White bumps on Zoa!

[saltnewb]

I think they're diseased! Not sure what to do. So far it looks like it's only on one colony.

 

[Triggreef]

#zoaexperts

If it were a better pic it would help, but based solely on your description could be zoapox. Furan-2 multiple dips is claimed to work. There is a ton of info if you google zoa pox, maybe you can find some better pics to compare with yourself. Good luck.

 

[saltnewb]

I checked the link in Sistawolf's "See anything?" Thread and it does look like zoa pox. The cure/treatment is in there too. Oh man. Here we go.

 

[saltnewb]

Okay here are some better pics of the bumps.

Any help on treatment would be appreciated, as well as letting me know if this is a venture I should pursue (treating the Zoa Pox, if that's what it is) or if this mini colony is lost, and if the whole tank will need to be treated.

Thanks!

 

[Sir Pat]

Zoa Pox can be very hit or miss on treatment. I believe the main reason is the pox stress the polyps out a ton, and the dip treatment is just doubling the stress, but left unattempted/untreated, it can spread fairly quickly many times so-

I recommend Furan-2 for zoa pox/fungus. How I do it-

Disolve one pill in one cup of freshly made saltwater. Dip for 15-20 minutes. Rinse in unmedicated saltwater and add back to the tank. Do this dip once a day, for 3 consecutive days. Give your polyps a 5-7 day resting period before doing it again if the pox persists after the first round of dipping.

Good luck! The treatment should work well as long as the polyps can handle the stress of the situation and treatment.

 

[Sir Pat]

If you have a magnifying glass, before diagnosing and treating zoa pox, try to put polyps in a shallow container, fully covered with tank water. Wear safety glasses/goggles, just in case any squirt action occurs. Make sure the "pox" are not just large sand particles taken into the polyps tissue, as Palythoa will take sometimes large pieces of substrate in that can be confused with pox.

Pic quality makes it difficult to know for sure, without the magnifying glass- but looks like pox to me. Does not look too late to treat. I don't recommend treating unaffected polyps till necessary.

 

[saltnewb]

Thanks for the help and what you do. I still need to get some Furan 2, but it'll be this week. So far it doesn't seem to bother them right now as they still open and stay open daily. I will start by examining closer as suggested. When you say to not dip unaffected polyps you're not referring to the ones on the same frag correct? Just the other frags in the tank?

 

[ahiggins]

if its only a few bumps, as it seems to be.
Ive had great success with taking a razor and cutting the bump open to squeeze out the white stuff. Get it all out. Then triple rinse in tank water before you put it back into the tank. I do all of this over my sink so I can see it better (ie out of the tank)
It does look like pox to me.
Get ahead of it now and it will be fairly easy to beat.

 

[saltnewb]

i like the idea of cutting the bumps out, like squeezing a pimple, but i don't trust my steady hand to not cut too deep or something and screw it up. just ordered the furan 2 and will start when it gets here.

 

[ahiggins]

I can see how you would think but its super easy and furan will work better if the inside of the pox is exposed anyway.
If youre looking at pox...just assume youre going to lose roughly half of whatever you have. You can catch it early and cut away some of pox/infected palys but that just my experience.

 

[saltnewb]

i'll get out my scalpel and cut away. thanks for letting me know it isn't too difficult. i'll post some pre/post pictures.

 

[ahiggins]

No problem you don't need much force, the skin covering the bump is extremely thin. You'll know when you've cut it because the white stuff will start seeping out or at least get on your scalpel.

 

[saltnewb]

So I got my Furan 2 in the mail today and I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to screw this up. So the Furan 2 I got came in packets, not pills. One packet for every 10 gallons of water. Should I set up a 10 gallon tank or poor it on a mirror and cut it up like a crack head?

 

[saltnewb]

Finally started day 1 of zoa pox treatment. I used my trusty scalpel to pop the little pimples and clean them out, then dipped in one cup fresh saltwater with one packet of Furan 2 for 15 minutes. After that I dipped them in a clean cup of fresh saltwater and back in the tank.

So I do this right, it's now just the Furan 2 dip 15-20 minutes each day for 6 more days correct?

 

[saltnewb]

treatment completed a couple days ago and all seems well. only two out of the four frags seemed to of had the pox prior to treatment, so I only treated those two. Not sure if I should have treated everything or not, but time will reveal it, I'm sure. I did the scapel thing and thankfully they didn't squirt out nastiness all over the place, but the white spots are gone now. keeping an eye on them for sure though.