what could be wrong with my zoas?

[smitten with ocean life]

im needing the zoas pros to help me out here please. these are my oldest zoa colonies. several years old. nothing has been changed. no new additions. my parameter numbers run pretty stable at sal. 1.026, phos. .31, nitrate 35.4, mag 1350, cal. 350, alk. 9. ive done a water change and have carbon in. but these zoas have been closed for a couple of weeks now and seem to be disappearing. it does look like there are little specs on them so im wondering about a pest maybe? would be very thankful for any insight on what could be going on. esp before it moves to my other zoas! sorry about the crummy pics. im not good at taking them

 

[william Lutman]

When mine acted up as a mass. I dipped everything and did 20% water changes every 4-5 days till I was sure it wasn't my water.

We all think nothing changed, but if that's true water changes wouldn't work miracles.

Try getting like 10 gallon tank, heater something for flow and put one of the colonies in it. See if they behave differently.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

thats a good idea but i dont think itll work for me. its a whole big rock configuration, unfortunately

 

[BryanM]

thats a good idea but i dont think itll work for me. its a whole big rock configuration, unfortunately

Sans a different tank, a 25% or more water change can't hurt, and if it is water it might help.

Do you make your own RODI? If so have you tested it for TDS lately?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

i do yes. and the filters were changed about a month ago. i dont have a way to test tds. do you know if there are such a thing as zoa pests?

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

i do yes. and the filters were changed about a month ago. i dont have a way to test tds. do you know if there are such a thing as zoa pests?

There are definitely zoa eating nudibranchs and sea spiders that can eat zoas.

The nudibranchs will take on the color of what they are eating, so hard to find.

As a side note, have you tried blowing all of the zoas off with a small powerhead or turkey baster? A lot if detritus gets trapped in there and I’m wondering if that can bother them.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

no i didnt think of blowing them off. ill give that a try. but if there is a pest, will i just blow them everywhere? and how do you treat for pests?

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

no i didnt think of blowing them off. ill give that a try. but if there is a pest, will i just blow them everywhere? and how do you treat for pests?

Unfortunately you have to manually remove them (which is pretty difficult) or dip the corals.

It becomes a pain when the corals are on rock structures. Maybe look into some wrasses that may help keep pest populations in check.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

ok thanks. i do have a Christmas wrasse

 

[GSPClown94]

Looks like there is some kind of algae or bacteria film covering your zoas, this is more noticeable towards the right side of each picture.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

yes, i noticed that. what would you do for it? just try blowing it off?

 

[littlebigreef]

Looks like there is some kind of algae or bacteria film covering your zoas, this is more noticeable towards the right side of each picture.

Agreed.

This is a pretty advanced case. I’d probably triage and remove any obviously rotting tissue and then chemi clean the tank.

 

[fishnchips17]

Agreed.

This is a pretty advanced case. I’d probably triage and remove any obviously rotting tissue and then chemi clean the tank.

I agree that this could be bacterial issue. Try chemi clean or in tank Cipro treatment.

 

[UncommonSense]

There are definitely zoa eating nudibranchs and sea spiders that can eat zoas.

The nudibranchs will take on the color of what they are eating, so hard to find.

I’ve seen the nudibranchs firsthand!

My largest zoa colony looked a lot like this when I had an infestation….

They would sporadically retract, sometimes as a colony, sometimes only in one area… the biggest cue is looking for what appears to be a single open fluorescent polyp in a sea of closed ones!

Many of these nudibranchs will have random fleshy parts which look like zoa tentacles, and are typically basically identical in color to the zoas! — they just aren’t shaped quite the same, and can’t hide their fluorescent bits as easily!

 

[VintageReefer]

That rock has some serious film on it, cyano, and the possibility of pests can’t be ruled out.

The entire rock should be dipped if the zoa can’t be removed. And it’s probably better this way because you can kill all the films and algaes on the rock itself instead of just the zoas

We can treat this for algaes, films, bacteria, pests, etc all with 3% hydrogen peroxide.

You will need a container to dip the rock in and a batch of sw to fill the container.

Something like this would work well
https://a.co/d/82nmIyI

Then you make a batch of sw to put in it, and add hydrogen peroxide and stir it up
The ratio is 1:3 or roughly 30% hydrogen peroxide to 70% sw.

350ml per liter

Remove the rock and inspect; remove any crabs, hermits, etc

Place in the dip for 3 minutes. While in the dip, baste it all over and blow off those slimes and films and try and blast the dip inbetween all the zoa polyps in case pests are hiding. Get all the nooks and crannies of the rock. After basting for 3 min, let it sit in the dip 1-2 min longer. Do a quick baste to clean it off and put back in the tank.

In 24-48 hours that rock should be looking much better and the zoanthids hopefully will open again now that they are cleaned.

Hydrogen peroxide is an antibiotic and this will kill all bacterias on the rock and colony - good and bad. This is ok, because you have an established tank and there’s plenty of bacteria they will naturally repopulate it over the next few days and weeks. This will also kill any algae on the rock and pests too

 

[GSPClown94]

yes, i noticed that. what would you do for it? just try blowing it off?

If it was just a small section of zoas, I would try brushing it off with a soft bristle toothbrush. But since it seems to be covering the whole rock and colony of zoas, I would follow what @VintageReefer posted about using hydrogen peroxide. Zoas are pretty hardy and can tolerate the hydrogen peroxide dip.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

ok. thanks guys! i guess it just looks big to me because these are fair sized rocks with torches and other corals growing on them. but maybe i better just try to break it up so i can get to them

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

ok. thanks guys! i guess it just looks big to me because these are fair sized rocks with torches and other corals growing on them. but maybe i better just try to break it up so i can get to them

I would start with blowing them off and gently scrubbing with a toothbrush first. If that doesn’t help then maybe time to start dipping things.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

ok. thanks. ill start with that! @VintageReefer i have some of that coral dip from jokers. would it be helpful at all to do a full tank treatment with it?

 

[VintageReefer]

ok. thanks. ill start with that! @VintageReefer i have some of that coral dip from jokers. would it be helpful at all to do a full tank treatment with it?

I don’t know I it will help fix this situation because I think the issue is films and algaes

But after you get these colonies cleaned up you can do a tank treatment with it, it’s aminos and beneficial stuff that help coral get an immune system boost and helps them recover