Zoas help

[jaschall]

I have been having some of my zoas and palys losing there skirts then closing up and fading away. All of my parameters are in check, temp was a little on low side of 75 degrees. Working on bringing that back up. I've been inspecting my tank looking for pest and have noticed a few things. On one of my palys that had closed up had small*bump*on top of it inside. I got some twizers and grab it and it seemed hard so I then pulled it out. It is some what round and hard with a little light tan spot which is mostly white. I've also noticed pods at night on there stalks. And other thing I have found which after researching doesn't seem to effect zoas are what I believe are red planaria worms. I am posting a pic of it. The hard thing that came out of the*zoa*I could not get a good focus on it.*Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am losing zoas one head at a time which is driving me crazy.*

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Hello Jaschall, wow, can't believe no one replied to this, and sorry to hear of your infestation. I do concur, they appear to be red planaria. I have never had them but have helped others with eradicating them. They are indeed easy to prevent as well as to eradicate, but care and caution must be excercised in doing do. They can release toxins into your take upon dying so trying to kill hundreds or more, well, you must be careful.

Instead of writing a vey long and lenghty reply, and in hopes that this thread can and will help others both now and in the future, I want to share this link writing by Danial Leija entitled, " The Battle With Red Planaria Flatworms ". It states everything I would have writing. Also, do a search in this forum on others who have had them to gain a bit more info.

http://blog.aquanerd.com/2012/04/the-battle-with-red-planaria-flatworms.html

Good luck and please let us know the outcome.

MUCHO REEF

 

[jaschall]

Hey thanks for the response. So far what I have done is siphoned out as many as I could find with a air tube, then added a melanurus wrasse which seemed to be doing great for the first 10 days. It was almost where I could barely spot any. Then last mid week I started to notice a lot more again, alot of little tiny ones and a few bigger ones. So this weekend I picked up a spotted mandrin to see if that would help, also did a water change to siphon them out. These are all things my LFS has recommended instead of using a chemical. He also recommended the flat worm exit as a last resort as mentioned in the link you provided. I'm thinking about giving it few weeks with the fish and see how things go. I have some more photos of some flatworms I could post, a few of them seem to be darker in color.
Thanks again.

 

[jaschall]

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Hey thanks for the response. So far what I have done is siphoned out as many as I could find with a air tube, then added a melanurus wrasse which seemed to be doing great for the first 10 days. It was almost where I could barely spot any. Then last mid week I started to notice a lot more again, alot of little tiny ones and a few bigger ones. So this weekend I picked up a spotted mandrin to see if that would help, also did a water change to siphon them out. These are all things my LFS has recommended instead of using a chemical. He also recommended the flat worm exit as a last resort as mentioned in the link you provided. I'm thinking about giving it few weeks with the fish and see how things go. I have some more photos of some flatworms I could post, a few of them seem to be darker in color.
Thanks again.

You're welcome and good luck and stay proactive so you never get those dudes again.:thumbsup:


Mooch