Zoanthus Fungus

Musicsmaker- What does the sponge look like (color, flat or more "puffy")? I have a a frag of zoos that are doing well and have a sponge growing in between the polyps much like what you are describing.
 
Well my pinks appear to be pulling though OK. I have 3 frags of pink zoos with 10-15 polyps each that look healthy. The original rock was arrowhead sized and shaped and had 100+ polyps, I'm just glad some lived.
 
I will take some pictures of my sponge as well.

Glad to hear the pinks are holding thier own. :thumbsup:
 
clsund said:
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?
Click to expand...

I also have this sponge type growth between a very large colony of Zo's in my tank. I put them in my tank back in December and they have spread very well. In the last month I have noticed this white, sponge type growth develop which is only noticeable when the polyps are closed. :confused:
 
Yes, and in essence, that is the theory, that somehow, whether through being deprived circulation or something else, it is these sponges which die and take the surrounding zoos with them when they die. Kind of like creeping necrosis but with two different organisms.
 
clsund said:
Yes, and in essence, that is the theory, that somehow, whether through being deprived circulation or something else, it is these sponges which die and take the surrounding zoos with them when they die. Kind of like creeping necrosis but with two different organisms.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, well this colony is attached to 1/2 a clam shell and is sitting on my sandbed so I would say that it is definitely an area of low flow. :(
 
though in the wild there are a number of zoanthid sp that live only with/on Sponges. The sponge is theorized to actually help feed the zoanthids by incresing local current around the polyps. While I think it is possible for sponges to smother zoanthids I don't think their mysterious passing would inspire the zoanthids to jump ship in a well-balanced water-column. Temp I can see, parasites, not enough light, bad water, etc... but pinning the 'fungus' on sponges just seems out there, IMO.

We're all just guessing here anyway, of course, but isn't it more likely that the 'fungus' is just the end-stage death of zoanthids by any number of reasons? It doesn't spread to all zoanthids and while it has cascaded through many (mine included) I think that much of that can be blamed on falling water quality from the first colony dying, thereby weakening another colony that catches the infection from the already weakened/dying colony that brought in the bacteria to begin with...

So after talking in this circle, sponges smothering a colony to death could cause a flare-up of the bacteria-death-fungus-plague... but so could any number of other stimuli...


(just keeping the topic alive... though my weakened colony of the week was triggered by an aiptasia I failed to find before it stung the zoanthids to puffy-death) *sigh*
 
Great discussion. I'm 'suffering' through this now also, though I've seen it before a few times. Currently I'm losing some blue zo's, yellow zo's and pink palythoa, all from the same recent shipment. Many other ones in the same shipment are doing great so far though. I haven't really tried anything but good water flow and aquarium care.
 
DensityMan said:
though in the wild there are a number of zoanthid sp that live only with/on Sponges. The sponge is theorized to actually help feed the zoanthids by incresing local current around the polyps. While I think it is possible for sponges to smother zoanthids I don't think their mysterious passing would inspire the zoanthids to jump ship in a well-balanced water-column. Temp I can see, parasites, not enough light, bad water, etc... but pinning the 'fungus' on sponges just seems out there, IMO.
Click to expand...

Densityman, I'm not sure what kind of background you have (scientific or otherwise), but based upon what do you say that the theory is "out there"? Many scientific laws that we have now were once just theories that sounded "out there" when first postulated. Not trying to start a flame war but just thought I'd point that out, especially since we really have no clue as to why this fungus starts in the first place.

As for some zoos dying and others not, I actually see that as some possible indication that the theory is valid. The sponges may not inhabit the entire colony. If it doesn't inhabit the entire colony, then when the sponge dies, it will take the zoos in the immediate surrounding area but the death zone's reach is only as extensive as the area where the sponge existed.

You also mentioned that the cascading effect of bad water quality as colonies die. Wouldn't that affect resident sponges? If one small part of the sponge starts dying and the result is poorer water quality, if it could kill zoos, might it not kill the rest of the sponge?

I understand that some sponges do live in some sort of symbiotic relationship with the zoos, but that doesn't mean that all zoos live in such a relationship and not all sponges do this. You would have to get the right species of sponge with the right species of zoos for this kind of relationship to work and since we intermix all different sorts, who know what will be the result?

Here's a question to further the discussion: how many of the zoos that you've had die were of the matting-kind? By matting, I mean not the zoos that had the long stalks but spread over an entire area like a mat rather than with more stringy extensions. Hope that's clear.
 
I have also been having a problem with my zoanthids. After introducing a new colony of pink's something quickly killed them and is now working on killing a few of my other zoanthids. Right now its killing my reds. Here is a before and after picture.

Before The Fungus:

http://webpages.charter.net/mriffenburg/DSC01293 (Medium).JPG

After The Fungus:

http://webpages.charter.net/mriffenburg/DSC01328 (Medium).JPG

I decided to try and cut off the dead polyps and a few of the living ones around them. This is what I ended up with, an ugly rock with more dead polyps:

http://webpages.charter.net/mriffenburg/DSC01398 (Medium).JPG

I cant figure out how to get rid of it....
 
I've had some nice yellow zoos that just closed up and melted away. I was not sure why till I came aross this. Have a small rock of pinks as well and I can write them off. Just closed up and melting. Have tried dipping, FW bath, iodine dip, nothing. The others zoos are all doing fine and growing as normal. No fungus as I can see, not sure.
 
I too had a nice little grouping that shut down and has wasted away. It was probably stung by blue mushrooms that have since taken control of that zone. I used a turkey baster to clean off the zoos, and in doing so it just blew the small closed polyps right off the rock!

Those reds were gorgeous, Eric. Sorry to see that type of loss. :(
 
Me too. That was a nice piece. My most recent loss was a rock that I actually grew in my tank. Started as a frag and spread to a baseball sized rock. Then one day they just melted. I don't think it was fungus this time though.

Have any of you noticed hyroids in your tanks?
 
I do have some digitate hydroids in my tank, but nowhere near these melted zoos. I've seen them come out of my zoo colonies and blow in the current, and the zoos are absolutely unaffected.
 
Marc, what do the hydroids look like? I've seen blurry pics but have no idea what they might look like in my tank. Could you describe them or provide a pic? That would be a big help. I've seen what looks like antennae sticking out of some live rock and moving with the current, but I'm not sure if they are just the antennae of mYsid shrimp or something else.
 
The hydroids in my tank look like tiny little aiptasia anemones. They stay very small and live in colonies.
 
Thanks Marc. From the looks of it, that's not what I have. Musicmaker, you have any pics of yours?
 
Has everyone with this fungus had recent shipments of zoos come in? I have this going on with two of my three of my oldest and largest colonies in my tank right now.

All started after I got a rock that melted away from a cali vendor. I can't pin it on that one instance though since I had other changes in my tank. I also at that time added a larger skimmer than the one I was currently using. Which could have led to less nutrients and starved the zoos. (But why not all the zoos or inhabitants?)

I also did notice that the white sponge that was intermingled with a large zoo rock for the longest time was completely
gone and nothing left but declining zoos. But the other two large colonies affected did not have the same sponge.

I'm just hoping that it will stabilize and go away since there are a lot more zoos in my tank. There is some healthy tissue from the ones that died and some of the polyps still extend. Hopefully they will recover.

And the colonies affected are actually intermingled with other zoos on mixed rocks with only specific morphs showing decay.

Oh well.......
 
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