Palys partially closed

[AaronFReef]

For the last year in my 40g volume system my larger zoas/palys have all been shrunk up. Any Sonic flare zoa I introduce to the system dies in a month or two. All other zoas don’t die but the larger palys are unhappy. The smaller zoas grow fine as do my mushrooms, LPS and lots of acros and testing and ICP show good stable params. Light is high and flow is moderate.

There seem to be small white circles on their stalks at times. Particularly on one type of the zoa (the oldest in my system). Here’s a bunch of pics of them:

As you can see it’s the bigger palys that are ticked like utter chaos and blue hornets vs Emeralds on Fire. Nothing else is upset.

I’ve individually dipped in lugols and hydrogen peroxide and CoralRX all the palys that we’re ticked at one time or another. I don’t think I’ve ever pulled every last zoa rock and dipped them simultaneously.

One friend suggests this is bacterial and I should dose Chemiclean to treat the whole tank for some unknown bacterial pathogen. I am scared to do that because I battled coolia dinos for a year and didn’t defeat them until I got some cyano growing to push them back. If I knock back any cyano present I could be back in a world of pain.

Anyone have an ID for this pest or any tips on mitigation?

 

[Oscar47f]

I would separate the afflicted zoanthids and get a closer look, you can separately treat with chemiclean and iodine dip as well and monitor for changes

 

[AaronFReef]

I treated the whole tank with chemiclean and saw a slight monthlong or so improvement. I have dipped the zoas all at the same time as well. Still this problem persists in my tank. It's as if I have either an algae that loves to grow on palys tissue, or a fungus. Does anyone else have some guidance for the owner of a garden of deflated and sad looking palys? My SPS, softies, and LPS are still growing fine. Even my zoas are growing like weeds. But anything "paly-like" is unhappy such as my Utter Chaos and Sunny D zoas.