Sponge eating zoa's?

[Bubblebass]

Are these sponges killing my zoa's? They start at the base under the plug and wrap them all up underneath. Then they envelope one at a time. Here's a couple pics. One that is killing all of them one at a time and one starting at the base of my UC's.

What should I do?

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Is that rock removable or part of the main structure?

 

[iReefer]

Yes remove it as much as you can before they choke your polyps to death

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

If can lift rock out for a minute or two, sponges hate air. And if can, while out of the water, manually remove what you can with a pair of tweezers.

 

[Bubblebass]

Ok, so just take it out of the water and pick off what I can. The rock has 5 types of zoa's on it so I can't just remove the rock completely. I can lift it and put it back. None of the others are affected yet. There were other the same thing killed a while back on the other side of the tank.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Could tweeze and siphon in tank of can't remove. Just cut flow to keep from blowing around while doing it.

 

[A. grandis]

Not all the sponges hate air.
You can try that first though.
Many times I just remove the sponges with tweezers.
Not a big deal at all.
But WOW! That thing is swallowing the polyps!!!! Crazy!
Grandis.

 

[Bubblebass]

Not all the sponges hate air.
You can try that first though.
Many times I just remove the sponges with tweezers.
Not a big deal at all.
But WOW! That thing is swallowing the polyps!!!! Crazy!
Grandis.

Just pull with tweezers and they'll come off? They won't just tear into pieces?

 

[A. grandis]

Just pull with tweezers and they'll come off? They won't just tear into pieces?

Stop the flow and remove them syphoning if they tear into pieces when you use fine tweezers.
If you're careful it will be easier than you think.
Just take your time..
Grandis.

 

[Sabellafella]

Just pull with tweezers and they'll come off? They won't just tear into pieces?

You could try, also try some peroxide =) keep your zoas out of water for a half hour, they should be fine and im pretty positive the sponge will die

 

[Bubblebass]

You could try, also try some peroxide =) keep your zoas out of water for a half hour, they should be fine and im pretty positive the sponge will die

Will the peroxide hurt the zoas? I could inject it in the sponge or just dip them.

 

[Sabellafella]

Will the peroxide hurt the zoas? I could inject it in the sponge or just dip them.

I dip all my zoas in peroxide just dont use too much

 

[Sabellafella]

I think they call for half and half of 3% but imo deffinitly not needed. I just fill up a shot glass and pour it in a pint container. Everything bubbles and floats away. Zoas looks a little wierd at first but theyll be fine. Alot of local stores gets zoa colonys that are shipped in newspaper for a few days on end. You can prob get away with leaving it out

 

[CMD2213]

Avoid peroxide if possible very harsh on zoas and corals. Get tweezers and a gentle tooth brush. Remove it that way just be careful.