White Bugs on Zoas

[denihogan]

White Bugs on Zoas (and everywhere for that matter)

Ok. I think I have researched myself silly, so I am going to turn to you guys. A little background - I have a redsea max 250 that has been up for over a year. I have been in the saltwater arena for about 15 years. My tank has a mix of softies, lps and a couple of sps. At any rate, I will get to the point. About 2 months ago all of my zoas started closing up and do not open anymore - I thought I inspected them and could not find anything. About 3 weeks ago, I had an explosion of what 'may be' copepods??? They are all over everything (a ton on the glass and a ton on my zoas) - my aussie brain loves them and the rest of the tank does not seem too be affected. I have attached a picture of them on my green stars - the green stars happended to be closed up at the time and the contrast of the purple mat and the white bugs was the best picture. I inserted some red arrows to point at them, but all of the white dots you see are the bugs. My zoas have not opened for a couple of months...any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[_sludgefactory]

maybe get a 6 line wrasse or a mandarin to eat em.

 

[denihogan]

Any idea if those are, indeed, copepods?

 

[daniella3d]

They look like harmless little snails..can't remember the name. Can you get a closer pic?

 

[denihogan]

I will see if I can get a closer picture. I do have a lot of cerith snails that have been successfully breeding. However, these are quick - kind of like fleas.

 

[caudill187]

Hmmmmmmm.....

 

[denihogan]

This is zoomed in - hopefully this helps. For size reference, they are about the size of a grain of salt. I am quite baffled - and, as I said, I have researched myself silly! Thanks for everyones help and input!
These pictures are of the bugs on my green stars, the green stars happened to be closed up and their purple mat gave them great contrast. (My green stars do not seem to be bothered, they are open and doing well.)

 

[Wy Renegade]

I can see legs, which leads me to believe they are some type of miniture amphipod rather than a snail or a copepod, however its really hard to say for sure from the pictures.

If they are irritating and keeping your zoas closed up, you are going to want to get them out as quickly as you can. What size tank and what other inhabitants are we talking here?

 

[mobatic]

I was going to say Zoa eating Nudi's but it doesn't look like them with the close up.

Try dipping them in Revive or Coral Rx. If they fall off then there is a reason why.

 

[Murfman]

250L so that should be around 66.04301275 gallons

 

[Wy Renegade]

66 gals, I try the treatments mention above, but it will be pretty tough to get all of them if the tank is experiencing a population explosion right now. I'd look into one of the smaller wrasses like a flasher or a fairie if they're compatable with your other inhabitants.

 

[denihogan]

I will give coral rx a try.
And you were almost correct - 66.043012755555 gallons
Inhabitants: 1 - blue hippo, 1 - blue chromis, 5 -scarlet crabs, 30- blue leg crabs, 2 - fighting conchs, a bunch of ceriths, a bunch of stomatella, a hand full of nassarius, 1 - hitchhiker hairy crab (that I have been trying to catch for 6 months), 2 - crocea clams, 3 varieties of frogspawn, candy cane, aussie brain, 3 staghorns, pipe organ, green stars, pom-pom pulsing xenia, 2 toadstools, 3 ricordea mushrooms, 4 elephant ear mushrooms, red mushrooms, feather duster, kenya tree, yellow zoas, a variety of pink zoas...I think that covers everything?

 

[denihogan]

Great. Thanks for the advice. I will try both. (this hobby was much easier when I lived in a city...)

 

[twinspots_goby]

they look like tiny snails to me.

 

[denihogan]

My first thoughts too (itsy-bitsy snails) - because the ones on the glass do not move much. However, once I got to looking and noticed they were everywhere - I noticed the ones on everything else were scurrying around (much like amphipods would).

With that said, I noticed a rather large amphipod (?) last night. It was about 1/4" long - but much larger and much whiter than anything I have ever seen before - I saw him in the reflection of the glass scurrying on a rock and he dove into a hole.

So - are copepods or amphipods every compatible with zoas?

I have not added anything to my tank in such a long time - so I am digging through the boxes (plural) of all of my fish stuff looking for my coral dip. And, I am looking for a compatible wrasse right now. I already promised my 3 year old a nemo, so I have to make sure I do inadvertently break that promise...

Thanks again for everyone's help, insights and advice...(keep them coming as I start trying these suggestions.)

 

[euphoricgear]

try dipping and swish in ro but make sure the temp are the same.

 

[Murfman]

Lugols works as a dip too.

 

[verz36]

dude, i had same problem too.. i had my tank fishless for a 2 month period cus i had ick in my tank so i took all the fish out and quarantined them.. in the time i was without fish my podz population got out of hand.. you could see them all the time all over the tank.. some of them even grew to about a little less than half an inch.. i started to see some of my zoas disappear quick.. i started paying close attention and saw them on my zoas all the time.. some of my reef buddies told me podz dont eat zoas.. but i searched all over the net and found some claiming otherwise.. i lost many zoas until i added a mandarin goby and a six line and problem solved.. if i was you i will add one or both.. you will see the difference..

 

[Der ABT]

looks like a mix of snails, egg sack from a nudi in the top left of the last pics.....if your zoa's havent opened in a month i would definately dip and or manually remove all the white spots/bugs/snails whatever they are...wish i could help more but just hard to tell as the pics a kinda fuzzy.
hope they recover

 

[DJ_in_WV]

looks like stomatella babys to me plus they are also on the rock so its not a coral muncher. They are probably eat the junk off coral it looks pretty dirty blow it of with a turkey baster a few time a day before you go dumping a bunch of chemicals in the tank.