Zoas have Sandy Crust on them

[DogfoodEnforcer]

Hi there, im new here!

i recently got some zoas and the frag arrived beautifully and opened up great within 10 minutes of going in my tank. i noticed that there were about 2-3 polyps that had a sandy crust on them, it was black and white..looked like they had been sandblasted. this morning i noticed it more. so i decided to just cut them off, because i didnt want anything it could be from spreading, and it also just looked like something i wouldnt be able to cure. i DID do an iodine dip before introducing it to the tank.

i took some pics of it, but my camera is at home, and completely out of batteries, so ill post them later on tonight.

im just wondering if anyone knows what it could have been? the polyps were completely closed up and crusty...it was very weird.

either way, the polps are gone now, and i made sure everything was removed from the frag, so hopefully whatever it was doesnt come back.

 

[Hypertek99]

Palythoas use sand to build their polyps so you will see sand in it's stalk. Pics would help us more to identify it.

 

[DogfoodEnforcer]

it was a dark, hard, crusty thing that had grown over 3 polyps, then spread to a 4th overnight. it didnt look too nice. i poked it to see if it would come off but it was full on stuck to the polyp.

 

[Pufferpunk]

What kind of polyp is it?

 

[DogfoodEnforcer]

i believe they are Tequila zoas. beautiful ones. probably my favourite in my tank.

 

[Hypertek99]

Is your camera charged now??? If you can post a pic it would help us out.

 

[DogfoodEnforcer]

i slept at my gfs last night :marv


im about to head home now and feed the tank, ill grab my camera then.

as i said earlier though, i cut off the sandy nasty bit because it was spreading. but i took pictures before i did it. so ill post those when i get home!

 

[DogfoodEnforcer]

here's the pic. this was taken right when i got them. since this is the first time ive seen the blown up pictures i notice that the sandy stuff is a lighter colour. which makes me worry because it seems that they were coated in sand...but i tried to get the sand off them but it wouldnt, and it turned black the next day, and had spread to another polyp...the newly sandy polyp went from being out within 30 mins of going in the tank to not opening at all the next day because of the sandyness...unfortunately my upclose vision isnt amazing...so i wasnt able to discern exactly what was covering them.

keep with me here...im a zoa noob.

i checked the frag today (after snipping off what i thought were covered in something nasty a couple of days ago). it's already completely healed over.

 

[kiran523]

Neozoanthus species are known to have sand incorporated into their base and part of their stalk. I'm not saying that this is what your case is but my Blue Shuriken neozoas look just like that before they open up. Good luck in finding an answer.