Dissolving Zoanthids

[Baldy]

I had never read about this until it just recently started happening to me. I had always read that zoas were a hardy, attractive coral to add to a reef tank. I couldnt agree more. I had 3 colonies of zoas, and 1 really nice colony of emerald palys. the palys hitch hiked on the live rock i bought, but the other 3 were frags that i added.

the frags had been in the tank for around 4 months, and the palys have been growing since i set the tank up in feb of this year. Until recently. Admittedly, i have been a bit negligent on my water change duties, but all parameters were still more than acceptable. 0 nitrates, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 350 calc, 7 alk, 8ph, 80F temp. nothing went out of whack. I did a 20g WC 2 weeks ago, replaced the NPX bioplastics in my phosban reactor, and cleaned the skimmer, and since then, ive watched 2 zoa colonies dissolve, the 3rd which i was hopeful for is closing up and beginnig to fade now, as is the palys though to a lesser extent.

I dont necessarily need help regarding this as i doubt there is anything i can do, just wanted to share my disappointment. i have been very happy with my tank until now. kenya trees popping up all over the place, some rics that are splitting, hammer coral, along with some others which i havent been able to identify yet. other than a bad case of aiptasia that im working on, everything is great. i guess this is the downside to this hobby sometimes huh. :sad:

[babyreef]

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[Baldy]

Intermittently using aiptasia x, but haven't used it recently. I have a shipment of berghia nudis on the way as well

[babyreef]

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[daniella3d]

Well that's what it is about zoanthids. The long term success is far from garantee...

I had the same thing hapening in my aquarium and many people experience the same thing. I have some paly (pink and gold) that are absolutely undestructible and I can thear them in 2 and both half of the polyp will survive, but the smaller zoanthids are a pain.

I have started to dose vitamine C because I was not ready to lose all my zoanthids and after 2 weeks of dosing, things are getting a lot better! I can see a clear improvement. Some zoanthids that were prone to melting have multipled and the plugs are full of polyps.

If you wish to keep zoanthids for a long time, and you are having problem with melting, consider dosing vitamin C as it will help a lot. First check for parasites, including the large amphipods wich will eat zoanthids flesh, and if no parasites are found, then I would dose VC.

Another thing that I find help a lot to make them grow is feeding Chromaplex. I have tried many type of food but have best succes with this. Although Chromaplex does not prevent zoanthids from melting away.

Also you can try dipping your colonies in 1/3 peroxyde 3% and 2/3 tank water. When ever my zoanthids are invaded by algae, or are closing up, I dip them for a few minutes with that mix. Does wonders :)

I use Aiptasia X all the time in my colonies because my dear copperband won't touch aiptasias...and it never ever affected negatively any of my frag. Sometime the white paste splash all in between the polyps but they are fine once the stuff is gone. I doubt that is what is killing your zoanthids. Zoanthids are very sensitive to swing in PH, alkalinity, salinity and temperature. Be sure that your parameters are stables.

[reefwars]

Zoas are pretty hardy in general, for them to dissolve means something major is affecting them.


zoas are actually quite finicky though some are very hardy others dont last and alot of them just melt away for numerous resons.


Could be many things..


kinda sucks and def very misleading that zoas are a hardy coral they are quite sneaky and while they can do well and explode in growth in just a few short months they can then just melt away in a matter of days, very frustrating.

[babyreef]

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[babyreef]

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[Tracey2]

I have had the same thing happen lately, I have had zoas for a couple of years, they were doing great, spreading looking beautiful then all of a sudden started shrinking.

I have been experimenting, I moved 2 colonies up in my tank where there is more flow, I left 2 colonies where they were and have done nothing but blow them off a bit and I moved 2 colonies out to a 10g and have been doing furan2 dips for pox, this was a little over a week ago. The 2 I moved up look bad, from the 2 I moved out, 1 looks a little better the other looks the same, the ones I left in place look the best, go figure. I have vitamin c on order and will start dosing soon, hope it helps.

My skimmer has not been at its top performance lately and I also run biopellets, I am wondering if its to do with bacteria in the tank.

[daniella3d]

I don't think so since dosing vitamin C is a form of carbon dosing and it does create a biofilm on things like pumps and glasses (I think I was dosing too much!), so it does help some bacterias to multiply. I don't know what it is about vitamin C that help them. Dosing vitamin C require a good skimming.

Instead of having algae on my glass now I have this gray/white film and it's greasy. It build up so that I have to clean it about every other day but my zoanthids are doing much better.

Another thing is each time I dip my zoanthids in peroxyde, there are dozen of small bristle worms coming from the frag. I am guessing that those small baby worms are anoying the zoanthids. All those ichy detaching bristles can't be good. You can try dipping some of your affected zoanthids in peroxyde and see what come out. They usually perk up after such dip.


My skimmer has not been at its top performance lately and I also run biopellets, I am wondering if its to do with bacteria in the tank.

[DCDN]

Its also hard to remember that zoanthids come from all parts of the ocean. With some being a hundred feet down to others being exposed to air for hours as the tide moves in and out. Often they are grouped all together yet they may have very different needs. I've also lost 2 colonies recently with a different colony on the same rock surviving. It is unfortunate but the best that can be done is to learn from it and try to avoid it in the future.

[Baldy]

The only problem with that is there is no way to learn from something when you don't know what the cause was in the first place

[reefwars]

theres alot in the hobby we dont understand ,you could try the same colony again and come out with a total different outcome this time and the thing about zoanthids as mentioned is they need different things some die fast some die slow, some want light some want little,some like random flow some prefer little flow.when your talking about a species of coral that has such vast requirements could be hit or miss on getting them to grow. its part of the fun of the hobby is trying to get things to flourish and if it was easy everyone would be sucessfull at it but its not and alot of things come into play and even more that we dont understand,this is why i mentioned that they are always misclassified as being a hardy or easy coral to raise.in your case it could be something as simple as too much light or something as complex as starved to death over time.unless it was something directly you did or noticed/changed chances are you wont get the answer your looking for just a bunch of what if's.keep trying different varietys and see what grows for you.cheers:):)

[Tracey2]

this morning, I took one of the colonies that I had placed higher in the tank and gave it a peroxide dip, only 1 pod came off that I could see, that colony is only slightly open now.

[reefwars]

i would feed my zoanthid tank and it did quite well i had around 80 different colonys and i rarely had any melt away unless they were new or unhealthy to begin with if anythiong i took alot of zoas that didnt look well and turned them around.my zoa tank had low nitrates and phosphates and water changes every week.i didnt shoot for a low nutrient system and they seemed to like it , also they were pretty much the only corals in there.alot of them sat directly under a 250w halide,some liked it better in the shade took alot of moving to figure out what grew where once it looked good i left it alone and never touched it afterwards.i ran no carbon,didnt dip any of them.had a low bioload of 2 fish.wasnt dosing anything as well. i believe feeding them and changing water is where my success came from.zoas didnt do well in my 180 or my 11o mixed reefs so i started a small 33g just for zoas it was grown out completely with in 2 yrs.;)

[daniella3d]

pics?

a small 33g just for zoas it was grown out completely with in 2 yrs.;)

[Baldy]

Also, a 33g zoa tank like that, would ot work running off the sump from your main tank, or os that something that should have its own sump system?

[reefwars]

Also, a 33g zoa tank like that, would ot work running off the sump from your main tank, or os that something that should have its own sump system?


mine didnt run a sump or skimmer just a modded ac110 as a fuge.the biggest problem i had with zoas was neglegence on my behalf like aiptasia , i let the tank go untreated for a year then got plagued with about 300+ heads of baby aiptasia they would grow between the heads and prevent them from opening and feeding.i then bought a filefish who would nip at the zoas.i let nutrients take my tank over at one point and then had to battle numerous types of algae and high phosphate levels.

[reefwars]

pics?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EROt-NevV3c