New zoa colony

[Aedanmor]

We acquired a couple of new zoa colonies recently and one of them seems to be doing quite well except for possibly the section highlighted in this picture. I’m super new to all of this so wondering if the long tentacles shown in the pic are part of the zoa, or is this another coral taking over? It is it something else all together?

Any ideas?

 

[Robert_ellis]

Aiptasia

 

[Aedanmor]

Good, bad?

 

[emerald525]

It’s bad. It has a sting to it and can spread all over like weeds. There are numerous ways to kill it if it is isolated . Get Joe’s juice , Aiptasia x , kalkpaste. Basically you just squirt it directly in.
Most likely if there is one there are others. Some people find peppermint shrimp to work. For a full blown infestation without risking damage to other corals Berghia nudibranchs work better than anything.
Some people have luck with a file fish but they also sometimes will eat your Coral too.

 

[Aedanmor]

Ah. After researching... bad. Definitely bad. Ok will try the syringe and hot water trick.

 

[Reef Doc]

I prefer a 1 min dip in hydrogen peroxide. It takes a couple days for the zoas to come back. If they are palys then this would kill them. make sure they are zoas.

 

[Eddie Rogers]

It looks like there 2 more to the left of the big one. Anyone got any tips on how to remove aiptasia from a colony of zoa?

 

[Robert_ellis]

I use orange juice from the oranges on my tree. Killed them in about 5 min and the whole base fell off.

 

[Aedanmor]

I use orange juice from the oranges on my tree. Killed them in about 5 min and the whole base fell off.

Did that hurt the coral?

 

[Robert_ellis]

I did it around acans actually and no negative impact I can tell. I just squirt it right on the aiptasia. It didn't touch acans much.

 

[easternreefer]

i have used peppermint shrimp successfully. just make sure they are true peps not camelback shrimp being sold as peppermints..

 

[alonso24k]

I used Red Sea Apstasia X. I only had 3 and it killed them all. One more grew but I don’t know if it was new or one came back but I used the apstasia x on it and now I’ve been free of them for over 6 months

 

[Michael Naegeli]

I often deal w Aptasia popping up in my Zoa colonies. I just shut off all pumps and close up all polyps gently touching them, then hit w Aptasia x. Works well for me. Just use very sparingly and leave flow off for like 15-20 min as it smothers out the weed. I then before turning flow on suck out the Aptasia x foam w a turkey Baster so it doesn’t get on any othe corals. Gotta really look out for new ones regularly though and keep under control

 

[Aedanmor]

Aiptasia-X worked like a charm!