A Polychaete Word of Caution

[naesco]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

I will grab photos tonight when the lights are off to see If anyone can ID them as fireworms, so far so good in the new tank.

Naesco is it possible that the bristle worms are simply irritating the zoas to death? I'm not talking like 2-3 worms per colony @ night I'm talking like 10-12 and a few large ones. The bristles of the worm break of really easy and man do they hurt!

Sebae again I have seen my wrasses eat them during the day but the numbers are far to high to be biologically controlled. Besides all my fish sleep at night, the worms only come out when its pitch black so we have timing issues .

Zoaelite all of us that have established tanks will have tonnes of bristle worms. They can devour a small dead fish overnight with no trace. What attracts them is dead, decaying tissue or matter.
Most of us have a zoa here and there and if one of them gets sick and dies it is another lost coral with no explanation.
But a specialty tank like yours that is covered in stunning beautiful coloured zoas would allow a disease to spread easily.
Yes it is possible that dead, decaying zoa that attract bristle worms could also cause inadvertent bristle damage to some healthy polyps.
But, the problem is the determining the cause of death and doing something to stop it and not the bristle worms.

If it is disease you will have to be strong and remove most of the polyps in each colony leaving only the guaranteed healthy ones and keep them as far apart from each other.
Look for a chemical or drug solution that you could use as a dip.
Does anyone have any ideas?
If I can find something I will let you know. sorry!

[Zoaelite]

No problem at all you have been a great help! I dipped them in iodine dip while doing the transfer and the polyps that were in distress are looking a little better.

Testing the water right now then I will take photos.

[hillegom]

have you seen any zoa eating nudibranchs ?

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by hillegom

have you seen any zoa eating nudibranchs ?

None at all.

[Zoaelite]

Okay water test results:

Salinity- 1.024
Temp- 79.4F
pH- 7.9
Ca- 420ppm
Alk- 8DKH
Mg- 1250ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate- 13ppm
Ammonia- 0ppm
Phosphate- 0ppm

and a few photos:

[Myka]

I have Zoas do this occasionally too, but they are always new frags. I always put it down to them being some of the more finicky Zoas like Magicians, and Blue Steels. Plus my Filefish was eating them when he was in there.

[hockey nut]

Very nice setup ZoaElite

You may have a case of zoa pox... it's like chicken pox but for zoas. Palys seem somewhat unaffected by zoa pox. If your zoas are closing up and stay closed and you see very small white spots not many but a couple here and there you probly have zoa pox.

Also as for dipping your zoas, I use flatworm exit. It kills everything not just flat worms. It will get rid of nudis,bristle worms, flatworms, those pesky little white 5 leg starfish etc etc without harming the zoas. When I buy a zoa frag etc I just add a few drops of FE to the water in the bag I bought the zoas in and give it anywhere from 10-20 minutes. Give it a rinse of some tank water and Bam! all is well. As for nudi eggs I use an old toothbrush as it grabs the whole egg sack in one swoop.

Anyhow hope you get it sorted out.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by naesco

Zoaelite all of us that have established tanks will have tonnes of bristle worms. They can devour a small dead fish overnight with no trace. What attracts them is dead, decaying tissue or matter.
Most of us have a zoa here and there and if one of them gets sick and dies it is another lost coral with no explanation.
But a specialty tank like yours that is covered in stunning beautiful coloured zoas would allow a disease to spread easily.
Yes it is possible that dead, decaying zoa that attract bristle worms could also cause inadvertent bristle damage to some healthy polyps.
But, the problem is the determining the cause of death and doing something to stop it and not the bristle worms.

If it is disease you will have to be strong and remove most of the polyps in each colony leaving only the guaranteed healthy ones and keep them as far apart from each other.
Look for a chemical or drug solution that you could use as a dip.
Does anyone have any ideas?
If I can find something I will let you know. sorry!

Naesco, you know I am a suported of bristle worms and like tyou there are many benifits to havign them, but there are different types of worms and there is one type that feeds on polyps which zoos are. so it is possable he has 1 or 2 zoo eating worms. I had one very large zoo eater which I just lived with as my tank was a SPS tank and the zoos I did have were ugly.

Steve

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Naesco, you know I am a suported of bristle worms and like tyou there are many benifits to havign them, but there are different types of worms and there is one type that feeds on polyps which zoos are. so it is possable he has 1 or 2 zoo eating worms. I had one very large zoo eater which I just lived with as my tank was a SPS tank and the zoos I did have were ugly.

Steve

Didn't snap photos last night as I was a to tired but after a quick glance I appear to have some diversity in the group. None of them look like fireworms, at least from what I can see from google photos. The zoa tank seems to be doing much better, possibly from the dip itself possibly from lack of irritators.

[naesco]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Naesco, you know I am a suported of bristle worms and like tyou there are many benifits to havign them, but there are different types of worms and there is one type that feeds on polyps which zoos are. so it is possable he has 1 or 2 zoo eating worms. I had one very large zoo eater which I just lived with as my tank was a SPS tank and the zoos I did have were ugly.

Steve

Ya agreed. Check my first post, Steve.