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