Zoas looking bad

[Bleigh]

So one colony of zoas started disappearing, but the rest seemed okay. This morning they’re almost all closed up and I saw this guy on it. Is it a zoa eating nudi or something else? Any advice?

 

[KrisReef]

That is a nudibranch but it does not look like it ate a whole colony of polyps by itself.

 

[Bleigh]

That is a nudibranch but it does not look like it ate a whole colony of polyps by itself.

I’m assuming if I’ve found one, there’s probably several other ones. Just not sure if it’s a zoa eating variety or how to tell if it is. And if it is, what to do about it.

 

[KrisReef]

I’m assuming if I’ve found one, there’s probably several other ones. Just not sure if it’s a zoa eating variety or how to tell if it is. And if it is, what to do about it.

I don’t keep zoos so I’ve never had to I’d them. I agree with your assessment.
https://www.bluezooaquatics.com/resources.asp?show=15

Resource from web.

 

[Leadfooted]

I had to remove all zoas and basically starve them to death a few years back. Do you dip your corals? What brand?

 

[Bleigh]

I had to remove all zoas and basically starve them to death a few years back. Do you dip your corals? What brand?

No. I started this tank before I knew about qt. I have a bigger one I’m setting up now, and my plan is to set it up how I should have set up this first tank -qt, dips, etc. The plan is to make the old tank be the qt. It’s a 29 gallon biocube.

But I’d like to ensure the zoas survive long enough so I can dip them and move them.

Is going fallow the only way to get rid of them?

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

Zoa nudis can be hard to spot bevause the can take on the color of tge zoas they eat and blend in well. I recommend a good wrasse to hunt them out for you.

 

[Bleigh]

Zoa nudis can be hard to spot bevause the can take on the color of tge zoas they eat and blend in well. I recommend a good wrasse to hunt them out for you.

So wrasses eat them? That’s the next fish on the list to purchase. But I thought something was going wrong because the zoas. Any kind in particular?

 

[Bayareareefer18]

No. I started this tank before I knew about qt. I have a bigger one I’m setting up now, and my plan is to set it up how I should have set up this first tank -qt, dips, etc. The plan is to make the old tank be the qt. It’s a 29 gallon biocube.

But I’d like to ensure the zoas survive long enough so I can dip them and move them.

Is going fallow the only way to get rid of them?

You can dip your corals without the qt tank. I dip every coral before it goes into my tank even if it's from a trusted source. Personally I use coral RX but there are several trusted dips out there

 

[mfrumkin]

1. Yellow Coris
2. 6 Line
3. Lunar
4. Possum
5. Orange Striped
6. Christmas
7. Pink Striped
8. Leopard

Almost any coris wrasse, but they may go after your inverts, shrimps, snails, etc.

I have a 6 line and/or leopard wrasse in all my reef tanks. The leopard wrasse may be harder to keep and will probably be too big for a 29gl tank, I had to go through 2 before I found one that would stick in my 180.

6 line wrasse is what I put in smaller tanks. Reef safe and inexpensive. If you don't have an LFS, Live Aquaria has them for $19.99. If you think you may have an issue I would suggest sooner than later. Experience tells me this stuff gets out of hand way to fast. One morning I had a dozen bubble algae, one week later I had over 100.

 

[mfrumkin]

You can dip your corals without the qt tank. I dip every coral before it goes into my tank even if it's from a trusted source. Personally I use coral RX but there are several trusted dips out there

And if you can, you may want to pull them out and dip them now. There are a bunch of good dips: CoralRX, Lugols, Revive and others. Some people may recommend Bayer, I don't care for it because you need to take a ton of precautions and it REALLY is a poison. I think it was banned in California at one time. Any LFS will carry something that will do the trick. If these are established corals a 20-minute dip won't hurt them. Stir the dip every few minutes or use a turkey baster to help remove pests. Make sure you have a bucket of tank water to rinse them in. My process is as follows with new corals: acclimate in the sump for 20-30 minutes, open in a bucket that has my tank water in it already, drip acclimate for about 30 minutes, dip, with new corals from vendors I have dealt with I usually only dip for 5 minutes, I don't want to add stress, rinse and place. If I grow suspicious that there is something wrong, hasn't happened in a long time, I can pull them out and dip. I buy from the same 3-4 vendors so I don't worry about long term hitchhikers after the initial dip, maybe I should.

I am going to go against the grain here. Quarantining your corals is nice and the conventional wisdom is that you should. But do you really have the patience to wait and watch for 30 days? I don't. I've also started to get away from drip acclimation. I've read a number of articles that say it is a waste of time. Quarantine fish? If I purchased fish online I would. I purchase my fish from the same LFS I've dealt with for 20 years and THEY quarantine for 2 weeks before letting the fish leave.

Hope this helps.

 

[Bleigh]

You can dip your corals without the qt tank. I dip every coral before it goes into my tank even if it's from a trusted source. Personally I use coral RX but there are several trusted dips out there

Would it do any good to take them out and dip them now? Some of them are attached to rocks and one of my colonies was around a clam. Not sure if those can be dipped?

 

[Bleigh]

1. Yellow Coris
2. 6 Line
3. Lunar
4. Possum
5. Orange Striped
6. Christmas
7. Pink Striped
8. Leopard

Almost any coris wrasse, but they may go after your inverts, shrimps, snails, etc.

I have a 6 line and/or leopard wrasse in all my reef tanks. The leopard wrasse may be harder to keep and will probably be too big for a 29gl tank, I had to go through 2 before I found one that would stick in my 180.

6 line wrasse is what I put in smaller tanks. Reef safe and inexpensive. If you don't have an LFS, Live Aquaria has them for $19.99. If you think you may have an issue I would suggest sooner than later. Experience tells me this stuff gets out of hand way to fast. One morning I had a dozen bubble algae, one week later I had over 100.

I do have a few lfs’s. I’ll plan on going this afternoon or tomorrow.

 

[Bleigh]

And if you can, you may want to pull them out and dip them now. There are a bunch of good dips: CoralRX, Lugols, Revive and others. Some people may recommend Bayer, I don't care for it because you need to take a ton of precautions and it REALLY is a poison. I think it was banned in California at one time. Any LFS will carry something that will do the trick. If these are established corals a 20-minute dip won't hurt them. Stir the dip every few minutes or use a turkey baster to help remove pests. Make sure you have a bucket of tank water to rinse them in. My process is as follows with new corals: acclimate in the sump for 20-30 minutes, open in a bucket that has my tank water in it already, drip acclimate for about 30 minutes, dip, with new corals from vendors I have dealt with I usually only dip for 5 minutes, I don't want to add stress, rinse and place. If I grow suspicious that there is something wrong, hasn't happened in a long time, I can pull them out and dip. I buy from the same 3-4 vendors so I don't worry about long term hitchhikers after the initial dip, maybe I should.

I am going to go against the grain here. Quarantining your corals is nice and the conventional wisdom is that you should. But do you really have the patience to wait and watch for 30 days? I don't. I've also started to get away from drip acclimation. I've read a number of articles that say it is a waste of time. Quarantine fish? If I purchased fish online I would. I purchase my fish from the same LFS I've dealt with for 20 years and THEY quarantine for 2 weeks before letting the fish leave.

Hope this helps.

The lfs I buy from qt their own fish too. I’ll dip the zoas on plugs. But the first one I noticed having issues is attached to a rock. Not sure how to go about dipping that.

 

[Hemmdog]

Sorry your having issues @Bleigh

 

[Leadfooted]

No. I started this tank before I knew about qt. I have a bigger one I’m setting up now, and my plan is to set it up how I should have set up this first tank -qt, dips, etc. The plan is to make the old tank be the qt. It’s a 29 gallon biocube.

But I’d like to ensure the zoas survive long enough so I can dip them and move them.

Is going fallow the only way to get rid of them?

You can dip anything you want but it's likely not going to work at this point by dipping(doesn't hurt to try though). They're in rock work too in search of more food, moving around at night. They camoflauge to match the color of the zoa like a dang Chameleon so it can be very tough to tell the difference between an open healthy Zoa and a Nudi eating a Zoa. Fish might help along with dipping. For what it's worth, it's only zoas to be worried about, it could be a much worse pest so your kinda lucky even in this situation. Starving them does work if you can re-locate your zoas/palys for a while. Don't forget to look for eggs too.

 

[mfrumkin]

Depending on your rock stack you could dip the whole rock. It depends if you can get the rock out without destroying your aquascape. You are going to have to either dip the rock or remove the zoa from the rock if you are going to try and starve them out. So either way something is coming out. How much rock do you have? And how is it "secured" in the tank? I only have 20 lbs. of rock in my 30gl and if I really had to I could take it out and dip it all. But you don't know what impact that might have on any other corals on those rocks. It SHOULDN'T impact them negatively but you never know. Dipping will probably kill the clam, I've never dipped one, but I imagine Coral RX wouldn't do them any good.

Another alternative is to go to your LFS if you trust them and they are knowledgable and get some advice from them. You can get lots of good advice on R2R but without actually seeing your tank and the situation it may not be accurate.

Having a reef tank can be a STEEP learning curve. The lesson here: Dip, Dip, Dip before placing it in your tank.

 

[kichimark]

Hi Bleigh . Dipping may not work on the eggs if there are any. A while back I had a nudi on my zoas and I just siphoned him out with a turkey baster and kept an eye on the colonies for a few weeks. Try to check in during the night with a flashlight. An interesting note is that while I was watching for nudi's, I spotted some zoa spiders (creepy guys). For them I used little tweezers and pulled them out. It took two weeks of checking during the night until nothing was around anymore and never had an issue since. The wrasses are a good idea too but they will only be out hunting during the day so keep that in mind.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Would it do any good to take them out and dip them now? Some of them are attached to rocks and one of my colonies was around a clam. Not sure if those can be dipped?

As others said dipping won't take care of the eggs but dipping may help to identify what may be potentially bothering them, depending on what you see fall off them in a dip. If you do dip them may want to place them back in the tank where they can be easily pulled to dip again to try and rid them of potential new hatchlings from any eggs that were there.

I har flatworms bothering a couple torches. It took a few dips to get rid of them

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

I had zoa nudis once, bayer dip only stunned them, they were all moving after a long while in the dip, as previous post said it may help to find some but won't cure the problem.

The eggs look like small while spirals, i was able to carefully scrape them off of zoa polyps, but still ended up with a melanaurus wrasse for the cure.