near disaster avoided!!

[siren's eye]

I went to the LFS today and purchased a big rock covered in zoa. I thought I scored big because it was only $10. I was so happy, until I got it home and noticed it had zoa eating nudibranchs all over it! I researched and did a FW for 3 minutes and checked for eggs. Is there anything else I need to do? I unfortunately don't have a QT Should I just put it in a bag and float it in my tank for a few hours so I can observe it?

 

[siren's eye]

AHHH! I just spotted another live one! How could it have survived? My poor zoa are so freaked right now!

 

[superclown]

U def don't want to put that in your tank without doing a rx dip

 

[siren's eye]

is there anything else? I don't have any money for coral RX right now

 

[siren's eye]

what about iodine?

 

[superclown]

5ml of iodine in freshwater for 5 minutes take a tuppaware container and do a fresh saltmix get the salinity where u need it put airstone in it if possible to make a temporary quarintine tank. A light would be great as well but zoas are pretty hard to completely kill unless ur water is really bad but u need to wait in between iodine / fw dips. Another option might be to frag as much of the zoas as u can off the rock and bleach the rock for later use and do a freshwater dip on the zoas after u frag them and then u wont have to worry bout puttig hitch hikers in ur tank

 

[jcook54]

Superclown's right, you need a QT something. You never know what might get through. Even if you could get Coral Rx I'd still keep it in a QT of some sort just to be on the safe side. Plus, keeping it separate for a while will allow for any other potential problems to show themselves.

 

[siren's eye]

Ok, I found an old critter keeper, heater and filter to keep it in. The filter I have is for a 5 gallon tank, so the flow would be very high. Is it better to have too much flow or none? How much iodine do I use? I'm assuming I only dip it in a few time a day, and not keep it in it right? How often should I dip, and how long do I keep it in QT?

Thanks guys for all the help

 

[superclown]

If your filter is the traditional hang on the back filter you should be fine on flow I would do 5ml (1 cap full) like 20oz soft drink size cap in decent size container of fresh water. i would do it for 5 minutes for once a day but keep in mind your stressing the corals out as your doing this If you have a quarintine setup you can prolong the time you have to put these in the tank and observe them. I would see if you can put some time of light over the tank so the polyps can open and get there energy they need from light as well. Your main concern is not over stressing the the polyps as your doing the dips on them.

 

[siren's eye]

Alright. The ghetto quarentine is all set up. I have the rock in a 2 gallon critter keeper with a HOB filter, and small heater. I have it between my tank and 65k desklamp for light. The polyps did start to open when I had them floating in the bag, so I don't think the FW dip stressed them too much. I have some pretty pink ones, and some that looked like greenbay packers, so I don't think all this stress is for nothing I wish I had more money so I could go get some more and QT them all at once.

 

[superclown]

cool sounds like you might be ok Your best bet to be able to tell what hitch hikers you have in that rock is to place some frozen food in your tank before you turn the lights off something like a piece of mysis or krill wait about 30 minutes or so with the tank in darkness and turn the light on or shine a flashlight to see whats all in there. a lot of these little creepy crawlers will only come out at night and the food might lure them out. should be easy enough to get any remaining food out along with hitch hikers with a turkey baster

 

[siren's eye]

That's a good idea. I did see some bristle worms that had survived the FW.

 

[siren's eye]

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Here are some pictures, just because I feel they beautify a thread.

 

[siren's eye]

how long can the polyps stay closed until I should worry?

 

[coolsurf]

I'm sure the Zoas are freaked right around now so just let them be. They are pretty tough and can survive going through alot. The main focus should just be the nudi's. The bristle's won't hurt a thing and can be considered a bonus as they do take care of "leftovers" in the tank.

 

[superclown]

Lol yes pics are bonus when they open back up get a pic of them so we can see what ur workin so hard to rid of hitchikers. Just keep an eye on them and make sure there opening up after a while. Keep doing daily 5 min fw dips until they you cannot see any more hitch hikers and u should be ok

 

[siren's eye]

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Look who's trying to wake up! The polyps are bright orange so far. They look bad under the desk lamp.

 

[siren's eye]

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I put my T5 over them for these pictures. I'm happy most have already opened! How long should they stay in QT? Is 7 days enough?

 

[purplegorilla]

They are beautiful zoa

 

[superclown]

I would say 7 days past the last day you see hitchhikers just to be on the safe side