zoa problems - solved????

[ajnweb]

Luckily I have most of them covered, except for a few, and what I don't have I will steal from Michael, he should be easy to distract with the new baby!

Do you have duplicates of all your zoas in the frag tank?

Tony, when you're ready, I think I probably have duplicates of most of what you had. Once pests are gone, come on over and start pointing...lol.

 

[Barbie]

I intended to bribe you to help him set up my calcium reactor whenever life settles down, so I might be able to fill in some gaps .

Barbie

 

[ajnweb]

Yeah, gaps are bad!

Just say when, and we can get that CA reactor up and running!

I intended to bribe you to help him set up my calcium reactor whenever life settles down, so I might be able to fill in some gaps .

Barbie

 

[CarlaW]

Hey Barbie, are you at the store right now?

 

[Barbie]

Sorry Charlie,

(You have no idea how much I like to say that, hehe)

I've been frantically doing my water changes here at home today. I have one more reef tank change and the tanks upstairs and I'm officially done for the week, woohooo!

Barbie

 

[CarlaW]

Well, go find "Ken" and get to work!!!

I'll give you a call tomorrow.

 

[ajnweb]

Well, the problem continues, and at this point I think it is just a wait and see. I only have found 1 nudi, and I have looked over the rest of the colonies and no sign of any nudis or eggs. I think it is a bacterial/fungal infection. I have tried dips in melafix, fluran, lugols, tropic marin, fresh water, and a hydrogen peroxide scrub. Either the dips did not work and the disease continues to kill the zoas, or the dips themselves killed the zoas. Since I cannot dip all of the zoas in the tank, I think any further treatments will be a waste of time.

On a positive note, some of the infected colonies have lost almost half of the zoas, with the remaining zoas now open and happy. I think the zoas that survive the infection on their own will be healthier/stonger afterwards. I have however, lost several full colonies. I will keep an eye out at night for any more nudis, but I am beginning to think the nudi find was just a chance encounter, we will see.

 

[maysorum]

i had a similar experience with my RPEs recently, but no other zoas were affected. they began to lose their skirts, pucker up strangely, and the skin seemed to disappear around the mouth (just like your pictures). previously the zoas were always open, extremely happy, and producing babies almost by the hour.

anyways, i noticed seemingly large amphipods hanging out at the base of my RPE colony and i just assumed they were cleaning up, until now. the last few nights i have witnessed the amphipods eating the skirts and then moving on to flesh surrounding the mouth and by morning all that's left of the polyp is a horrible looking nub. the amphipods are eating the zoas polyp by polyp. they are NOT eating damaged zoas, they are eating healthy zoas. so you might want to check for meat eating amphipods.

i checked with wetwebmedia and Bob Fenner confirmed that there are some species of amphipods that are meat eaters. he suggested using a trap, but i got a little wrasse instead. maybe the reason you can't find any more nudis is because there aren't any...

 

[ajnweb]

Interesting, I have seen copepods/amphipods cruising around the zoas, never had a problem with them in the past though. The guys I have are the ones that get up to 1/4" long and tend to look curled up, kinda beige. I know, I just described about 1000 different bugs! I might have to get a wrasse of some sort to control the population, just in case. Thanks for the heads up!

i had a similar experience with my RPEs recently, but no other zoas were affected. they began to lose their skirts, pucker up strangely, and the skin seemed to disappear around the mouth (just like your pictures). previously the zoas were always open, extremely happy, and producing babies almost by the hour.

anyways, i noticed seemingly large amphipods hanging out at the base of my RPE colony and i just assumed they were cleaning up, until now. the last few nights i have witnessed the amphipods eating the skirts and then moving on to flesh surrounding the mouth and by morning all that's left of the polyp is a horrible looking nub. the amphipods are eating the zoas polyp by polyp. they are NOT eating damaged zoas, they are eating healthy zoas. so you might want to check for meat eating amphipods.

i checked with wetwebmedia and Bob Fenner confirmed that there are some species of amphipods that are meat eaters. he suggested using a trap, but i got a little wrasse instead. maybe the reason you can't find any more nudis is because there aren't any...

 

[returnofsid]

I've had large Amphipods cruise around on our Zoanthids, but never seem to do any harm. However, I do seem to remember reading about the possibility.

Tony, any updates? How are the colonies that got his early on looking. You mentioned that some seemed to be recovering. Any more recovery visible?? I sure hope so!!!

 

[ajnweb]

Just the one colony, maybe 2 showing signs of recovery. Other infected colonies it looks like only maybe a couple of zoas will live if any. I have lost 2 full colonies so far, and it looks like I could lose another 4-5 completely. I might get a wrasse, can't hurt, any friendly reef safe wrasses?

I've had large Amphipods cruise around on our Zoanthids, but never seem to do any harm. However, I do seem to remember reading about the possibility.

Tony, any updates? How are the colonies that got his early on looking. You mentioned that some seemed to be recovering. Any more recovery visible?? I sure hope so!!!

 

[returnofsid]

Hmmm, can't comment a lot on "friendly," but I like the 6 line. Of the 3 I've had, all of them have been model citizens. Most people seem to have issues with them becoming aggressive. Yellow Coris might be another option, or even a 2 spot hogfish, which is actually a wrasse.

 

[estanoche]

Hmmm, can't comment a lot on "friendly," but I like the 6 line. Of the 3 I've had, all of them have been model citizens. Most people seem to have issues with them becoming aggressive. Yellow Coris might be another option, or even a 2 spot hogfish, which is actually a wrasse.

or any of the fairy wrasse's kevin gets in - he had a nice multi-color in last week that almost went home with me my fairys have always been model citizens until they jump!

 

[ajnweb]

This list was on RC. Anyone have any luck with any of these, eating nudis and/or copepods/amphipods. Any of these good at leaving shrimp alone?

1. Yellow Coris
2. 6 Line
3. Lunar
4. Possum
5. Orange Striped
6. Christmas
7. Pink Striped
8. Some have said most anything in the Halichores Family as they are serious stalkers
9. Sea Grass Wrasse

 

[returnofsid]

None of our 6 Lined ever bothered any of our shrimp.

 

[ajnweb]

It appears that whatever it is has now moved into my frag tank, not 100% sure but a few colonies don't look right, look likes the beginning of the "disease". I am now assuming that either I cross contaminated the systems when I did my last water change, or possibly the rubbermaid container I WAS using for water storage was leaking chemicals into the tanks, and it just took longer to impact the frag tank. Although it still could be copepods/amphipods or nudis, that were introduced into both systems around the same time from one frag. I guess I will wait and see how the frag zoas look tomorrow, hopefully I am wrong. Might be time to punt.

 

[ajnweb]

I am hoping I just caught the colony in that moment of time when they were closing, and just happened to look like the other dying zoas, I did a fresh water iodine dip just in case....I will check on them later tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[maysorum]

i heard that the yellow coris is the friendliest of the bunch, but don't have any personal experience with them.

 

[ajnweb]

i heard that the yellow coris is the friendliest of the bunch, but don't have any personal experience with them.

I think I read possibly (and maybe I am just making this up) not reef safe as in they might eat shrimp, snails, hermits, but as with any fish they all can have their own personality.

 

[ajnweb]

another colony infected in the Solana. I am seeing quite a few small amphipods/copepods around the older infected colonies, but on this new one I did not see any. I am guessing the pods are eating the dead flesh. Boy it sure does hit fast, this colony was fine yesterday, and now, more than a few polyps look infected/eaten, whatever you want to call it.