Zoa help -- possible melting?

[helwrj28]

Need some help/advice with my Sunny D coral frag. First timer with soft coral and zoas. Here are some pics and timeline for reference..

1) QT in white light 2 months ago
2) DT blue light 3 weeks ago
3) DT blue light today
4) DT White light today

Additional information and observations.. when I first bought it had 3 polyps, and up until about a week ago it had 8 polyps, but as can be seen some appear to be shrinking and possibly some mesogloea loss.

Picture 2 does not show the coral fully open but it did have all polyps open and it was looking well shortly after in DT-- since then I had moved the coral but moved it back just yesterday as I thought maybe a flow or lighting issue (was placed still in center of tank but about a foot higher on LR compared to sandbed where it is now placed again).

No changes in water chemistry:
Alk 7.5 and working on raising
pH 8.0
0 nitrates//0 nitrites//0 ammonia

No changes in livestock or feeding habits or tank maintenance.. dipped with coral RX before adding to QT and I have not seen any pests. Fish consist of pair of clowns, cardinal fish, and azure damselfsh. No crabs in tank and no snails have been seen bothering it.

Any recommendations would be helpful or am I SOL with this being zoa melting?

 

[Nano_Man]

0 on nitrate and if tank is cycled there should be nitrate . How many fish in your tank
What is your phosphate reading
How old is your tank

 

[helwrj28]

0 on nitrate and if tank is cycled there should be nitrate . How many fish in your tank
What is your phosphate reading
How old is your tank

Tank has been up and running for over a year. 4 fish total. I haven't checked phosphate I don't have a test kit for that.

I try to be vigilant with not overfeeding fish and I use reef chili a couple times a week for coral. As far as coral I have a few leathers, rhodactis mushroom, and GSP that are all doing well! Have a refugium as well but no skimmer. I have some green film algae on the rocks that I dust off 1x/week and I did have a fair amount of cyano bacteria a while ago that has subsided.

 

[hsosa]

put them up higher on the rock and check your iodine levels good time to do a icp test and see where your at I think its cheaper than doing the test kit brought iMO if ur kinda new to this .

 

[helwrj28]

put them up higher on the rock and check your iodine levels good time to do a icp test and see where your at I think its cheaper than doing the test kit brought iMO if ur kinda new to this .

Thanks for input, how long does it take for ICP test results?

I moved it back into the sandbed because it looked better on the sand compared to higher up on the rock.. not sure if it could be a flow or light thing but definitely less light on sandbed.

Should I consider doing an iodide dip?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Sounds like you've been handling it a a lot lately, I wouldn't do anything else to it.

I find zoa's can be moody and close up for a few days sometimes. How long have they been closed for?

Unless you added new inhabitants or did anything new to the tank, they usually come back. It went from 3 polyps to 8, it was obviously happy before.

 

[helwrj28]

Sounds like you've been handling it a a lot lately, I wouldn't do anything else to it.

I find zoa's can be moody and close up for a few days sometimes. How long have they been closed for?

Unless you added new inhabitants or did anything new to the tank, they usually come back. It went from 3 polyps to 8, it was obviously happy before.

Thanks for advice, it's been closed for about a week.

No major changes to my tank aside from my tank maintenance cleaning and changing filter socks which I'll be honest I neglected a bit so maybe it's that. My biggest concern is making sure the coral isn't melting and if it is what other measures I should try to take thanks.

 

[Tavero]

Looks like symptoms and disease process of the Zoa Melting Syndrome. Sadly there is no cure to that except long dips in antibiotics like chemiclean (with low chance of cure). If there are still polyps that are fully open, the frag may recovery but usually they melt into nothingness.

 

[helwrj28]

Looks like symptoms and disease process of the Zoa Melting Syndrome. Sadly there is no cure to that except long dips in antibiotics like chemiclean (with low chance of cure). If there are still polyps that are fully open, the frag may recovery but usually they melt into nothingness.

That's what I was afraid of, is it strange that it would start on such a new frag? What do you think as a prevention in the future?

I do have idodide and chemiclean for dips.. guess I should try my hand huh?

 

[Tavero]

That's what I was afraid of, is it strange that it would start on such a new frag? What do you think as a prevention in the future?

I do have idodide and chemiclean for dips.. guess I should try my hand huh?

You can try the chemiclean dip. One measuring spoon in 100ml water and then leave it in there for 1h.

New frags are particulary susceptible to ZMS because they are weakened from changing parameters. I have lost seveal that way. They can also die suddenly after growing into large colonies though. We still don't know the real reason.

 

[helwrj28]

I tried an iodide dip first and I noticed this brown stringy thing coming out of one of the polyp's mouths -- is that just feces or zooanthelle being expelled?

 

[Tavero]

I tried an iodide dip first and I noticed this brown stringy thing coming out of one of the polyp's mouths -- is that just feces or zooanthelle being expelled?

Dead Zooxanthella probably. Usually a sign of stress.

 

[helwrj28]

Looks like symptoms and disease process of the Zoa Melting Syndrome. Sadly there is no cure to that except long dips in antibiotics like chemiclean (with low chance of cure). If there are still polyps that are fully open, the frag may recovery but usually they melt into nothingness.

I didn't think chemiclean was an antibiotic. How often should I try dipping (either with chemiclean or lugol's which I have)?

 

[helwrj28]

Dead Zooxanthella probably. Usually a sign of stress.

I'm assuming that is probably a bad sign then..

 

[helwrj28]

Compared to this morning, there are now 5 polyps that are partially open, is this a good sign?

 

[Tavero]

Compared to this morning, there are now 5 polyps that are partially open, is this a good sign?

Hope for everything but except nothing. My frags didn't recover anymore when all polyps were only partially open for weeks but maybe you are lucky.

 

[helwrj28]

Hope for everything but except nothing. My frags didn't recover anymore when all polyps were only partially open for weeks but maybe you are lucky.

Sucks, had no idea zoas could be so vulnerable. Had I known I probably wouldn't have put in my tank.

I'll try my hand and see what happens. How often should I dip? I imagine too much could have adverse effects or decrease recovery chance..

 

[Tavero]

I was dipping every 48 hours. If they didn't show any improvement i removed them. Chemiclean doesn't really have any adverse effects if used too much as long as you don't treat the whole tank, but you should only treat the frag anyway.

 

[helwrj28]

Thanks for the response! I dipped in Lugol's once and just started a round of chemiclean (I did the dosing for the whole tank)..

Several of the polyps seem to be improving with full opening and closing.. others are looking pretty dire. Should I cut and remove the bad ones or what would be recommended?

What's the harm in treating the whole tank with chemiclean?

 

[Tavero]

Thanks for the response! I dipped in Lugol's once and just started a round of chemiclean (I did the dosing for the whole tank)..

Several of the polyps seem to be improving with full opening and closing.. others are looking pretty dire. Should I cut and remove the bad ones or what would be recommended?

What's the harm in treating the whole tank with chemiclean?

You can't treat the whole tank with the required concentration of chemiclean to treat ZMS or you will nuke your tank. You could try a normal treatment but this never worked for me.

I can't give recommendations about cutting off polyps because i don't know their status. If there are polyps disintegrating near healthy ones it could be advantageous to remove them, but if you injure the healthy one in that process it may be better to let them recover on their own.