not prevention. Perhaps the lower SG decreases it's ability to mature or kills it all together?

 

[Dr.King]

I received a make-up order from Anthony at Aquadesignz this week due to losing over 1/2 of my last order. This time only one rock arrived looking bad. The next day it was fungusing on 1/3 of the polyps. I took a dental laboratory knife to the rock and cut out the diseased polyps. Then I completely seperated the healthy polyps from the rock by lifting the mat. In the areas where the fungus started there were black sponges that had died and decayed. After completely seperating the zoos mat I smashed the rock a found that the sponge was though out the rock. The zoo polyps that were seperated seem to be fine so far. I will keep you updated. I didn't have time to snap any pictures of the ordeal. I hope these zoos pull through.

 

[fijizoos]

I received a make-up order from Anthony at Aquadesignz this week due to losing over 1/2 of my last order. This time only one rock arrived looking bad. The next day it was fungusing on 1/3 of the polyps. I took a dental laboratory knife to the rock and cut out the diseased polyps. Then I completely seperated the healthy polyps from the rock by lifting the mat. In the areas where the fungus started there were black sponges that had died and decayed. After completely seperating the zoos mat I smashed the rock a found that the sponge was though out the rock. The zoo polyps that were seperated seem to be fine so far. I will keep you updated. I didn't have time to snap any pictures of the ordeal. I hope these zoos pull through.

Paige you sure that black stuff is sponge ? I think it's the bacteria. If you do a wash with the peroxide mix it will disappear almost instantly.

 

[DensityMan]

Lost all but ONE of those in the center during a two day span... too quick to be fungus/bacteria/stress-death that I've come to know and loathe... I have no clue what got them.

 

[TippyToeX]

Paige, how are those zoos doing?

Scott, that one zoo hanging on?

 

[clsund]

For what it's worth, a few of my zoanthid colonies have sponge growing between the polyps and have been that way for about a year. Strangely enough, those colonies have yet to be affected negatively. They're my best looking ones health wise.

How dense are your zoos in these colonies? At least for my colony, the zoos were really dense, covering the entire rock and were extremely healthy before suddenly dying.

 

[musicsmaker]

When the polyps open you can't see the sponge. When they close at night, you can see it in between the polyps.