Getting rid of zoas

[Bars]

I have a bunch of incredibly ugly alien explosion zoas on my rock that I really want to get rid of. It's just a few, probably 10 or so heads, but they're starting to spread. They're on a rock with a bunch of different corals, so I can't simply take the rock out and remove them in whatever way.

Would something like aiptasia x get rid of them? Boiling water/vinegar/lemon juice? Or do I risk nuking myself, my tank and my cats if I go that route?

 

[boacvh]

I grab mine with twizzers and pull. Then glue to a frag and give to somebody

 

[littlebigreef]

Or bone cutters and mangle the rock (if you can).

 

[Bars]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give tweezers a try!

 

[Andreas' Reef]

I grab mine with twizzers and pull. Then glue to a frag and give to somebody

would that not release palytoxin in the water?

 

[dakoop]

I bought a laser to deal with some in my tank

 

[boacvh]

would that not release palytoxin in the water?

TBH I don't know, not an expert by any means. But I always use gloves and eye protection and have never seen an adverse effect with any of the corals or fish when fragging like this. Grab by the matt, not the polyp and they come off the rock all together.

 

[workhz]

I bought a laser to deal with some in my tank

??

 

[dakoop]

??

Laser individual polyps. They over heat and melt away

 

[workhz]

Laser individual polyps. They over heat and melt away

Laser with what? Don't say laser. Any details?

 

[DeniseAndy]

It is a tool used for aiptasia. Can be used with zoas. I assume that is what the person means


eg. https://zeuslasers.com/products/spe...uarium-aiptasia-majanos-killing-removal-lazer

 

[muzikalmatt]

would that not release palytoxin in the water?

It certainly can, especially if you're tearing tissue but typically you only need to be worried about palythoa, particularly the ugly trash palys or the large palythoa grandis. However, it is still worth being cautious when dealing with any zoas.

For me, I've been slowly removing some texas trash palys from my rockwork and I do as much as I can during each weekly water change. I wear arm length gloves and goggles, then start the syphon with my water change hose and start pulling the palys off the rockwork. I make sure to keep the water change hose/syphon right on top of where I'm pulling them so the polyps and any excretions they let out are sucked up instead of dispersing into the water column. I've done this four or five times now without issue. I typically run some carbon afterwards too just to be safe. Obviously it would be better/safer if you could pull the rock from the tank and do this separate from your display, but the particular rock I'm removing them from I can't remove from the tank.

 

[hllb]

I used tweezers to get rid of maybe 60 or so pandoras. I pulled maybe 10 to 20 a day until they were gone. I see I missed a few so I'll be getting the rest of them shortly. The ones I removed have not come back at all.

If you are worried about toxin in the tank, run carbon for a few days. I wore gloves while doing this and did it underwater, in my tank.

 

[dakoop]

Laser with what? Don't say laser. Any details?

I bought a light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation device on ebay and used said tool to eradicate the said zoanthid.

Or

I bought an aptasia laser on ebay and zapped the son's o biotches

 

[workhz]

What happens if a fish swims by/through the laser?

 

[aSaltyKlown]

If you are able to pull the rock, do that and use a chisel or other blade to remove them. The other corals will be fine for at least 20-30 min, longer if you keep them sprayed down with some tank water.

 

[dakoop]

What happens if a fish swims by/through the laser?

Gotta make sure they don't. Mine stayed away from it.

 

[fish farmer]

Stainless steel straws....scrape and siphon. You can soften them up a day or two before with Frank's F- Aiptasia.