A Polychaete Word of Caution

[Zoaelite]

For you major zoa collectors out there I have a word of caution;

Well for the longest time I have had various zoa's go from healthy and thriving to melted stumps over the period of a few days. At first I thought it was water parameters, possible ALK swings so I purchased a dosing system to alleviate this. After witnessing no change and actually watching more colonies melt I pointed the finger at possibly high phosphates (I can never tell with my API test kit). I removed my TLF Phosban reactor when I purchased my Vertex NP Biopellet reactor so this conclusion made sense except zoa's usually have a good resilience to water quality fluctuations.

Another 2 weeks pass after I reset up my TLF Phosban reactor (while also upgrading my skimmer) and within the span of 3 days I lost 2 of my favorite colonies to the same thing. The oral disk looks perfectly fine but the coenenchyme (The actual base portion of the zoa) and the stalk are thinned all around. The zoas show this for a day or two then eject all of there zooxanthellae, melting themselves in the process.

Now I have always thought of bristle worms as harmless scavengers that clean my sand bed until I bought a blue light and staked out my tank 3 hours after I turn the lights off. I was shocked to say the least at the astronomical number of Bristle worms living between and around the polyps at night time. After removing a rock and pulling the worms off I tooth and combed it to find 100's of little bristles actually stuck into the zoas.

Now if a bristle worm sting causes my fingers to swell up and gives me a headache for 2 days I can imagine what it does to a tiny little polyp. So my solution, like any good reefer I went out and bought another tank to tie into the main system specifically for zoas. (Oh god my poor Visa card)

I will grab photos when I head home tonight but a big thanks to Jesse for letting me pick up his tank as soon as he did (He actually moved all of his livestock to a different system just for me). After Iodine dipping and thoroughly inspecting all 70 colonies I actually had a BUCKET full of Bristle worms ranging in size from a few mm to over 9" long!

As the dip didn't kill all the worms and as many live inside of the rock I have been keeping a very close eye on the tank at night time removing any remaining stragglers.

So if you are an avid collector of zoas I highly stress quarantine and dipping all of your rocks to ensure there safety. Bristle worms in large populations will cause damage to your colonies, this unfortunately I found out the hard way.
Levi

[Sebae again]

You might be able to keep them under control or eliminate them with a fish.I had a orchid dottyback that ate all my bristle worms.

[naesco]

Zoaelite
I am sorry to see that you are suffering losses especially to a reefer that takes the time to specialize as you have.

But, I think your are giving the bristle worm a bad rap. They are scavengers not predators on coral and zoas. They are an exceptionally benefical scavenger and harmless to reef animals.

I can think of two possibilities.
1. Your zoas are dying from some disease and the bristle worms as scavengers are cleaning up the dead tisse. That is the job they were doing that night.
2. That you do not have brisstle worms but you have bearded fireworms (hermodice carunculata which are predators and love zoas. Thankfully they are very rarely seen in the hobby.

[marie]

Originally Posted by naesco

Zoaelite
I am sorry to see that you are suffering losses especially to a reefer that takes the time to specialize as you have.

But, I think your are giving the bristle worm a bad rap. They are scavengers not predators on coral and zoas. They are an exceptionally benefical scavenger and harmless to reef animals.

I can think of two possibilities.
1. Your zoas are dying from some disease and the bristle worms as scavengers are cleaning up the dead tisse. That is the job they were doing that night.
2. That you do not have brisstle worms but you have bearded fireworms (hermodice carunculata which are predators and love zoas. Thankfully they are very rarely seen in the hobby.

I had a fireworm once, they do love zoos. I finally spotted it one day with it's mouth completely engulfing the head of a paly....unfortunately I was on the phone at the time and the only thing within my reach was a wooden skewer.


Once you've seen one the differences are obvious, they are very hairy and the bristles break off very easy

[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 .

[Seamazter]

If your dipping the colonies to kill the worms, remember that some do die inside the rock and do not come out.
This will increase your bio-load for quite a long time.
I did this once by drying out alot of rocks and having a huge ammonia swing after adding back the dried out rock again.
Even if one stays inside and dies, your going to see it cause a spike.

[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.