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They look like hydroids growing on the algae that's covering the zoas, try giving it a dip and gently rubbing off the algae with a paper towel/toothbrushI noticed one of the heads closed a little early tonight. I looked closer and saw these things all over it.
Any idea what they are?
Definitely hydroids, only hydroids have ant sort of stinging arms like that. I don't know how to remove them from corals, though they don't seem to be causing any immediate irritationI know there are a lot of hydroid species, but I can't find anything that looks quite like these.
Here are some more photos I took today. I cleaned all the algae off last week with a cotton swab, but some has grown back of course. Whatever the little things are, they are super small. To the naked eye they just look like a white dot.
They have very distcint little protrusions at their tips. They each have a ball at the end, and there appear to be 4 or 5 on each of them.
I may try to pull some with tweezers and see if I can get them under a microscope for a better image.
It depends on the species and the conditions of the tank, but yeah, them spreading isn't a good sign.I guess what has me worried is a few threads mentioning that they had to reboot their tanks because of hydroids while others say they're totally fine. Who can say what this will turn in to?
Proactive treatment like this would probably be wise under the circumstances.They don't, but they seem to be increasing in number on just these Zoas. I'm wondering if I should pull the Zoas out, put them in a QT tank, and treat for Fenbandazole?
I've also thought about a dip in Hydrogen Peroxide to see if that will have any effect. From what I've read, Zoas are pretty tolerant of it.
I'm not sure the exact species, but I can tell you they're from the taxonomic family Sphaerocorynidae:I know there are a lot of hydroid species, but I can't find anything that looks quite like these.
Yeah, looks like probably Sphaerocorynid (taxonomic family Sphaerocorynidae) hydroids of some kind - the ball tips are distinctive.
Oh yes, there's that too. It all went away one day, then it all came back again like a week later when my Nitrates dropped again. My Nitrates had been somewhat unstable because I'd been somewhat inconsistent with dosing NeoNitro to keep it above 0.0. I have it on a doser now, so it's been steadily climbing back up from a low of 2.2ppm.Looks like you got a bad case of cyano?
Ooh I have those Dino’s!Oh yes, there's that too. It all went away one day, then it all came back again like a week later when my Nitrates dropped again. My Nitrates had been somewhat unstable because I'd been somewhat inconsistent with dosing NeoNitro to keep it above 0.0. I have it on a doser now, so it's been steadily climbing back up from a low of 2.2ppm.
My tank is only about 6-7 months old now, so I think some of this is just uglies sorting themselves out? I have a lot of what I think is green hair algae. And prorocentrum dinoflagellates too. It's delightful.
When I dip zoas in H2O2 I do 5 minutes full strength. I have never had issues. They may stay mad for a day but then its back to business as usual.I found some threads that claim Hyrogen Peroxide works for hyroids, and some that say it does nothing. I figured it will at least help with the algae on the Zoas if nothing else, so I dipped it in 3% + tank water. I dipped for 5 minutes and mixed approximately 300ml per 1L of tank water.
Here's them after their dip. This is a focus stack that I threw together, so it's a littel rought.
They look a bit sad.
it really boils down to an imbalance between nitrates and phosphates I believe.From what I've read, cyano can be caused by Nitrates that are either too low or too high. From what I understand, you need enough nitrates for something-or-other to out-compete the cyano.
If it doesn't go away soon, I may try erythromycin for the cyano, and some time later fluconazole for the hair algae that I have everywhere too. I'd prefer not to use chemical warfare, but it's been going on for some time, and it's not getting better.
Probably unrelated: 2 of my 4 heads of Dragon Soul torch bailed out today. They've looked unhappy since I moved them to a spot with more flow. I should've move them back sooner, or turned down the flow. And suddenly my Alk dropped one whole dHK. Everything is dying, and I'm really thinking about just giving up on coral and just having fish. Now I'm just venting, but this is super frustrating.