Please help me beat this infection

[impur]

I've had to throw away 4 colonies of zoos so far, and just tossed another 30 or so polyps last night after fragging away infected polyps. Some of my most favorite zoos are now gone, or down to just a couple polyps and i have no idea if those will make it.

What is happening is a few polyps will close one day, then the next they turn yellow-brown or grey, then by the next day the pods have eaten the infected polyp. These are zoos that have been in my tank ranging from 3 years to about 7 months.

My course of action has been to remove the zoos, cut away the infected polyps including a couple layers of good polyps, then dipping in FW and TMPCC at 2X strenght for 5-7 min. This hasn't done a thing except dwindle the number of zoos that slowly die. A few days later the rest on the frag/colony close, turn yellow, and are gone. Last night i took it to another step. I had 3 frags showing the problem. I cut away large sections of polyps from around the single infected polyp, scrubbed the area with a wire brush, then covered the area with lugols iodine for a minute out of water. Then i gave them all a 7 min FW dip w/ TMPCC. I hope this proceedure will do the trick, but i've lost pretty much all hope.

The last thing i have yet to try is a FW dip with hydrogen peroxide. I've never done this dip, and i can't find much info on it. Anyone tried it before?

Has anyone heard of this happening? Any other ideas for me? I'm all ears, i really don't want to lose all these zoos. I've got a lot invested in them, and if this infection spreads throughout my collection i will be getting out of the hobby.

PLEASE HELP I'M DESPERATE!!!

 

[phisigs79]

Try Furan and raise the temp to 81-82. Dont cut the polps off as many of them will come back.

 

[JGoslee]

Ive never heard of anything like that. Sorry your losing your zoa's. Whenever something doesnt look right I usually give it a tankwater/lugols dip for about 5 mins everyday till it looks good.

 

[minibowmatt]

I have done peroxide dips on my zoos. It does kill some infections. I did a very light mixture, but you could do as much as 50/50 for a couple minutes. I would only try this as a last resort on your favorite zoos. If you have some other "test" worthy zoos, I would try on those first...

 

[JGoslee]

Good call Matt. I forgot about a peroxide dip. I have done a 50/50(tankwater/peroxide) on my RPE's and they pulled thru.

 

[impur]

What is furan?

Thanks for the info on the peroxide dip. I'll give that a shot next if i haven't gotten ahead of the infection with my last cut/dip session.

 

[jessiesgrrl]

I wish I could help, but mine have not done that. I concur with the above advice, sounds like everything I would do and then some. Have you thought about trying an antibiotic dip if those dips do not work?


Laurie

 

[impur]

What would i use for an antibiotic dip?

 

[impur]

Here is a picture of some orange zoos where it started. These were in my tank for 3 years and i had grown them from 2 polyps. I had to throw the whole colony away. You can see the closed polyps do not look normal, 2 on the left and 2 at the bottom.

 

[JGoslee]

Have you changed anything in your tank recently? I lost a few frags due to big changes in the tank. Basically they would close up for a few days then detach from the colony. They looked just like the pic above when they were dying.

 

[impur]

Nothing recently. Tank upgrade to this tank happened about 8 weeks ago. The problem started last week.

Did you lose all of them? Did it spread to other zoos that were 6-12 inches away?

 

[impur]

Was browsing some online vendors and came across this pic. This is exactly what the polyp does. Look at the closed yellow polyp in the top right

Turns that yellow color one day and is gone the next day.

 

[JGoslee]

Nothing recently. Tank upgrade to this tank happened about 8 weeks ago. The problem started last week.

Did you lose all of them? Did it spread to other zoos that were 6-12 inches away?

I lost most of them but I did frag some of the polyps and they made it.

 

[impur]

Well i've moved all infected zoas to a QT tank and treating with erythromiacin. The polyps aren't disappearing as quickly, which i thought was good. Then i realized its only because the frags aren't covered in millions of pods ripping away at them. So this is completely a blind attempt to save my zoos. I cannot find anyone, on any board i've checked (roughly 25 or so) that has had this problem or even knows where to start.

If ANYONE, has ANY idea, i mean it, ANY IDEA! I am open ears. I'd like to save my zoos. I've got 7 small colonies ready for testing or they will surely die.

 

[minibowmatt]

I have seen one or two polyps go yellow like that. I actually have some now. They never spread infection, and some of those polyps open back up. Im at a loss for what else to try.

 

[aquarookie]

Wow, I am so sorry to hear that! I had some zoas close up and die, but not like that. I think when mine died, it was from a drastic change in lighting. I don't have any brilliant ideas for you, except for maybe split them up among several tanks and try a different method in each tank or on each colony (peroxide here, antibiotic there...). I will keep my tentacles crossed for you and your zoas. Don't quit the hobby please.

 

[impur]

More pics, maybe these will help. Now i'm not so sure they turn yellow. It seems that the flesh becomes clean and you can see the colored skirt under it. Then it decays or whatever and it melts away.

 

[msman825]

http://www.zoaid.com/articles004.php You tried this

 

[cobraz]

That is a great article....
Great job.

 

[minibowmatt]

I think it has to be something in your tank, like a water parameter or chemical toxin.. to have just some polyps do that is strange...Any chance chemicals could have gotten in your tank? maybe something like an aerosol?