Zoos closing and dissolving???

[jordanh]

I think the only sure fire way to protect against this kind of things is to share a frag of your favorate zoanthids with another local reefer like Scribe said; make a backup so if yours crashes at least you can start over again with a frag.

[Elite]

Originally posted by MinibowMatt
that sucks Elite...
Have you tried dipping them since they closed? or fragging off some good polyps before they die?

I till have 2 polyps out of 25 .... Yeah I did dipped them.. but didn't help

[sadsak]

i have heard that their is a heart worm pill for dogs . you must get it from a vet. some kind of antibiotic ...that you can mix in a bucket with r.o water that will help .. i will see if i can find a name of the pill.....

[bkztrini465]

Hey Guys, just came accross this thread. Good read. This happened to me before out of no where. I tried a FW dip with no success. I've been in the clear for a long time, but who knows it could happen again. Hope someone finds the "cure" for the fungus problem.

[lalc]

The first thing I do (when the colony allows) is to frag separate and put in a separate tank--If you don’t have another tank give/swap it with a friend---if you don’t have a friend Hi my name is Curtis now give me some frags!!

I to am in the process of loosing one of my colony’s and after reading this article I am VARY glad that I GAVE yes GAVE my frags to others after all I don’t know it all and the best way to protect my investment (wining the auction plus shipping yhadayhada) is to isolate the frags.

Having read your article I choose to cut and frag the good ones and cut the rest. Not even going to bother trying to save them and I sleeps like a baby knowing that I can start over for free.

[Reef Junkie]

I think sometimes we just think too hard about what's going on in our tanks.

Seriously, if you want to think, think about this...

Remember that rash of flesh eating bacteria (Necrotizing fasciitis) that was terrorising our coutry a few years back?
It was plastered across the news and everyone was paranoid that they would get it. Who here even knows someone that had it, personally? Probably noone, because it attacked people that had weakened immune systems. Kind of like these dying zoanthids.

Healthy animals don't just melt, there is more to it then spontaneous fungal growth. Whatever is actually eating the animals is always there, just waiting for an opportunity.

So lets stop thinking this is a fungus or anything like that.
Lets get back to basics. Just like the flesh eating bacteria, this malady is only affecting weak animals. There is something going on with our tanks that is causing a similar experience, lets call it zoanthid RTN.

Yet, all that has been posted is empathetic gestures of having similar experiences.

Who here has began doing serious water changes? Who here has stoped and done a full cleaning of their system?
It's just too easy to blame this on a mysterious "fungus".

This looks like another case of the white pox disease. All of our greatest thinking has lead us back to the same simple solution.
Water changes.
Oh, and that zoanthids don't like the lazy mans water change, carbon.

Cheers,
Mr. Happy

[EvilInSin]

I was having a huge problem with my Zoas, still am having some problems. I thought there must be a predator in the LR that I missed. I took down the whole tank and FW dipped all of my LR for a few hours. Yep I killed everything on the rocks I'm sure. Then to make sure I had no rogue crab that could have lived I inspected and poked each and every rock. Had an almost complete water change that night too.
It seemed like I had fixed the problem. Then I see some nasty looking pod on one of my zoas and sucked him out and killed him. The Zoas he was on started to die in the next few hours and is completely gone now. I got a mandarin fish to kill off all the bugs in my tank and am waiting to see if I see any more of the bugs.

However at this minute I have 4 small frags that are closed and for no apparent reason. They were open an happy for various amounts of time, then one day they just close up and dont open again. I adjust flow to give them more and nothing. I have now after aprox 2 week of closeing moved them to the bottom of the tank to see if it helps. They look fine and healthy but closed!
I think it has something to do with the types becuase the same types keep dieing on me. I think Zoanthis gigantus? (the PE types) are fickle for me. 1 RPE closed for 3 weeks now, and some green stardust PE closed for 2 weeks. I also have what I believe are herman reds closed, and some dark bluish ones closed.

I have lost several of the gigantus types (with the white stripes when closed) and lost 2 frags of Armageddons as well as some other brightly colored zoas. I have no idea what could be going wrong in my tank to make them close on me, I have at least 20 other frag sized colonies in the same tank that are open and growing well.

[Shultz]

Originally posted by Reef Junkie
I think sometimes we just think too hard about what's going on in our tanks.

Seriously, if you want to think, think about this...

Remember that rash of flesh eating bacteria (Necrotizing fasciitis) that was terrorising our coutry a few years back?
It was plastered across the news and everyone was paranoid that they would get it. Who here even knows someone that had it, personally? Probably noone, because it attacked people that had weakened immune systems. Kind of like these dying zoanthids.

Healthy animals don't just melt, there is more to it then spontaneous fungal growth. Whatever is actually eating the animals is always there, just waiting for an opportunity.

So lets stop thinking this is a fungus or anything like that.
Lets get back to basics. Just like the flesh eating bacteria, this malady is only affecting weak animals. There is something going on with our tanks that is causing a similar experience, lets call it zoanthid RTN.

Yet, all that has been posted is empathetic gestures of having similar experiences.

Who here has began doing serious water changes? Who here has stoped and done a full cleaning of their system?
It's just too easy to blame this on a mysterious "fungus".

This looks like another case of the white pox disease. All of our greatest thinking has lead us back to the same simple solution.
Water changes.
Oh, and that zoanthids don't like the lazy mans water change, carbon.

Cheers,
Mr. Happy

Couldn't agree more with you

I also think that by then moving/dipping/cutting all the other Zao's you might have you then stress them, in turn weakening them & more like to catch it themselves....

Cheers Shelton.

[jessiesgrrl]

I have had several that melted... but I think mine were due to stress. I bought a UV sterilizer and since then, it hasn't been a problem for normal day to day tank colonies. Shipping is of course different, I still lose some there, but other than that I have been good.

And YES! I do water changes... LOL

Laurie

[Reef Junkie]

Lets face it, no matter how much you know, or how dilligent you are, you will always lose animals from time to time.
If you're losing animals more often then keeping them alive, then there is a bigger problem at hand.

That bigger problem is too much or too little love.

If you're new to this hobby, the too little love isn't what's in your heart, but maybe well thoughtout good intentions that went bad. Usually from a lack of experience.

The opposite is someone that is over zealous and keeps their reef in tip top shape. The moment they begin to get a little lax from lack of interest or life gets in the way, the tank can head south, fast. Especially people who feed religiously and a lot, but also use heavy skimming and other mechanical means to clean the water.

Either way, I've said it before, I'll say it again; find someone you know that has a really nice tank and seems to know what they're doing, then introduce yourself. Make sure they're local and same sex. This helps with emergencies and staying married.

Ask them if they would be willing to help you with questions about your tank, a mentor. Your local reef club would be a great place to start, or just look on here.

Don't be shy to ask either, there are a lot of truely geniune and great mentors on just this forum alone.

Who knows, maybe a zoanthid mentor thread will begin?

I still use my mentor and we're great friends. I was kicking back some beers with one of my proteges last night.

[b0wenj]

This is starting to happen to some zoanthids I have and I really think it is because I removed my charcoal and left it out of my circulation for a while. Of course this would not be that bad except I have frogspawn, torch, hydnopora, pavona, hammer coral and a few other stinging corals that seem to leave traces of stuff in the water that without charcoal is probably just circulation in my tank and touching things I want to keep alive. Just my opinion but I think removing charcoal and having the type of tank inhabitants I have bit me on this one. To me this looks no different then if the zoanthids touched on of these stinging corals. This is why I think all the dipping in the world won't work. You dip the zoanthid and get it clean then stick in back in the same water. I wonder if someone tried to dip it or just move it to clean water if it would survive. I am going to try that. Let you know my results.

[dreamreefer]

ok, i didn't both reading the whole thread to find out if someone provided an answer for the white fungus/film over their zoos, so here it is:

the white film is an oppotunistic fungus that usually grow over stressed animals. If you had a colony going well for a while and all of a sudden you got that on that colony, most likely it is introduced from a foreign source. the whilte fungus will completely take over if nothing is done about it. I'd say as soon as you see them take the following actions:

1- NEVER EVER try to clear or clean that in the main tank, it WILL spread to other colonies which you;d hate to lose.

2- prepare a bowl of same tank water mixed with LUGOLS (follwoing instructions for dosage), move rock out and place it in the bowl. Using a tweezer, completely scrap all zoos covered with the white crap, as well as the ring of good, surrounding zoos.

3 - when all scraping is done, use a brush to brush the bare spot completely and what leaves behind, is a patch of bare rock, nothing else.

4 - dump water out and prepare second bowl of LuGOLS and leave rock in for a good 15 - 20 mins.

5- when its time to move the rock back, either place it to orig place or move it to a higer flow area to prevent any chance of the white stuff coming back.

I've been through that and l;ost several colonies and the above is what I adopt to use and it works all the time. Good luck all...

dreamreefer

[b0wenj]

Can you tell me what Lugos is and where I can buy some ?

I also wanted to mention in my case it is not white spots on the zoas. My zoas closed up and now seem to be covered in a brown bubble and the top of the zoanthid I notice starts to dissapear aftter about a week of this bubble being on it. If I touch the bubble it really appears to me like cyna alge consistancy but it isn't. Its almost a film. I have scraped this off and found it came back within a day.

I have already about 2 days ago moved the zoanthids I have with the problem to another tank by itself. Does not seem to be improving. No water was transfer to the new tank. In fact I mixed it all fresh. This was probably not the best option to do but I really did not want this to spread to the rest of my zoanthids.

[MinibowMatt]

back from the dead

[Avi]

Originally posted by dreamreefer

the white film is an oppotunistic fungus that usually grow over stressed animals....dreamreefer

Okay...good info on the White...but recently, and not for the first time, a dark blue thin "skin" started covering some of the palythoa in my reef...Some of it can be removed very easily by blasting the colony with a turkey baster but some of it is more stubborn and I have to actually rub it off the polyps. It does choke and even kill polyps, though this time I was able to save them all.

Does anyone have any knowledge of what it is and what causes it? Thanks for any info on this..I haven't been able to find any anywhere despite having made the effort.

[dreamreefer]

have not heard of a dark blue thin film or seen it myself...does the film cover over a few polyps or individual polyps? I've seen zoos turn black or dark blue but that is on individuals, and it is not a "skin"...

[Avi]

well, it can cover a good number of the polyps in a big colony...Blowing water over them will loosen and dislodge some of the blue "skin" and then rubbing with the end of the turkey baster will dislodge some more. This is what I did last week and the colony seems now to have fully recovered. In the past, I have experienced losses though.

As far as the color is concerned, it really does appear to be a dark "Navy" blue color. It covers the neck of the polyps and the face of them, as well.

[dreamreefer]

that's interesting, again, never heard of before.i"ve seen black ones dislodge though, maybe they're the same...

[cmb88]

good discussion.. awhile back a guy asked about heartworm pills for dogs...I am a vet tech the name of the pill is heargaurd...but i cant see how dissolving this pill will help!! be careful

as for the rest i have had a similar problem..gooing gooing gone everything else healthy in tank good advice thanx.. i was thinking of just sacraficing that zoo for tanks sake thanks

[ryno212]

has anyone used furan-2 on this problem? seems to help with the zoa pox.... I will keep using it and let you know if this helps any..

[b0wenj]

Just wanted to give an update on my issue.....After taking the whole colony out of my main tank and putting in a new bucket of freshed mixed salt and a powerhead and leaving it there for about 3 weeks with somedays of all darkness and others light I finally moved my zoas back to my main tank and my problem seems to have gone away. The zoanthids that started to die did but the rest lived. I only waiting 3 weeks because I had other things going on and had no time to move them back sooner. I was only going to wait a week.

In my main tank I put back my carbon 3 weeks ago when this started and my zoanthids now seem to be thriving again since adding them back.

[happyface888]

Intresting thread, I am having the same problem atm, but there is no white or blue film on mine. I notice that my zoas are turning small and the stems are shrivled up like s stick and the heads dont look so big anymore. I have no idea what to do atm. I am going to do a water change and run some carbon and hope that they will do better.

[Jimbo327]

Originally posted by happyface888
Intresting thread, I am having the same problem atm, but there is no white or blue film on mine. I notice that my zoas are turning small and the stems are shrivled up like s stick and the heads dont look so big anymore. I have no idea what to do atm. I am going to do a water change and run some carbon and hope that they will do better.

This is exactly happening to mine. No film. One day, I noticed a lot of the pink polyps are closed and some of the stems were really thin. I don't think it will make it.

[seapug]

Glad I found this thread and that I'm not the only one who this is happening to. I've always found Zoas to be about as carefree and easy as a "coral" can be, but in the past month I have had three colonies do the "withering" thing. The polyps get umbrella shaped and small then the stems get skinny and eventually dissolve away. I see no nudis and have no cheesy film stuff. The affected ones sit right next to others that show no symptoms. All have been in my tank for no less than 4 months. Very strange. Wish I knew what the hell was going on....

[siv]

I have the same problem with one of my small colonies, but its starting to recover.

About two weeks ago I started changing my dosing methods. Instead of putting in a whole bunch of alk buffer once a week i starting putting in a little bit every top-off (about 2 days).
About a week in to this dosing regime i got this brown slime/fungus on one of my small colonies of palys. I'd blow it off with a baster but it would keep coming back. About 1/3 of the colony died off before I smartened up.
Here's what I did.
I couldn't remove the colony, so I gave my DT a strong dose of iodine. the first dose got dumped into the tank, and the second dose got administered by a baster right onto the affected area of the palys. The fungus has since stopped, and the paly's are recovering slowly.

Now here's what I think triggered it. When i was testing my alk, I was taking shortcuts. Instead of adding one drop, capping and shaking the test tube, I initially added 5-6 drops, then went drop-by-drop. When I noticed the paly problem I tested everything, and when I did my alk test drop-by-drop (as per instructions) my alk was at 15dkh.

No water changes were done. Just the iodine treatment and I stopped adding alk buffer, but added calcium to bring the alk down.

HTH