Zoas dying..

[anthony]

Had a beautiful pink zoa colony dying..couldn't see anything on them so I dipped it in hydrogen peroxide RODI water solution. Some type of critter was on it.. rinsed it and put back in tank.. here's a picture of the critter. Can't seem to figure out what's killing them..any suggestions?

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[bhodges82]

Harmless baby brittle star. Might try dipping in furan 2, I’ve heard of good success in curing bacteria infections in Zoas.

 

[anthony]

I will check that out. I've been reading and some said Cephalexin works even better.. any thoughts on that?

 

[bhodges82]

Haven’t heard of it, but I’m gonna look in to it.

 

[camellia]

+1 on harmless star and using stronger treatment. Revive should work.

Are they closing up more and more then die off? If so, maybe it’s Zoa eating Nudi’s.

Have you looked with a flashlight a night?

 

[xilez]

Agree the star is harmless.

Sure you could dip in something stronger, i would recommend Bayer for this.

Try bumping your PO4 up, i find my zoas tend to be pretty lackluster at anything below .03ppm

 

[anthony]

Ok I will check with flashlight at night and get me some bayer.. go from there. Thanks guys.. will report back what I found.. just got my new tank up and its mostly empty due to 90 % of my corals dying during move 8 months ago.. (lost my favorite Jason Fox chalice..dang!) But I'm starting back and hoping to replace them a little at a time.. thanks again for the help..have a blessed evening..

 

[snowmansnow]

in looking at that picture they appear to be receding rather than being nipped and chewed. i think. Zoas can be weird animals... they are suppose to be beginner corals, but at the drop of a hat something flips out of line and zap... thats it.

My limited experience advice would be to start parameter checks on your water. Go with ALK first, and see if it has dipped below 6 for some reason and then check the NO3. I finally figured out in my last tank that i COULD NOT keep zoas to any degree of success over the long term because of NO3. It wasn't because it was too high, but because I didn't have any measurable amount (at least to my test kits) in my tank. Zoas dig some grunge. Now if it is high thats an obvious issue, but perhaps your water is too clean.

Also, make sure your carbon filters are in check. you don't want chorines being fed little by little into your system via top off and water changes.

Good luck!

Peace

B

 

[danh]

I agree. Check all of the other params including looking at your temp stability. How are you maintaining trace elements?

 

[anthony]

. Well most likely it was high I have never been accused of having to clean of water. If you know what I mean. However I dipped it in peroxide and put it in my brand new tank and it seems to be doing better. Maybe it will come back the only weird thing is that I have several others I was in the same tank and Palys and none of them are affected