Dying Zoa colony!

Dowtish · Jul 31, 2011

I am completely at a loss here folks. I have had this colony for about 4 months and has looked amazing since putting it in the tank. I noticed a few days ago that it was looking strange. The polyps were half open in places and seemed to be moving a lot more. like they were detaching from the rock. I knew I had a little hitch hiker crab that lived under them, but had not been a problem. after seeing the aggravated polyps, I took out the colony and captured the crab. That was 3 days ago, and I took the colony out yesterday and dipped it in coral rx. There were about 5 huge amiphopods in the bowl after the dip. I have looked around and it seems like a bacterial infection. I can see discoloration in the "mat" or base of the polyps. like it's eating them away from the bottom up. I have put in some heavy flow to blow off any debris/detritus. I am wanting to just leave it alone for a bit to see if it looks better,since I am making it mad so much, but I'm thinking another dip might be helpful.

All my parameters are great, and everything else is looking awesome. so weird, that just all the sudden it hits.

any suggestions or experience would be highly appreciated.

Ian · Jul 31, 2011

try dipping it in Furan2, I hear it helps with fungus on zoas...

wish · Jul 31, 2011

You should blow away the excess in qt bowl so incase u have hitch hikers or pox go effecting the other zoa in your main tank.
You might want to pick up some Furan 2 and follow CoralPedia.com :: Zoanthid Predators, Irritators, & Diseases

good luck

bluepit · Jul 31, 2011

if it is bacterial infection i use 3 to 1 ratio of hydrogen peroxide and dip for about 3- 5 minutes then dip in lugols to help out with the healing.

Dowtish · Jul 31, 2011

just dipped in furan2 and found a sundial snail! hopefully this was the cause, and now just hope for them to heal.

TighTT · Aug 1, 2011

Dowtish said:
just dipped in furan2 and found a sundial snail! hopefully this was the cause, and now just hope for them to heal.

Hopefully the snail was causing your issues, but this sounds like bacteria to me. I'd still dip in Furan/lugols just to be safe. I lost some very good colonies to infection.

Dowtish · Aug 2, 2011

Well as of yesterday i didnt see any more decline. I have moved them to a little more moderate flow, and might dip them again tomorrow just in case.

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