Oceansize
Active Member
I have a dragon eyes zoa that I am having difficulty fully opening up. All water params are well within tolerances except for magnesium which is low at 1230 and I am addressing that via dosing. Light and flow are both medium.
After running out of ideas, I dipped the zoa using the maximum dose recommended for Lugol's (40 drops per gallon) and the zoa responded beautifully, all polyps fully open, HOWEVER the problem returned within 3 days. Fortunately not nearly as bad as the first time. So I dipped again a week later and the same result: at first the results were excellent but after a couple days or so the problem seemed to return. That second dip was two days ago and sure enough it looks like the zoa might be heading back downhill again.
What I have observed is there are some bristly dark hairs emerging from inbetween the polyps in two different spots, and those are the areas in general where the polyps will not open or at least not fully. Because the hairs are bristly I have assumed this isn't algae since the hairlike algae I'm familiar with is brown, smooth & silky, not black & bristly like these hairs are. But what do I know, I'm new at this. I would provide a picture but everything I'm describing is too small to take a picture of without a waterproof camera and macro focus. My camera phone is excellent and is also in a waterproof case, but it cannot focus when trying to take macro underwater.
After the dip, the hairs either disappeared or were severely fried: instead of long, black & bristly they became short, white, & fried looking. But as I said, after 3 days or so the remaining ones seemed to recover, becoming longer (maybe half an inch), black & bristly again, and the polyps around there seemed to be less happy. The good news is those hairs have not come back with the same veracity as the original infestation, but they _are_ affecting the polyps.
I have read that dips (at least Lugol's dips anyway) are good for getting rid of critters but not so much for algae, I don't know the veracity of that claim. But it would appear my parasite is non-motile, therefore I don't know that it would qualify as a "critter" per se. Maybe it's just an algae or bacteria I'm not familiar with.
Lugol's is having an observable and positive effect, just not for very long, so one solution I'm considering is simply to continue dipping the frag until I completely eradicate those hairs. And that leads me to my main question: how often can you dip a zoa frag in Lugol's without suffering long-term harm?
A secondary question is: does this pest sound familiar to you and can you recommend a treatment option that may succeed where Lugol's has failed? I just read the sticky that suggested a hydrogen peroxide treatment prior to the Lugol's if algae is rather bad. I'll probably try that in the next few days unless someone can suggest otherwise.
Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.
Peas,
Barry
After running out of ideas, I dipped the zoa using the maximum dose recommended for Lugol's (40 drops per gallon) and the zoa responded beautifully, all polyps fully open, HOWEVER the problem returned within 3 days. Fortunately not nearly as bad as the first time. So I dipped again a week later and the same result: at first the results were excellent but after a couple days or so the problem seemed to return. That second dip was two days ago and sure enough it looks like the zoa might be heading back downhill again.
What I have observed is there are some bristly dark hairs emerging from inbetween the polyps in two different spots, and those are the areas in general where the polyps will not open or at least not fully. Because the hairs are bristly I have assumed this isn't algae since the hairlike algae I'm familiar with is brown, smooth & silky, not black & bristly like these hairs are. But what do I know, I'm new at this. I would provide a picture but everything I'm describing is too small to take a picture of without a waterproof camera and macro focus. My camera phone is excellent and is also in a waterproof case, but it cannot focus when trying to take macro underwater.
After the dip, the hairs either disappeared or were severely fried: instead of long, black & bristly they became short, white, & fried looking. But as I said, after 3 days or so the remaining ones seemed to recover, becoming longer (maybe half an inch), black & bristly again, and the polyps around there seemed to be less happy. The good news is those hairs have not come back with the same veracity as the original infestation, but they _are_ affecting the polyps.
I have read that dips (at least Lugol's dips anyway) are good for getting rid of critters but not so much for algae, I don't know the veracity of that claim. But it would appear my parasite is non-motile, therefore I don't know that it would qualify as a "critter" per se. Maybe it's just an algae or bacteria I'm not familiar with.
Lugol's is having an observable and positive effect, just not for very long, so one solution I'm considering is simply to continue dipping the frag until I completely eradicate those hairs. And that leads me to my main question: how often can you dip a zoa frag in Lugol's without suffering long-term harm?
A secondary question is: does this pest sound familiar to you and can you recommend a treatment option that may succeed where Lugol's has failed? I just read the sticky that suggested a hydrogen peroxide treatment prior to the Lugol's if algae is rather bad. I'll probably try that in the next few days unless someone can suggest otherwise.
Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.
Peas,
Barry
