dying newly frags + colony, wild zoas

[Kigs!]

i got a big rock of wild zoa colonies, let it sit for about a week and decided to frag up the zoas that were on the bottom of the rock so they could get some light. i got aout 4 frag plugs out of it. they were doing fine for about a week, i come back from spring break...and now they are all browned out? including the main colony.

i've already chucked the main colony since there was no hope for'em...but the frags...should i chuck'em as well or keep'em few more days to see how they will do? here's a pic. anyone know what might've caused this?

these were fragged on the same day, different colony/zoas and they seem to be doing fine

 

[Kigs!]

hm. few additional info;;

frags were placed all over the tang in diff height/diff flow areas...all the frags were put into the eggcrate hoping it would prevent any further spread to other zoas.

salinity = 1.026
ph = 8.3
ammonia, nitrate, nitrite = 0

everything else is doing fine? maybe they were super stressed from the heavy fragging session? dirty xacto blade? argg...

 

[impur]

I donno, kinda odd. The closed frags look like they have a fungus/bacteria on them.

Check this thread out
http://www.club-zoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1958

 

[organism]

looks like a fungus for sure, weird though, I usually only see that kind of fungus on colonies that have seen too high an ammonia content, is anything else in your tank looking weird?

 

[Kigs!]

no everything is open and doing fine? i agree with you about seeing this type of fungus under high ammonia because i went through a similar case in the past, but all my parameters are fine? i double checked just to make sure this morning... it's not too big of a loss since the entire colony was under 30 bucks...but dang, i wish i knew what caused it. i haven't fed the tank in like a week ever since being away on spring break, and my skimmer's been working pretty well also. even the sps are doing pretty good. just weird...

i honestly think i stressed them out since not only the frags, but the mother colony came down with it as well... maybe it's because i didn't frag it by slicing the rock underneath the polyps? i simply lifted the 'mat' slowly since there were so many polyps...i'm going to chuck'em out today. they show no sign of life whatsoever.

oor... do you guys think they might have caught an infection from a dirty blade? is that even possible? i used an xacto knife that i haven't washed from last fragging session but that was like a month ago.

 

[redsonja]

If you can get some Furan2, that stuff is my new panacea for new zoas or any that start staying closed up. There's and article on zoaid.com about them and if you look in the thread here called "help me beat this infection" or something like that, there's a link to it there. I wouldn't toss 'em just yet unless it's spreading to other frags/colonies...

-Sonja

 

[organism]

maybe it's because i didn't frag it by slicing the rock underneath the polyps? i simply lifted the 'mat' slowly since there were so many polyps...QUOTE]


that would definitely do it, next time try to scrape up some of the rock that they're on and they should be fine

 

[Kigs!]

will try the furan2 next time i see signs of this infection. i was too late this time i'm afraid, i was away from the tank while this happened...;\

miguel, have you had similar experiences by fragging zoas through lifting of the mat? i haven't seen any articles that warns people about it...but i guess it put them through significant stress.

 

[organism]

I've done it before, and had like 50% of them turn to mush when the mat is very tightly packed, they got that white fungus for me though

 

[berns]

put a few polyps in a small white plastic container with a mouthful of water and with a scalpal carefully slice/open up the polyp stems and see if any tiny worms swim out, i kid you not as this happened to me with a newly purchased colony and every single polyp had worms in them which i guess were obviously inpregnated before i got the zoa, i even cut open a few healthy looking polyps before they look dead and they too had 1 or 2 worms, i lost the lot within 2 weeks of purchase.

use a white container as easyier to see worms

 

[impur]

You aren't too late. I bet you can save 90% of those. Go with the Furan-2 treatment. I've with Laurie, i've incorporated it into my dipping procedure for all new zoas.

I had zoos in my tank for 2+ years suddenly take a dive with the introduction of 1 wild frag. It spread to about 8 different colonies. I tossed out 3 before i found the Furan-2 dip. I am 100% sure i could have save those colonies i tossed.

 

[Kigs!]

crap... too late...i pulled the frag plugs out and let'em sit in the air for over two hours... maybe it's for the best. i didn't want to risk another second with those guys in the tank and have a chance of infection spreading, without the furan 2 in hand. gotta go pick some up this weekend for future infections. thanks for all the help guys!

 

[Kigs!]

put a few polyps in a small white plastic container with a mouthful of water and with a scalpal carefully slice/open up the polyp stems and see if any tiny worms swim out, i kid you not as this happened to me with a newly purchased colony and every single polyp had worms in them which i guess were obviously inpregnated before i got the zoa, i even cut open a few healthy looking polyps before they look dead and they too had 1 or 2 worms, i lost the lot within 2 weeks of purchase.

use a white container as easyier to see worms

didn't see this post before...that almost sounds too much like something out of Alien or Predator movie series... were you able to ID the worms? any pics of the incident??

 

[organism]

out of curiosity, what the heck is furan-2, and where can I find it?

 

[Kigs!]

lol miguel, i was about to ask the exact same question untill i remembered...

THEN i remembered using furan-2 awhile back for my freshwater fish...lol most LFS should carry it. Here's a DFS' description of the product...you can usually find them in capsule forms as well.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4827&N=2004+113021
"Effectively treats a wide variety of gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial diseases including: Furunculosis (aeromonas), dropsy, gill disease, fin and tail rot and black molly disease. Active ingredients: Nitrofurazone, Furazolidone, and Methylene Blue Trihydrate. One capsule treats 10 gallons of marine or freshwater. Safe for use with scaleless fish. "