Coral wars...

[Ed Hahn]

I have to admit. I am back to square one. Bob Fenner explained to me my Palytoas and Zoanthids are over taking my SPS tank. I had no idea Palys and Zoos did that much damage.
So I am hear asking. Is there a method of extracting palytoas and Zoathids without more disruption of my SPS tank?

Thanks in advance,
Ed

 

[Pentagona]

They can be removed by taking a razor blade or sharp scraper and gently working it underneath the foot of each polyp in order to free the mat up to be removed. What a bummer! I recently removed all of my Zoos and palys from my reef for the same reason, and the difference was almost immediate. It's a time consuming and tedious process, but it can be done I was lucky in that I had all of my zoanthids attached to two very large pieces of rock in the corner of my 240 without any other corals on the rocks. made for very easy removal from them. The described meathod is what I use when I'm fragging them, and the mat is easily glueable to a new piece of rubble for rehome/resale.

 

[returnofsid]

Ed, when Bob Fenner said that they're taking over your SPS tank, did he mean that they're growing fast and spreading, thus encroaching on the SPS, or was he talking about alleopathy? I wasn't aware that Zoanthids caused an alleopathic problem.

 

[Pentagona]

apparently they can Sid....a new revelation myself. I have been struggling for months trying to figure out why my SPS just didn't look *wow* like they should and used to, and I noticed my Zoos had kind of gone *bleh* as well. I decided it was time to break up the relationship and rehome the zoos to my 29 and I kid you not, within two days everything was looking MUCH MUCH better. I had hoped since I run carbon without interuption that alleopathy wouldn't become an issue, but apperantly even with weekly carbon changes there can be more toxins released than can be absorbed by the amont of carbon I run.

 

[Ed Hahn]

Yes. They are very aggressive.

 

[returnofsid]

Ed, sorry, aggressive in their fast growth, and encroaching on SPS, or aggressive in releasing chemicals that are effecting SPS on the other end of the tank?

 

[Darthv247]

he means chemically. They are waging war for the tank and using up more energy healing and fighting than in growth and pigmentation i think.

 

[roscoe]

That is what I am getting too Darth. I know of a few other folks that has this same problem.

 

[Saltyfish]

Well this is good to know before I put them in my new set up.

 

[ReefferMan]

This hobie is an everlasting science experiment....lol Sps do this to other sps as well. Mature colonies Vs new Strangers!

 

[tamarindthai]

Ed,, if you send in 2 racoon buterfly,,they will take care your problem /ecosystem wise,,then you can grow sps again

 

[Ed Hahn]

Ed,, if you send in 2 racoon buterfly,,they will take care your problem /ecosystem wise,,then you can grow sps again

Hey Dang,
So you think Raccoon butterfly will eat only Zoos and Palys? My last experiment with Butterflies was not so good for my clams.

 

[IWishIWasAFish]

How about a nudibranch? Post here or ask at your LFS for someone to save one for you? I found one on some zoas I bought a while back, and read they are extremely specific about what they eat. Unfortunately that meant doom for my zoa-eating hitchhiker, but it might be just the thing for you

 

[SRV]

Hey Dang,
So you think Raccoon butterfly will eat only Zoos and Palys? My last experiment with Butterflies was not so good for my clams.

Hey Ed, I know "Bob Moore" put a Raccoon in his system back in the day and lost his clams also, but it did take care of his Paly's and Zoo's. Can you move your clams to another system or someone else's tank until you resolve your problem? Then you can remove the Raccoon and put back the clams.

 

[Workaholic]

This is rather interesting as I'm seeing some systems where this occurs and others where it doesn't. For instance Adam&Crystal (myteemouse and crystalclear125)'s tank has a large population of both zoa/paly and of sps. Both of which are doing wonderful, some of the best sps polyp extension I've seen. As for why they dont have this issue I don't know, maybe it could be something that is species specific?

Tom