How to get rid of zoas?

TexAgReefer · May 29, 2020

I have a zoa colony that I’d like to get rid of and have a couple of questions.

1) These aren’t palys right? So if I pull them off/damage them I’m not going to have a toxic problem?
2) Any tips on getting rid of zoas? Just grab them and pull them off the rock?

BighohoReef · May 29, 2020

They look like zoas to remove you can just pull them off the rock. I do recommend gloves just in case of the palytoxins I'm fairly certain they will release them if you just rip them off the rock.

Here is a CDC article talking about zoas containing palytoxins... though not all do I would play it safe.

vanpire · May 29, 2020

I am always curious as to why we think Palys don't have toxins when the name is PALYtoxins. Anyway, I always thought both Zoas and Palys have toxins although honestly, I am not 100% sure.

James M · May 29, 2020

You can put kalk paste on them and they’ll die like aptasia. Safer way to remove them

muzikalmatt · May 29, 2020

Those actually look like palys to me, not zoas, although I'm not positive. Regardless, you should always play it safe when messing with zoas.

I've been steadily removing some trash palys from my rockwork in the tank during water changes. These are the highly toxic kind that are known to contain a lot of palytoxin so I play it pretty safe.

What I do is wear arm-length gloves and use a small tube (I think it's 3/8") to create a slow siphon for a water change. You want a small tube to create a slow siphon so you're sucking only a small amount of water to give you time to remove them. I then proceed to pull the palys from the rockwork with tweezers and suck up the removed polyps and any slime/palytoxin that gets released in the process. That way it doesn't disperse into the tank and cause problems for the other tank inhabitants. I try not to remove too many at one time and then run some fresh carbon after the water change just in case some palytoxin got released. I've had pretty good success with this so far with no issues to myself or my tank. I would also recommend keeping any kids/pets/etc away while doing this just in case.

Or as @James M mentioned you can use kalk paste or F-Aiptasia to nuke them in the tank. Just make sure not to get that on any corals you want to keep as it will likely kill them as well.

ecamden · May 29, 2020

muzikalmatt said:
Those actually look like palys to me, not zoas, although I'm not positive. Regardless, you should always play it safe when messing with zoas.

I've been steadily removing some trash palys from my rockwork in the tank during water changes. These are the highly toxic kind that are known to contain a lot of palytoxin so I play it pretty safe.

What I do is wear arm-length gloves and use a small tube (I think it's 3/8") to create a slow siphon for a water change. You want a small tube to create a slow siphon so you're sucking only a small amount of water to give you time to remove them. I then proceed to pull the palys from the rockwork with tweezers and suck up the removed polyps and any slime/palytoxin that gets released in the process. That way it doesn't disperse into the tank and cause problems for the other tank inhabitants. I try not to remove too many at one time and then run some fresh carbon after the water change just in case some palytoxin got released. I've had pretty good success with this so far with no issues to myself or my tank. I would also recommend keeping any kids/pets/etc away while doing this just in case.

Or as @James M mentioned you can use kalk paste or F-Aiptasia to nuke them in the tank. Just make sure not to get that on any corals you want to keep as it will likely kill them as well.

Agreed they are plays. I had an invasion of those too in my old tank. I eventually pulled out the rock because they are hard to get off and continually grew back. Never tried the kalk paste so that's good info. I used to try to pull them off during a water change which helped. Never really had any symptoms of palytoxin poisoning myself.

TexAgReefer · May 29, 2020

I’ll wear gloves and make sure I wash well after. I’d rather not use the kalk paste. I’ll try just pulling them for now.

jsvand5 · May 29, 2020

I had good luck by injecting vinegar into some I wanted to get rid of.

uhgster1 · May 29, 2020

Those look like Pandoras. Do they glow orange gold in blue light?

TexAgReefer · May 29, 2020

uhgster1 said:
Those look like Pandoras. Do they glow orange gold in blue light?

Yes. I believe they are Pandora’s. I’ve heard they can quickly overtake an area.

uhgster1 · May 29, 2020

TexAgReefer said:
Yes. I believe they are Pandora’s. I’ve heard they can quickly overtake an area.

you’re not kidding. They overtook my utter chaos and are creeping along the bottom.They’re zoas, but man can they spread fast. If you find a viable way to get rid of them let us know. Short of taking the whole rock out I don’t know what else to try that won’t affect the entire reef. I have acros and goniopora too. I think the kalk route would be to radical in my aquarium.

Phil D. · May 29, 2020

Red Sea Aiptasia-x will kill them off, same for GSP

TexAgReefer · Jun 1, 2020

Phil D. said:
Red Sea Aiptasia-x will kill them off, same for GSP

I pulled a good amount of them off during my water change over the weekend, but some I just crushed trying to get them off the rock. I have some Ap-x so I'll try that for some of the remaining. Thanks.

TexAgReefer · Jul 28, 2020

Phil D. said:
Red Sea Aiptasia-x will kill them off, same for GSP

I tried Aiptasia-x and they retracted for a few days/a week and I thought they might be dying off, but nope. They're all back fully open and going stronger than ever and continue to spread.

Any other ideas? Is Joe's Juice any different/better?

sfin52 · Jul 28, 2020

I have pandoras and keep them isolated on a rock. Once they start growing off I trim and toss.

TexAgReefer · Jul 28, 2020

sfin52 said:
I have pandoras and keep them isolated on a rock. Once they start growing off I trim and toss.

I wish I had done that. Now it's too late and need to eradicate. I've tried pulling them off but that hasn't worked too well.

ecamden · Jul 28, 2020

I had a few that somehow made it to my new tank that I recently noticed. I mixed up some epoxy and super glue and covered them, and the area a few inches around them. So far so good, but only time will tell if they find a way around that

Picasso Clown · Jul 28, 2020

Have you tried using a razor? A single edge disposable razor blade works well to slide under the zoas and pull them off. If you irritate the polyps so they close you will notice a membrane connecting all the polyps into kind of a mat. Just make a perimeter cut and peel it off. It should kinda look like you just made a sticker made of zoas if that makes any sense. From there you can frag and sell, or toss into the garbage. Much easier to remove as a mat than polyp by polyp because your live rock has a lot of crevices they can dig themselves into. If you see any polyps left I usually just superglue them into a tomb kind of like aptasia. Cover the entire polyp in superglue and it cannot receive nutrients and therefore starves to death. This method has worked for me for a few zoa polyps (any more than 3 at one time (like a cluster of 3 you’re gluing together) hasn’t really worked because it’s difficult to cover entirely at that point) and aiptasia. Also stops the aiptasia from releasing children

MightyMO · Jul 28, 2020

TexAgReefer said:
I have a zoa colony that I’d like to get rid of and have a couple of questions.

1) These aren’t palys right? So if I pull them off/damage them I’m not going to have a toxic problem?
2) Any tips on getting rid of zoas? Just grab them and pull them off the rock?

And I just got me some pandoras...