Need Help with Dilemma with my Zoa

[ScottyD36]

So a the end of October I got a shipment of Electric Dragon Eyes and Dragon eyes from Aqua SD. I got the zoas and did my my coral dip and all that. On the Dragon Eyes once I put it into my display I noticed Zoa eating Spiders. I immediately threw that frag out and didn't think twice about it thinking I stopped it before it could spread. Fast forward to now. Last night I was looking at my Electric Dragon Eyes and they didn't open up and were closed. I took a light and saw two zoa eating spiders on two separate heads. I cut off those heads and sucked out everything making sure I got the spider. This morning I wake up and I noticed a few heads opening up and one closed. Once again ripped it open and found another zoa eating spider. This is my dilemma now. I put all my zoa in the general same area because I was going for a zoa garden. Pictures attached. My zoas are small only about 9 heads each. Is it worth me ripping out the Electric Dragon Eyes and trying to save the rest of the Zoas before the spiders go crazy on the rest of them or Is it basically to late and I will just have to monitor for spiders now. I am just scratching my head at this point of what to do. Their isnt much info on how to exactly get rid of the spiders. Thanks for any help, ideas or suggestions.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Oh that’s a hard one
Maybe @footgal may know what to do or is know who to ask

 

[footgal]

Oh wow I am so sorry!!! I would dip every single zoa frag in a dip of H2O2:Tank water at a 1:1 ratio for 1-2 minutes then check the dip for zoa eating spiders. Check after every frag to try to identify which frags are infected. Examine all the frags after the dip for spiders and remove any that you see either by sucking them out or removing with tweezers.

Repeat the dips every week on the zoas you find are infected for at least a month. The dip will cause them to close for 2-5 days because it destroys the slime coat but it won’t hurt the actual zoa.

Best of luck!!

 

[tankstudy]

Zoa eatting spiders are very difficult to deal with. The offspring are very small and even if you throw a frag plug out it's not going to make a difference if you have other plugs. By the time you see an adult you will probably have several juveniles thru out the tank. They will survive many dips and many various dips. I had enough of them to test a lot of things out. Having battled them 2-3 times before, the only way to deal with them is a total tank treatment over a period of many weeks/months. Fish will not help you as these creatures latch pretty tightly to their food source and appear to be more active at night only.

Dr. G's coral dip although not intended for direct tank use can be used directly in tank. It is milbemycin oxyime mixed with RO water. It's pretty much interceptor which you can find many articles here on R2R about it's usage. You will need to use this over a period of time to kill off the spiders. The issue with this dip is that it will kill off a ton of copepods, bristleworms, flatworms, some inverts such as snails may be affected and smaller bugs as well. You should boost your bacteria population prior to dosing to make sure your tank can handle the amount of ammonia that will appear when you nuke the tank. Have water ready to change and siphon out the larger dead organisms to help reduce ammonia build up. Nuking your entire system is dangerous but once the spiders reach critical numbers you will lose everything in your system that they can suck nutrients from. If you know someone who has nuked their tank before in a local club I would advise having them help you.

This is the only way I've ever completely eradicated them inside an established system. They will attack soft corals and anemones as well. They are no fun at all.

 

[ScottyD36]

This is huge bummer. I guess it is time to peel the zoa off the rock and give them all a nice H20 dip. The Spiders I have found I actually saw the shaow inside the polyp and i ripped the poly off and sucked everything out. Not sure if this is the right way to go about it and hopefully this with the H20 dip does some kind of dent.

 

[ScottyD36]

Ok so I did the H20 dip on all my Zoa corals. I did it for 4 minutes each one. I inspected them all closely and saw nothing on them. Also in the water I did not see anything visible come off in water. Is it worth dipping again in a few days with Coral DIp or should i stay with the h20 dip.

 

[danieyella]

I caught one once, never had another issue. Never noticed an issue before I caught him and hadn't added anything to the tank in awhile (I was moving some zoas from one tank to another and it dislodged when dipping again). I firmly believe my canary wrasse keeps them in check and this one just happened to slip through. I have no idea when or how it was introduced, or how it survived to that point with no signs of stress on the colonies. I dip everything before it goes into either tank, and yet - there he was. After whatever medication regime you decide to go with, I would definitely recommend a canary if you have the space for it. I hear six lines do just as well, but I sumped & rehomed the one I had because he was a colossal jerk

 

[Opus]

Ok so I did the H20 dip on all my Zoa corals. I did it for 4 minutes each one. I inspected them all closely and saw nothing on them. Also in the water I did not see anything visible come off in water. Is it worth dipping again in a few days with Coral DIp or should i stay with the h20 dip.

I just want to clarify. If you are following footgal's advice, she is saying dip in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and you are saying you dipped in freshwater (H2O).

 

[ScottyD36]

I just want to clarify. If you are following footgal's advice, she is saying dip in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and you are saying you dipped in freshwater (H2O).

Yea I am using peroxide. I guess either my spell check changed it to that or my brain just wasn’t typing it right lol