Zoo "frag" dying - toast, or refrag it?

[Haggisman14]

Hey everyone. Over the past few days I've been noticing my one frag of zoo's wasn't opening up really well, and then upon inspection tonight, noticed that it looks like some of the polyps are withering away, and some have some brown stuff on them.

Do you think if I cut away the dying polyps I can save the frag? As I do have some new polyps that have been forming and look to be unaffected.

Any idea what causes something like this?

Thanks so much!

 

[Haggisman14]

FYI, these have been in the tank for about a month. This just started happening within the past few days.

 

[Haggisman14]

Anybody?? Going to be heading home shortly, and want to know if ya'll think I can save this, or if it's best to toss the frag and start fresh.

Thanks!

 

[Tallison]

Don't know how much help I can be but I recently bought a zoa frag from a LFS that looked pretty similar. I decided to wait a week and the polyps opened up. I would wait till you see obvious signs of melting or slime being excreted to remove it or try to frag it. Just my opinion though

 

[Davy Jones]

Have you tried a dip?

I personally would use an iodine dip to kill off any bacterial infections. Doesnt appear to be pest related other than maybe your pep shrimp eating at them.

 

[thatsaltydogchris]

Try blowing them off with a turkey baster clean them off a bit could be diatoms or algea

 

[themcnertney]

I say keep them. Zoas are very hardy and can survive some tough conditions.

Give us some more info like parameters, tank size, lighting, ect.

 

[Haggisman14]

Thanks for the update guys, and no, I have not dipped them at all.

Tank: 29 gallon Biocube, temp is 78, lighting is Kessil 160. I don't have the controller so it's set just above 1/2 way for spectrum, and about 5/8ths intensity.

It doesn't look like algae, as the polyps that are affected started to shrivel and then turn dark brown...

 

[Davy Jones]

Thanks for the update guys, and no, I have not dipped them at all.

Tank: 29 gallon Biocube, temp is 78, lighting is Kessil 160. I don't have the controller so it's set just above 1/2 way for spectrum, and about 5/8ths intensity.

It doesn't look like algae, as the polyps that are affected started to shrivel and then turn dark brown...

If you havent dipped for anything that would be my first step.

 

[danschoenherr]

I've had this happen several times....I put them in a dip with CoralRX, used a soft artist brush and brushed them off thoroughly, fragged them and then into a dip with Lugols. It seemed to work most of the time. I still get those bacterial infections periodically and wonder if it is because I have used Chemiclean in the past and killed off certain strains of "good" bacteria.

 

[elev8]

Dip them and keep them for sure