Vanishing utter chaos....

[taxiem]

am baffled right now.

Literally overnight, my utter chaos frag has gone from 7 to 3!

Params spot on, no nasties on the particular colony, no sign of any kind of asternia star anywhere ( i check rigorously on a daily basis as my tank is hopefully going to be a zoa dominated 25l.

I "think" I can see possibly 2 of them very closed up low down so potentially only lost 2

Other than stars, nudis and spiders what else would cause such a drop in numbers almost overnight? xx

( stock wise I have hermits, turbos, nassarus, conch, algae blenny, pair clowns and pair of chrmis none I have ever witnessed chimping my oas ) x

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

What are your nutrient levels at? I noticed in our tank that when our water is to clean zoas and palys don't do as well.

 

[taxiem]

Am not at home to access my folder with test results but I keep the water slightly dirty because of the zoas. Everything else is thriving zoa wise hornets, rrastas, AAV, BBEB, sunsets, saurons, twizzlers, sakuras etc all opena nd looking great xx

 

[Tahoe61]

Do you check at night, late late at night?

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Then my next question would be what Tahoe61 asked. My husband and I have had issues with asterina stars eating our utters and it took us a few months to finally catch one in the act.

 

[Cary]

Sometimes they close when they are budding new polyps. I hope that is all that is happening.

 

[taxiem]

I have literally sat until 3am watching the tank - I have a little torch next to the tank that I use for spying at night too. Am perplexed but a m going to dip it today anyway.

Looking at the particular piece of rock ( very small thankfully ) I fear there may be hydroids on there sprouting out too so the rock will likely get zoas fragged off it and get binned xx

 

[taxiem]

Now down to 2 polyps - they are melting I think rather than being a nasty

 

[29bonsaireef]

Fungus or infection maybe. Zoas can be the easiest and hardest things to keep in an aquarium. I have had zoas melt rapidly for no apparent reason multiple times in the past. Other than the common culprits, I suspect infection is the main reason for these random melting zoos. Usually, there's not much you can do to save them other than dipping and hope some pull through.

 

[ot7]

How much light are they getting? too much light can cause them to start melting. Utter chaos are the type to look and do best in lower light, if they turn super orange then they are getting too much light.

 

[taxiem]

Fungus or infection maybe. Zoas can be the easiest and hardest things to keep in an aquarium. I have had zoas melt rapidly for no apparent reason multiple times in the past. Other than the common culprits, I suspect infection is the main reason for these random melting zoos. Usually, there's not much you can do to save them other than dipping and hope some pull through.

there is no infection that I am aware of - everything else in the tank and surrounding the chaos is thriving?

How much light are they getting? too much light can cause them to start melting. Utter chaos are the type to look and do best in lower light, if they turn super orange then they are getting too much light.

It is a small possibility I am fearing right now having 90% ruled out any other explaination - to the bottom of the tank they go in the hope that there will be survivors xx

 

[29bonsaireef]

It wouldn't be an infection that effects all of your zoas. Zoanthids are inverts, not corals and they can pick up disease or infection individually. Usually something is stressing them out to begin with for this to happen. If you are running LEDs chances are the lighting was too intense. I would keep them away from the rest of your zoas if they are still melting. If it is an infection it can spread to other colonies.

 

[Appaloosa1224]

I had chitons that only ate one type of zoa (on a rock with 5 other colonies of zoas) and ricordea. They were hard to spot (full grown was about 5mm) and I'm still removing on a daily basis.