Zoa/paly removal/ways to impede growth?

soreefed · Aug 17, 2023

Hey yall

I’m wanting to remove/take the purple/brown zoas in the center of this pic.

They smother other cooler zoas as they have huge skirts, and they are really good at stretching and reaching far away rock.

I’d like to remove them entirely or at the very least impede them in some way.

The rock isn’t massive but it’s my most filled out rock with multiple torches on it… I really don’t wanna pull it out of the water but starting to seem like the only choice.

Any ideas?

MoshJosh · Aug 17, 2023

may be able to kill them with F-aptasia or kalk paste to their mouths. . . maybe one of those fancy UV laser could work (thought about this for my pocillopora) but pretty prices for a non-sure thing.

Pod_01 · Aug 17, 2023

You could try Red Sea AptasiaX or Tropic Marin Elimi-Aptais.

PeterErc · Aug 17, 2023

Remove them with tweezers, then scrub the rock with a toothbrush. Run some carbon in case of toxins, and don’t let any of the nasty boogers get away and spread somewhere else. Also wear a protective glove, I was removing some green pieces of chit and cut back of my hand on a vermetid I didn’t see under the mat of nastiness. Ended up with a nasty infection.
May not get rid of all of them but should slow them down.

hunterallen40 · Aug 17, 2023

You can 100% feed them kalkwasser. This is how I deal with zoas I don't want.

CoralB · Aug 17, 2023

Get a case of bryopsis or GHA in between them and don’t try to remove theGHA or bryopsis !! Kidding lol !!

soreefed · Aug 17, 2023

hunterallen40 said:
You can 100% feed them kalkwasser. This is how I deal with zoas I don't want.

I think I’m going to look into this method kalk paste or injection. Thanks for the reply!

hunterallen40 · Aug 18, 2023

soreefed said:
I think I’m going to look into this method kalk paste or injection. Thanks for the reply!

It's super easy, and I do it all the time. I just mix "an amount" (really non-specific) with some™ RODI water, and squirt it into their mouths with the flow cut off. They close up quickly, and melt over a few days. Very easy, and very effective.

KK's Reef · Aug 18, 2023

I've tried the Majano wand to beat back Oxides and Rastas. Didn't work, it just ticked off the Zoas. The current also freaks out the fish if you keep the zapper on for too long. I just use F-Aptasia now. I do a few square inches at a time, leave it on for a week, then siphon off a week later and repeat.

Timfish · Aug 18, 2023

This is what I do - steel straws. Don't worry about palytoxin affecting other animals, they may actually have higher levels. What you need to do to protect your self is wear gloves if you have any scratches or wounds and don't do anything that will aerosolize the slime from them.

soreefed · Aug 18, 2023

Timfish said:
This is what I do - steel straws. Don't worry about palytoxin affecting other animals, they may actually have higher levels. What you need to do to protect your self is wear gloves if you have any scratches or wounds and don't do anything that will aerosolize the slime from them.

Hmmm very cool… I like this idea the best. I’ve noticed my fish get kinda stressed when I’ve cut a few of the zoas/palys off the rock in the past, but I guess with a siphon going should reduce the cloud of crap they put out when you cut them.

soreefed · Aug 18, 2023

First pass with a steel straw siphon and I got a fair chunk of them removed. Time limited by the amount of water I change weekly so it’ll prolly take a few weeks to suck them all out. Cheers for all the replies!

MDAquatics · Aug 18, 2023

well that looked like it worked out pretty good!

soreefed · Aug 18, 2023

MDAquatics said:
well that looked like it worked out pretty good!

Pretty happy with the result and it’s nice that I had everything I needed laying around!

Pod_01 · Aug 19, 2023

soreefed said:
First pass with a steel straw siphon and I got a fair chunk of them removed. Time limited by the amount of water I change weekly so it’ll prolly take a few weeks to suck them all out. Cheers for all the replies!

Congratulations, but I have a question. What is the name of the chalice in the right bottom side (green with yellow dots)?

Just a heads up, be careful with your orange yuma(at least I think that what it is). I like them but at one point they took over my tank and are very aggressive (they killed everything in their path) so I had to remove the rock with them. I tried to kill then /scrape them etc… but they always came back strong. Zoas removal is easy in comparison.

soreefed · Aug 19, 2023

Pod_01 said:
Congratulations, but I have a question. What is the name of the chalice in the right bottom side (green with yellow dots)?

Just a heads up, be careful with your orange yuma(at least I think that what it is). I like them but at one point they took over my tank and are very aggressive (they killed everything in their path) so I had to remove the rock with them. I tried to kill then /scrape them etc… but they always came back strong. Zoas removal is easy in comparison.

Thanks for the advice! That one I believe is Florida ricordea

That chalice was sold to me as space invader chalice.

Pod_01 · Aug 19, 2023

soreefed said:
Thanks for the advice! That one I believe is Florida ricordea

That chalice was sold to me as space invader chalice.

If it is Florida Ricordea you should be good, they are model citizens from my experience.
Here is the orange Yuma that took over and it just killed all corals in its path.

I got it as a bonus coral at one point. Live and learn and no more bonus corals for me.

Here is my Space invader :

Size of a dinner plate, the leading edge has left over damage from fighting the orange yuma. The not so funny thing is it was sold to me as JF Raga rampage but I was always suspicious it was space invader.