Damn those zoanthids

[daniella3d]

I am so fed up with zoanthids, not sure what to do with them any longer. I have beautiful colonies with huges polyps doing extremely well and multiplying like crazy, then suddendly for no apparent reason one colony start to shrivel and die the next day or very soon after.

The strangest thing is that the colony right beside of the same zoanthids is doing great! I made a few frags of the same zoanthids and that's what is hapening with a few of them, but not all of them. Another strange thing is it seem that it is when they are at their most beautiful then they crash...I look at a colony and think "wow, beautiful big colorful polyp" and then the day after they are shriveled. It is almost as if they can read my mind and think "ok we'll go then". It is almost as if they know I am watching them...I know, sound crazy.

This is so puzzling as some of the same polyps, which are Eye of Rae, are growing among another colony which is doing great, but the few polyps growing interlaced in that colony are shriveled. The other type of zoanthids are doing great, not the eye of rae, and the colony of eye of rae beside it is doing great.

My water is great, I do 25% twice a month now, use Reef Crystal salt, calcium 420ppm, Kh is 7, mag is 1300 PH 8.1 at night and 8.3 day time, temp is 76.5F controlled with a controller. Light is 250 watt MH 14k. I dose trace element and coral vite, chromaplex and other food. Ammonia/nitrites 0, nitrates very low, less than 5ppm, phosphates undetectible.

When the polyps start to shrivel, it usually start with one or a few polyp shriveling. It is amlost as if they cannot close anymore and are still trying to close so they get some wierd shape, but they really can't close, even if I touch it. The strange thing is that they were multiplying a lot right before.

I see no parasite either. I dipped a few in 50% water tank and h2o2 but saw no parasites coming from that. At the begining it was only affecting Eye of Rae but now I have a colony or purple hornet doing the same I tried killing a few polyp of yellow polyps and even though I scraped most of it from the rock it's growing back...so my most precious zoanthids are shriveling while I can't even kill those that I don't like!

Anyone had similar experience? I also looked at one polyp under the microscope but only saw a few protozoare but that would be normal for a dying polyp, right?

[reefermadness]

I had this happen to me recently with a nice colony just fading away. My guess was that something eat them.....perhaps one of my fish. It could be a pest but why no other zoa have been infected IDK.

[paddyob]

Yes. My blue steels are starting to disappear.

Temp spike in house only factor I found. Heated the tank to 84F.

[chandigz]

Ya I have the same thing. It's really ****ing me off too. Random frags/colonies Start to shrivel up starting with the stock first and the crown starts to bulge. Its like the stock is being squished and pushing the guts up into the crown. Then they showly disapear. It seems totally random tho. Can't figure it out. Not just new stuff but stuff that i've had for a while too. One day they are doing great then they go to crap. The part that ****es me off is it will happen to one of two of the same establihed frags that are sitting side by side. Now I try to frag my frags so that I have a chance of keeping one if I loose the others.

[daniella3d]

I think that splitting colony in many frags is the only way to go. I am really happy that I got to frag one polyp of my purple hornet that got lose before the colony started to shrivel...as that polyp is standing right beside the mother colony but it is not affected. It seem that the key is to have polyps that are not connected to the common mat. Seem that all zoanthids connected to the same mat are going at the same time. It's really really strange.

I am dosing Vitamine C right now trying to see if it will make a difference and bring back colony that are affected. I also dip them in furan-2 each day to see if that help. It's also very strange that when a colony is not affected by this "disease" it is nearly indestructible. I can cut off one polyp and glue it and within a week I have 4, 2 weeks and I have about 10...growing like crazy. I am managing to keep some specie but they are never in large enough number to sell any frag because of this. I am so afraid that if I sell a frag then I will lose the mother colony and have nothing left.

Man...this is frustrating! :*(

Originally Posted by chandigz

Ya I have the same thing. It's really ****ing me off too. Random frags/colonies Start to shrivel up starting with the stock first and the crown starts to bulge. Its like the stock is being squished and pushing the guts up into the crown. Then they showly disapear. It seems totally random tho. Can't figure it out. Not just new stuff but stuff that i've had for a while too. One day they are doing great then they go to crap. The part that ****es me off is it will happen to one of two of the same establihed frags that are sitting side by side. Now I try to frag my frags so that I have a chance of keeping one if I loose the others.

[Maverick00]

mine were once again starting to look terrible... half way open or closed. I tested for phosphate with the hanna and got a reading of 0.06ppm. I recently had a coral beauty angelfish die so im assuming it had something to do with the phosphate spike. I did a 10gal wc and instantly the zoos appeared to extend fully once again. Not exactly your issue i know, but its amazing how sensitive these things are.

[daniella3d]

I am using phosphate resine so not much of a problem here. I use ferric oxyde.

But yes they are extremely sensitive. I think water change is very benificial for them.

Originally Posted by Maverick00

mine were once again starting to look terrible... half way open or closed. I tested for phosphate with the hanna and got a reading of 0.06ppm. I recently had a coral beauty angelfish die so im assuming it had something to do with the phosphate spike. I did a 10gal wc and instantly the zoos appeared to extend fully once again. Not exactly your issue i know, but its amazing how sensitive these things are.

[chandigz]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I think that splitting colony in many frags is the only way to go. I am really happy that I got to frag one polyp of my purple hornet that got lose before the colony started to shrivel...as that polyp is standing right beside the mother colony but it is not affected. It seem that the key is to have polyps that are not connected to the common mat. Seem that all zoanthids connected to the same mat are going at the same time. It's really really strange.

I am dosing Vitamine C right now trying to see if it will make a difference and bring back colony that are affected. I also dip them in furan-2 each day to see if that help. It's also very strange that when a colony is not affected by this "disease" it is nearly indestructible. I can cut off one polyp and glue it and within a week I have 4, 2 weeks and I have about 10...growing like crazy. I am managing to keep some specie but they are never in large enough number to sell any frag because of this. I am so afraid that if I sell a frag then I will lose the mother colony and have nothing left.

Man...this is frustrating! :*(

Ya i've been fragging my new colonies into several pieces in order to hope to have some or one survive. I try to keep back up of each type. I have been doing the 20% peroxide dips with some success. If I catch it soon enough it seems to help. It seemed to start when I picked up a few wild colonies so I don't know if it is so sort of disease/parasite/fungus. Mine often get a fibery brown/grey coating(fungus?) around the stock that often sluffs of after a H2O2 dip.

[daniella3d]

Did you try Two little fishies Revive? I am trying this on some of them and it look promising so far. It's not harsh on zoanthids but all bristleworms, pods etc are dead in the dip.

I will give some feedback on how it goes with it. I diped a colony today that is just starting to shrivel.

Originally Posted by chandigz

Ya i've been fragging my new colonies into several pieces in order to hope to have some or one survive. I try to keep back up of each type. I have been doing the 20% peroxide dips with some success. If I catch it soon enough it seems to help. It seemed to start when I picked up a few wild colonies so I don't know if it is so sort of disease/parasite/fungus. Mine often get a fibery brown/grey coating(fungus?) around the stock that often sluffs of after a H2O2 dip.

[Myka]

Many Zoanthids live an ebb and flow life in the wild - they will thrive for some time, then fade for some time. Sometimes they will completely die off. It is frustrating, but even the experts don't know why it happens.