White filaments on Zoa Stalks

[Plauri55]

Sorry not the best picture. This small colony of Zoas has white filaments coming off the stalks.
Any ideas? Not seen on any other Zoas or corals.

 

[Oldsalt01]

Hard to tell from the pics, but might be Bryozoans or Hydroids.

 

[Plauri55]

Thanks!

 

[Oldsalt01]

Don't rely on my half-arsed ID. See if you can get a better pic with less blues. That will give us a better idea of what you're dealing with and how to handle it.

 

[Plauri55]

Don't rely on my half-arsed ID. See if you can get a better pic with less blues. That will give us a better idea of what you're dealing with and how to handle it.

Will do

 

[Plauri55]

Sorry, camera wants to focus on goby.
I too think it's some type of hydroid.

 

[Oldsalt01]

I think u might be right. I can see multiple "tentacles" on a couple of them. There are literally hundreds of species, so positive ID can be tough when trying to decide a treatment method. I got hit with them a couple of years ago. I added Peppermint Shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni, and they took care of it. But then they also took out two multi-head Acans the day after the coral was added, so it's a crap shoot. Just to confuse the issue, they could also be tube worms, but I'm doubting it. Can't be sure from the grainy photos. Beautiful goby, btw.

 

[Plauri55]

I'll keep a watch on it for now. They are on an isolated rock. Hopefully won't spread elsewhere. What scares me is that they weren't there one day and the next all over that Zoa colony.

 

[wattson]

hydriods,,what a pain..get a small matted file fish,,they will pick on the hydriods..

 

[Plauri55]

Pretty sure they will pick at corals also, no?

 

[wattson]

file fish did nothing but good for me,,actually got a filefish for aptasia but he did not touch a single one but did eat alot of hydriods..
just bought another matted filefish,,sadly he is SOOOOOO small,,I had to buy him just because hes tiny..lol..I always try to but fish tiny size,,I have a problem of fish growing too big tooo fast in my system..LOL
he doing the same as the bigger one in the tank does,,eats hydroids but no aptasia..

 

[Plauri55]

I was just going on other people's experience with them. If I get desperate I may go that route. Also heard peppermint shrimp.

 

[wattson]

I was just going on other people's experience with them. If I get desperate I may go that route. Also heard peppermint shrimp.

shrimp will do nothing in this situation,,as far I know..most predators that eat hydroids will eat zoas and soft corals..hate to say,,Ive wasted countless hours reading on the net on this topic..and this was just a coincidence the filefish ate them..

 

[Oldsalt01]

Peppermint's can be problematic. They were model citizens for a year. But as soon as I added the Acans they tore them up! Bannished from my system FOREVER. Lost the corals too. Filefish do the job and I've not heard of them eating corals but ya never know.

 

[Plauri55]

Thanks all for the info