Zoanthids/ palythoas melting

[Kaylajo]

I posted on her awhile ago about my zoanthid problem. My palys and zoas all of a sudden closed up 1 by 1 or or multiples at a time, and literally melted away into nothing. I lost 18 zoas & palys within a week. Then I did a 70% water change, 3 times. And everything else in the tank is THRIVING (elegance, Hollywood, mushrooms, feather duster, Duncan, hammer , etc). I just moved 2 zoanthids in the tank yesterday and today they both are melted. They were beautiful huge zoas and now they are gone, but again everything else is doing fantastic. I do not understand what is going on. I have talked to a lot of people and nobody has a clue, water parameters are perfect. Anybody else have this problem?

 

[Sean Duggan]

If everything else is doing good I would guess they’re not melting but getting eaten by something.

 

[TheKyle]

I’m by no means an expert but when I have had zoas melt it seems to be they are getting too much light. Either that or algae issues, sometimes green, sometimes black algae. Peroxide dips can help kill the algae then you can remove it gently with a q tip. It worked on at least one of my recent palys that was overtaken with algae. But it’s hit or miss for me. Lost another zoa frag with the same treatment so it’s not a sure thing for me.

 

[TheKyle]

I’ll just add I find zoas can be frustrating for an “easy coral” seems like they can be trouble in certain tanks with no explanation why. For some reason palys have been more reliable in my setup. For reference my sps, lps, and softies do great in the same tank but certain zoas won’t

 

[fishguy242]

possible zoa eating nudi's but usually in my exp don't eat palys not 100% on that ,more advice coming ,i',m sure ,best of luck ,happy reefing