Bryce E
Active Member
I recently got some Zoanthids and they did great for about 2 weeks then they started closing up and and have white spots on them. From what I've found it is what's called "zoa pox". It certainly doesn't look good for them and they are starting to die. I asked the lfs where I bought them about it and he said he had never heard of it and my next visit to his store all of his had it too in the tank where I got mine so it certainly appears that it was a dormant or new disease that was in that tank or among the population of zoanthids that I purchased. The information I have found online is fairly limited. I'm pretty sure I'll lose this colony pretty soon as several of the polyps have died or are dying over the last couple of weeks. I know these contain palytoxin so I'm just curious if anyone knows if the die off will cause this toxin to be expelled into the tank and agitate or harm my other corals. I also have a Kenya tree, a hairy mushroom and a green goniopora. Recently the goniopora looks a little less happy but the other two look great. Everything in my water parameters are normal with the exception of nitrates at 20 ppm and I'll be doing a 15% water change tonight. I know the goniopora is sensitive and could be affected by the nitrates but I cannot find anything that will tell me if a zoanthid die off will result in a release of their toxins. Any help is greatly appreciated.
