Recently a couple of my zoas are coming down with a weird disease. The tentacles disappear from the polyp and the oral area swells up a ton, then the polyp retracts and never opens again.
In the first photo you can see the affected polyps on the left, the farthest back one is the unopening one and the next farthest is the swollen, semi-tentacleless one. I included a photo of the healthy colony from just a week ago.
Another issue is that sometimes different colonies have "rolled" skirts? The tentacles on some parts of a polyp won't uncurl and it leaves a weird whitish line along the edge. I don't really know what's going on there either.
All of this started about a week ago after I added a few new frags to the tank. 1 new zoa, a grubes gorgonian, an alveopora and goniopora, and a lobo(?). I did a very strong coral dip since I saw a nudibranch on the zoas when I got home and the dip was about 20 minutes. Scorched earth, I'm not sure anything could have survived it. Hitchhiking feather worms ejected from their tubes and amphipods made a graveyard in the dip bucket. 2 nudibranchs fell off too, so I assume none were left.
The rolled skirts started 4 days ago and the polyp constriction began 3 days ago. Most corals are not affected but three are by the rolled skirts (a watermelon, fruit loops, and a rasta) and one is affected by the constriction.
29 gallon tank
Parameters:
Temp 78
salinity 1.026
PH 8.0 (but it IS early morning so it should go up later in the day)
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
I don't test alk, calc, phos, etc. since I keep mostly soft corals.
I don't really do waterchanges. The softies and chaeto I grow keeps dissolved nutrients in check and I have a low load of corals pulling calcium from the water. The only time I'll add salt water is if I acclimate and the water level drops by like a gallon.
LPS I have are a small hammer, a small war coral, 1 alveopora (sold to me as a clove polyp), 1 long tentacle goniopora, and some sort of brain coral (I think a lobo).
Everything else is zoas, Mushrooms, GSP, Kenya tree, and a grubes gorgonian.
Gsp and Kenya were added yesterday.
Livestock:
2 small hermit crabs
skunk shrimp
percula clown
royal gramma
2 bangaii cardinals
firefish goby
a bunch of snails.
I've seen a lot of bristleworms in the tank but they don't bother anything, and amphipods are in it too but they don't seem to be munching on anything either.
About 2 weeks ago I dealt with a dinoflagellate outbreak that was annoying the corals a bunch, but a few days with a UV sterilizer and it cleared up. The UV is still running.
The zoa in question was placed about 6 inches from the small hammer coral, however other corals are much closer (and they're fine) and the hammer never sends out sweepers.
I'm trying to include any information at all that I can just in case something is important. Even if it seems unimportant if it happened to the tank I'll include it to hopefully make things easier to diagnose.
I don't want to lose my zoas. They're the whole reason I am in this hobby!
*EDIT*
I also am posting this in the emergency forum since they might also have good advice.
In the first photo you can see the affected polyps on the left, the farthest back one is the unopening one and the next farthest is the swollen, semi-tentacleless one. I included a photo of the healthy colony from just a week ago.
Another issue is that sometimes different colonies have "rolled" skirts? The tentacles on some parts of a polyp won't uncurl and it leaves a weird whitish line along the edge. I don't really know what's going on there either.
All of this started about a week ago after I added a few new frags to the tank. 1 new zoa, a grubes gorgonian, an alveopora and goniopora, and a lobo(?). I did a very strong coral dip since I saw a nudibranch on the zoas when I got home and the dip was about 20 minutes. Scorched earth, I'm not sure anything could have survived it. Hitchhiking feather worms ejected from their tubes and amphipods made a graveyard in the dip bucket. 2 nudibranchs fell off too, so I assume none were left.
The rolled skirts started 4 days ago and the polyp constriction began 3 days ago. Most corals are not affected but three are by the rolled skirts (a watermelon, fruit loops, and a rasta) and one is affected by the constriction.
29 gallon tank
Parameters:
Temp 78
salinity 1.026
PH 8.0 (but it IS early morning so it should go up later in the day)
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
I don't test alk, calc, phos, etc. since I keep mostly soft corals.
I don't really do waterchanges. The softies and chaeto I grow keeps dissolved nutrients in check and I have a low load of corals pulling calcium from the water. The only time I'll add salt water is if I acclimate and the water level drops by like a gallon.
LPS I have are a small hammer, a small war coral, 1 alveopora (sold to me as a clove polyp), 1 long tentacle goniopora, and some sort of brain coral (I think a lobo).
Everything else is zoas, Mushrooms, GSP, Kenya tree, and a grubes gorgonian.
Gsp and Kenya were added yesterday.
Livestock:
2 small hermit crabs
skunk shrimp
percula clown
royal gramma
2 bangaii cardinals
firefish goby
a bunch of snails.
I've seen a lot of bristleworms in the tank but they don't bother anything, and amphipods are in it too but they don't seem to be munching on anything either.
About 2 weeks ago I dealt with a dinoflagellate outbreak that was annoying the corals a bunch, but a few days with a UV sterilizer and it cleared up. The UV is still running.
The zoa in question was placed about 6 inches from the small hammer coral, however other corals are much closer (and they're fine) and the hammer never sends out sweepers.
I'm trying to include any information at all that I can just in case something is important. Even if it seems unimportant if it happened to the tank I'll include it to hopefully make things easier to diagnose.
I don't want to lose my zoas. They're the whole reason I am in this hobby!
*EDIT*
I also am posting this in the emergency forum since they might also have good advice.
