Sound like zoo pests?

[Kraff813]

Hello,

I have about 10-12 zoo frags that have been slowly growing over the last few months; however, at least one frag/mini colony has always been partially opened or just closed. Few weeks went by and I've notice now I had two semi-closed frags, and then three - all of which were on one end of the tank. I chucked it up to lighting or flow at that end until....

These green rimmed zoos have always been open and multiplying for the last few months. Last week I moved a frag of zoos that were semi-closed from the other end of the tank closer to these. About two days ago I woke up and they looked like trash (photo below). I test my water parameters about once a week and everything seems normal using a Salifert kits.

I know someones going to ask the following:

1.026 (SG)
76.5 (Temp)
8.3 (pH)
420 (Ca)
8.3 (Alk)
1260 (Mg)
Close to 0 (No3)
Close to 0 (PO4)

Does this sound like pests?

 

[PicassoClown04]

It definitely sounds like a disease/ pest is making your zoas upset. Did you quarantine any of them? Did you get them all from the same place, or different? Especially the first frag that looked sickly, where did you get that and did you buy anything else from there?

 

[Kraff813]

It definitely sounds like a disease/ pest is making your zoas upset. Did you quarantine any of them? Did you get them all from the same place, or different? Especially the first frag that looked sickly, where did you get that and did you buy anything else from there?

I buy from the same place, usually purchase 2-3 frags a month so I've had some in there since December and some went in in May. None of the frags I purchased looked sickly.

No quarantine. I've been dipping in Coral Rx; however, I've read it doesn't kill eggs on frag plugs.

Any suggestions?

 

[PicassoClown04]

Are they just closed or are they kind of turning into jelly? Jelly could mean a bacterial infection

 

[Kraff813]

Just closed and the ones that are semi-closed look deformed/shrunk.

 

[Kraff813]

I may give this a shot.

 

[PicassoClown04]

no, it you look at what’s going on you see the discolored polyp where it’s closed and the stubby appearance of the polyps. Not all zoa melting is the same... this is more of a jellying that sometimes occurs. I don’t pretend to be scientifically trained but I have dealt with this time and again. I believe it to be a bacterial infection that causes this and it can arise out of no where. The best treatment I’ve found is the combo furan-2 / lugol dips. However, I’ve heard of people having equally good success with Chemiclean as well. Early intervention is key. Depending on the strain I’ll either 1) cut the mat between affected and affected zoas or 2) triage by removing the affected polyps and treating the remaining ones. I also generally move it to lower light and higher flow. Unfortunately the OP’s colony appears to be completely compromised, I’m sorry to say there’s not much IMO that can be done to turn that around.

This is from a different post about zoas but these were closed for about a week and jelly-fying. I would try this solution.

 

[ahiggins]

yall are jumping off the deep end real quick...take a minute and just breathe lol

odds are its not a pest or infection and theyre just being tempermental. Zoas are like that from time to time-especially the tiny tiny ones.
I wouldnt be doing all the dips and tricks just yet. can you physically see the frag/tissue? look at night after about an hour or two after all your lights go off. Shine a very bright flashlight in there and see what you can see. Are there things crawling on them, are there bumps, pustules, eggs?

Right now, all you know is they are being weird.

 

[ahiggins]

This is from a different post about zoas but these were closed for about a week and jelly-fying. I would try this solution.

ps. rarely can you stop the jelly-ing from happening. Some people just cant keep some animals in their system. I cant keep fruit loop zoas to save my life but every other living thing thrives.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I feel you, I think this might be a little severe of a reaction but I had a colony die recently from bacteria jellification so that might just be me. Chalked it up to them throwing a hissy fit and by the time I realized, it was too late to save them

 

[ahiggins]

I feel you, I think this might be a little severe of a reaction but I had a colony die recently from bacteria jellification so that might just be me. Chalked it up to them throwing a hissy fit and by the time I realized, it was too late to save them

i get it lol i lost half my stock at one point to zoa pox.
sometimes all the dips are just hurting it when all it needs is to calm down. if theyre still opening, i would give it time. its when theyre closed during the day for a day or two that i start to worry.

 

[littlebigreef]

yall are jumping off the deep end real quick...take a minute and just breathe lol

odds are its not a pest or infection and theyre just being tempermental. Zoas are like that from time to time-especially the tiny tiny ones.
I wouldnt be doing all the dips and tricks just yet. can you physically see the frag/tissue? look at night after about an hour or two after all your lights go off. Shine a very bright flashlight in there and see what you can see. Are there things crawling on them, are there bumps, pustules, eggs?

Right now, all you know is they are being weird.

I got quoted on another post and mentioned here. It’s true that zoas sometimes struggle and then come around. Every person decides how heavy of a hand they want to use. It is a good idea to look at all the variables in a system before you start treating. However, if you’ve done your due diligence and nothing has changed with the system then it’s perfectly fine to pull the affected zoas and dip them (assuming they’re easy to remove). In fact, I’d argue it’s better to treat the instance of the problem rather than making system adjustments (assuming everything else is doing good).

Respectfully, being proactive is not ‘jumping off the deep end’ and dips aren’t ‘tricks’ but rather tools in your toolkit to be used when a zoa colony needs a little extra help. This is especially the case when dealing with more temperamental strains. Folks should be comfortable with doing dips when introducing new corals, lugols dips for stressed corals, and in the case of zoas Furan-2 dips when they’re struggling. To be clear you lose nothing by doing a week’s cycle of furan-2 dips. Dipping an otherwise healthy coral is not gonna hurt it and in my experience is more beneficial than the ‘wait and see’ approach.

 

[littlebigreef]

Unrelated to dipping, @Kraff813 I was looking at your parameters. Are you currently feeding your zoas? The generic "zoas like dirty water" is true in so far as they like slightly elevated nutrients in the water. You can do this one of two ways. Feeding your fish a little heavier or broadcast/target feeding your zoas- I'd advise against dialing back your skimmer as a third method. Given that they all seemed to be doing well for sometime it's possible they're starting to show the effects of starving a little.

 

[Kraff813]

Unrelated to dipping, @Kraff813 I was looking at your parameters. Are you currently feeding your zoas? The generic "zoas like dirty water" is true in so far as they like slightly elevated nutrients in the water. You can do this one of two ways. Feeding your fish a little heavier or broadcast/target feeding your zoas- I'd advise against dialing back your skimmer as a third method. Given that they all seemed to be doing well for sometime it's possible they're starting to show the effects of starving a little.

Thinking about this, I feed my fish very light - and i stopped feeding the SeaChem zooplankton (or whatever it was). Maybe, I'll give that a shot.