New to this forum...having trouble with my zoanthids.

opaquelace · #1 11/15/2007, 01:45 PM

I recently bought zoanthids and this is my first time keeping them.

I got my shipment of blue zoas from Ken at sealifeinc on Friday and since then only a few have opened. I found some spots that could have been zoa pox on a few polyps so these polyps were sacrificed for the health of the rest of the frag. I'm worried about them. I haven't been able to find any Furan 2 treatment and by the time I get some in in the mail it might be too late. Is there another dip I can perform that should ensure the survival of my zoas?

Also:

Yesterday, I bought a colony of zoanthids that were opened after 15 minutes of being in my tank. They appeared happy and healthy. Today however they have not opened. There is spongy material on about three of the hundred or so polyps, and there is a lot of beige sponge on the LR they came on. These polyps look healthy when closed, they are just closed and I'm unsure if this is a bad sign or something that should be expected sometimes with stress.

This is them yesterday.

This is them today.

killingseed · #2 11/15/2007, 10:35 PM

i would reduce the light time by some or at most run the actinics more. they are new and stresses due to shipping and now you cutting on them. personal i would have held off on the cutting for atleast a week to help reduce shipping stress. give tem a couple days.

what are your water par.? i would look in to that as well.

opaquelace · #3 11/15/2007, 10:53 PM

Water params are as follows

Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - less than 10

I didn't cut on any of my zoas. They have been just sitting in my tank. The only thing I did was remove the zoas that looked like they may have had pox.

suppressivefire · #4 11/15/2007, 11:43 PM

the hermit could be messing with them to.

Wrench · #5 11/16/2007, 09:17 AM

That is the same thing that's been killing my colonies for the past 6 months. I have yet to figure out what it is. I've tried FW dips and Iodine dips but neither seems to help. I don't think it has anything at all to do with placement. It's happened to colonies of mine that have been in the same place for over a year. I'll just wake up one day and they're closed up. Yesterday it infected my colony of Bali Safecrackers, I'm less than happy about that!

opaquelace · #6 11/16/2007, 09:57 AM

I did a 10 minute 25% hydro peroxide and 75% tank water dip yesterday. Didn't seem to help but I'm going to try again today.

As for the hermit, they were definitely closed WAY before the hermit decided to climb on them.

dustin Combs · #7 11/16/2007, 11:48 AM

Many folks are palgued with this fungus or bacteria. Some people have had great success with the Furin-2 dip.
In most cases we are battling an infection due to the stress of shipping and it's new surroundings.
I woud suggest looking into the Furin product. It isn't very expensive and it may be worth trying. Your loss looks imminent so give it a shot. JMO Good luck and keep us informed.

opaquelace · #8 11/16/2007, 02:00 PM

Thanks for all of the replies. I can't get my hands on any Furan-2 until tomorrow so they are going for another hydrogen peroxide/tank water mix dip tonight. A few of them are trying to open up today, but they still look bleak so I'm hoping after the hydrogen peroxide dip tonight and the Furan-2 dips starting tomorrow they will get better.

Wrench · #9 11/16/2007, 09:18 PM

Please let me know how it goes. I'm currently trying to get my hands on some Furan 2.

Tonight I tried a FW dip with Iodine (Seachems coral dip) but I'm not holding my breath.

InADream · #10 11/17/2007, 12:32 AM

First off, do not do a Furan Dip until you have exhausted all other possibilites, Furan will either kill them all or save the last few... Furan has been shown to help with zoa pox, and it is a very harsh treatment... As for the blue zoas, did you remove the polyps with the spots and do anyother zoas have spots... If not then definately dont touch Furan.

As for the other polyps, head to your LFS and get some lugols Iodine and do a dip of that first before anything else... Also all corals shoud be dipped in Lugols or Tropic Marine Pro Coral Cure before entering your system...

Most of us will dip them and then put them in QT for awhile... Zoos not opening could be a ton of things, different lighting than used to and need time to adjust seems to be one of the biggest...

The sponge like things on the zoos is just that Sponges.

What are all of your parameters, salinity, PH, Alk, Cal or so on...

Dream

opaquelace · #11 11/19/2007, 05:22 PM

My zoanthids are going to survive. More than half are open today, and a little less than half were open yesterday. I'm expecting a full recovery.

Wrench · #12 11/19/2007, 07:01 PM

On Saturday, I performed a FW dip with Seachem Coral Dip as well as set up a carbon reactor. So far I've got about 80% of the infected colony opening back up. I'm hoping for a full recovery also. Still not sure what the culprit was, but I'm thinking the carbon made the biggest difference. I was also experiencing low Mg levels, so I brought them up to the higher end of the recommended range which may have also helped.

Hopefully this is the end of my Zo Woes