Help? Zooanthids look REALLY weird

nuzz

nuzz

Member
Our green zooanthid polyps look strange. Slowly the colony has been withering away. The stalks seem somewhat misshapen, and within the last couple days we have noticed some deformities. We are trying to decide whether or not to remove them. Sorry the pics aren't very good quality... taken with a 2 mpxl. I tried to take as many angles as possible.
Some of the stalks are yellowish and appear "swollen" at the bottom. It's a swollen base, which tapers to a skinnier stalk, and there's no "polyp" at the top. These have appeared in the middle of the colony and there are two of them.
As you will also notice, the colony is very "thin" and it used to be full. The polyps seem to grow really tall and don't sprout buds often at all. There are some buds... maybe 3 or 4, but it's not the growth production we'd really expect. They are also not as bright as they used to be. And they just look... strange. All different heights.
And for the record, everything else in the tank is doing just fine.





 
flricordia

flricordia

Active Member
I am not giving any advice but if those were in my tank I would remove them and fill a small cup with 1/2 Kent's iodine/iodide and 1/2 tank water and place the zoas in there for exactly 3 minutes then remove them and shake off the excess and place them back in the tank under medium lighting and good flow, enough to move them back and forth a bit but not make them lay over. Then I would keep an eye on them for the next few days to week and see if they improve.
I would also look in the cup and see if any nudis came off and keep an eye on the zoas. Any that are closed after a couple days, I would check and see if there are any nudis on them. If there were I would redip them.
Right off they look like they do not have enough flow and/or lighting on them. I would guess flow is one of the culprits and maybe nudis eatting on them. Find a new location for them too.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
These are some "common" zoa predators.
The nudi....

and it's eggs....

Zoa eating spider....

Zoa eating snail#1

Keep a look out for eggs....

#2
 
nuzz

nuzz

Member
Awesome; thanks so much for the advice. I will give it a try today.
Another question - will the Zoa predators spread to anything else in the tank?
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Zoanthids include palys... in case you didn't know that. Of the snails and the nudi, they never touched anything else. I kept a sundial tank for some time (a year or 2).
I never got to watch the spider for very long. He was dying before he was shipped. Pooey!
 
paintballer768

paintballer768

Active Member
Hmm Ive never seen RDE (radioactive dragon eyes) with that long of a stalk before, is it getting enough light? +1 on iodine dip
 
nuzz

nuzz

Member
paintballer768, I agree - the long stalks are very odd.
They are near the bottom of the tank, but light to them is not blocked at all, and it's only a 23-gal so the light doesn't have far to travel.
Will definitely try the iodine dip today.
 
nuzz

nuzz

Member
We have moved the Zoa colony (higher and in an area that should have more flow) and done an iodine dip. Lots of little creatures came off of them; based on everyone's advice we assume they are nudis.
Should we begin seeing improvement immediately? Some of the buds have opened up already and are looking good and bright. How do we know if we need to do another dip?
And should we remove the foamy part that are the nudi eggs, or will that have died in the iodine dip?
Kara
 
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