Zoanthid Condition 2

[Rainfords]

I have a new colony of zoanthids that I received on Wed. Nov. 30.
Today I looked at them and noticed three white patches that are a little smaller than a dime, that are cheesy or mushy looking. It fits the description of the zoanthid condition 2 in your "Aquarium Corals" Book. I have currently cleaned off the cheesy material and put in a dip with Seachems Coral Dip. My main concern is my other zoo colonies the surround the infected piece. So my questions are- can this spread to other rocks, is the dip effective, and what about my other zoos. Any help and advice for this zooanthid lover would be greatly appreciated.

[sbwood007]

I would like to know too.

[EricHugo]

I have no idea if the dip is successful, and I have not seen this condition on zoanthids in a long time to look at it and stain it and see what it might be. I would try Lugol's first after removing anya ffected polyps outside the tank, then go to antibiotic therapy..keep me posted, and we'll go step by step. fwiw, zoanthids are hardy enough to tolerate direct application of Lugol's, so do that outside the tank, wait 5-10 minutes, and then see how they do.

[Rainfords]

My procedure so far: I let the rock sit in a bath of the iodine based coral dip, scraped off all the cheesy substance and affected zoos, put the rock in a fresh dip for about 10-15min, and then placed them in a tank were there are no other zoos. What is the "antibiotic therapy" you speak of? Thanks

[EricHugo]

I'm not going into that until you tell me how the colony is faring after the first treatment, and nor did you really follow my instructions. Bath treatments may not be effective enough to kill a microbial mat, if that'w what it was, and what was the strength of the dip you used?

[Rainfords]

My procedure was done before your replied to my post. The dip was composed of 1gal. of system water and 5mL of Reef Dip, exactly what the directions stated. Today some of it had returned so I followed your procedure and removed the infected zoos and painted on the Reef Dip and left it on for about 10 min. The Reef Dip by Seachem is Iodine based so I didn't know if that is as good as Lugol's or not. I am planning on buying some lugols tomorrow to treat it again if needed.

[jelwyoming]

Any more suggestions for removing algae from corals; or coral from algae..hehe!