Zoas dying!

[ehsheridan110]

I got these Zoas on a large rock from my LFS about two weeks ago. I was very happy with them, they opened right away and have looked awesome since. I noticed a couple of utter Chaos palys that were getting overrun so I fragged them off and glued them on a second rock. Yesterday I noticed that many Zoas were closed up and unhappy and that a couple had some brown stuff on them. I assumed it was algae that was irritating them and brushed it off. Today even more polyps are closed and the brown stuff has returned! On top of that my star polyps have closed up. What could it be?

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[saltyfilmfolks]

ewww. thats weird. Id dip those zoas in some iodine or revive. not sure the gsp is realted prob.
tank looks new. on the gsp maybe a temperature or ph thing, but the gunk doesnt make sense.

#reefsquad. Zoas?

 

[melypr1985]

I've seen that before but I can't recall what it was. I'd definitely dip them though.

 

[Sabellafella]

It looks like the brown stuff that accumulates when the zoas melt. Yes dip in iodine

 

[bairdimusprime]

agree with both @Sabellafella and @melypr1985 iodine dip and monitor them

 

[ehsheridan110]

Thanks for the quick feedback, I'm going to get iodine now and will dip them today

 

[ehsheridan110]

And the tank is about four months old

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks for the quick feedback, I'm going to get iodine now and will dip them today

take a look at your No and Po too. the gsp thing is odd. in new tanks theres a lot of changes going on.

 

[kamakazian]

I had a similar issue. I dipped my colony everyday for about 3 days and then moved it into higher floor and light because they still wouldn't open up. They're slowly opening up and their colors are pretty full. Best of luck!

 

[ehsheridan110]

UPDATE: I just dipped the Zoas and the GSP. I didn't dip the big rock as it is difficult to get out and I want to see if the dip even helps before I disturb it. I found no trace of any critters after the dip and the brown "stuff" is gone for now.

 

[ehsheridan110]

take a look at your No and Po too. the gsp thing is odd. in new tanks theres a lot of changes going on.

My phosphate is at 0.25 and nitrate is 10 ppm. It is currently stocked with a clam, 5 hermits, turbo snails, red collared snails, frogspawn, Xenia, Gonipora, and a torch. The only change in the tank is a drop in ph from 8.3 to 8.0 over a week. I did a water change today, so I'll recheck parameters, my nitrate has consistently been ten, I just started gunning denitrate, carbon and gfo on Monday hopping to bring it down.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My phosphate is at 0.25 and nitrate is 10 ppm. It is currently stocked with a clam, 5 hermits, turbo snails, red collared snails, frogspawn, Xenia, Gonipora, and a torch. The only change in the tank is a drop in ph from 8.3 to 8.0 over a week. I did a water change today, so I'll recheck parameters, my nitrate has consistently been ten, I just started gunning denitrate, carbon and gfo on Monday hopping to bring it down.

yea Po is a bit high, but that should be a happy place for the zoas. that Ph change is nothing. Maybe possibly light. or just new tank tuff.

 

[Cary]

IMO sometimes zoas are just irritated and if you blow at their mouths with a turkey baster (should not have been used with any pest dips) you can coax them out. Sometimes it takes several trys, but it can't hurt anything.

 

[ehsheridan110]

IMO sometimes zoas are just irritated and if you blow at their mouths with a turkey baster (should not have been used with any pest dips) you can coax them out. Sometimes it takes several trys, but it can't hurt anything.

I have them in two different locations and I only dipped one rock, the other I blew off with a turkey baster so we will see if they come around!

 

[nwayne567]

Could be a bacterial infection when you fragged them. Happen to me before, I thought I was being sterile with all my equipment and zoas... but somehow it caught an infection..closed up and/ started to die off. Then the cleaner shrimp and copepods went to work on the zoas and the zoas disappeared.

 

[SandJ]

I may just be seeing sand on the zoas, but it kinda looks like zoas pox on some of them. It will cause them to close up.

 

[Darth George]

I agree with Sand, kind of looks like zoa pox. I recently had an outbreak and started dipping colonies in furan 2. Only about half survived.

 

[ehsheridan110]

Here is some more pictures, I don't see it, but I have never seen it before.

My smaller GSP opened up tonight by the big one is still closed up. I think the Zoas on the main rock look more open though. I dipped again in iodine today and blew off the ones on the rocks. What do you guys think?

 

[SandJ]

My daughter found it on her zoas. First some of them were closing up. On the stalk of the zoa, we could see white spots. The spots looked like very small grains of rice. The top of the zoa that was closed up looked white (so where the top of the zoa looks like a doughnut when you look down on it, the part around the mouth of the zoa was white).

 

[Tyler mikos]

this is a million dollar question...like most reef questions...but I would say its not algae. If it was the GSP would have as much "brown" on it as zoas. looks like zoas have a fungus/ bacteria. Different salts/ elements could not be agreeing with the zoas like the saltwater the LFS was using. I would try an iodine based dip, Lugols, seachem's dip...revive is pretty harsh. lightly blow the "brown" off the zoas while they're in the dip water. I doubt the LFS was dosing Vitamin C, but thats one thing I'm personally going to start dosing, I heard Vitamin C has great effects, the proper buffered vitamin C. and as always water changes with quality saltwater like Tropic Marin Reef helps me a lot.