Zoa Poop?!

[ckmullin]

So...a new little frag of zoa started very slowly expelling a dark (nearly black) ...um...something aprox 12 hours after tank introduction. I've ready anywhere from zoa poop to expelling excess zooxanthellae. The black masses of 'somethings' are 1 mm diameter...made up of smaller 'somethings' aprox .2 mm diameter.

Anywho care to take a stab?

As always thanks!


I've photoshoped the pics to give the best visible 'something' contrast. Fom eyeballing it...the color is nearly black.

[Ram3500]

Gross

[ckmullin]

Originally Posted by Ram3500

Gross

you don't like zoa's poking turtle heads?

[daniella3d]

It looks more like they are expealing their zooxanthellae. They look kind of bleached.

[11purewater]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

It looks more like they are expealing their zooxanthellae. They look kind of bleached.

+1

[11purewater]

are they on the bottom of your tank?

[Coralgurl]

They were from my tank and found under a rock. Not sure how long they were there. They didn't look quite so pale, more grayish when they came out of the tank. I had them mounted but they must have gotten knocked off and weren't noticed as being missing. Any saving them?

[ckmullin]

About 24hrs later and looks the same. Time will tell...if nothing else, I've learned zoa can poop zooxanthellae!

[daniella3d]

saving them? only time will tell. Are they worth saving? anything rare? if not I would not worry about them too much as common zoanthids are easy to find and cheap to replace.

I would not place them in too strong light for now, more at the bottom of the tank until they regain some zoo. shutting off the pump and feeding them with Fauna Marin UltraZoa might (only MIGHT) help, depending if they are eating or not.

[denny_CC]

They'll come back easily, can have full color in a couple weeks.