Brown Worm/String Wrapped on Zoas?

[scomac88]

I don't know if these images are clear enough.

New Zoa frag in the tank four days. Starting to open, but struggling a bit. Noticed these brown strands wrapped around the Zoas with these little black heads. Are these just zooxanthellae from an acclimating coral or something more sinister? The strings don't appear to be coming from any of the heads. I dipped these in Revive and inspected closely and don't recall seeing these.

 

[E.R.A.]

I don't know if these images are clear enough.

New Zoa frag in the tank four days. Starting to open, but struggling a bit. Noticed these brown strands wrapped around the Zoas with these little black heads. Are these just zooxanthellae from an acclimating coral or something more sinister? The strings don't appear to be coming from any of the heads. I dipped these in Revive and inspected closely and don't recall seeing these.

I cant see in the phot but are those yellowish egg sacs between the heads? Anything else just looks like normal algae/zoa grossness haha. Its been a minute since i dipped a zoas but if i remember correctly they ooze stuff when stressed.

 

[scomac88]

I cant see in the phot but are those yellowish egg sacs between the heads? Anything else just looks like normal algae/zoa grossness haha. Its been a minute since i dipped a zoas but if i remember correctly they ooze stuff when stressed.

I think I've got a little colony of something developing in between the zoa heads. When extended, they look like Xenia/clove polyps?? But brown and they don't pulse or move. I've looked for pest threads on similar stuff but came up empty. Any thoughts? Just manual removal?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I think I've got a little colony of something developing in between the zoa heads. When extended, they look like Zenia/clove polyps?? But brown and they don't pulse or move. I've looked for pest threads on similar stuff but came up empty. Any thoughts? Just manual removal?

It looks like they have polyps sprouting around the tops of some, so I'd think some sort of coral, but I'm not sure what kind. If it's a stony coral, the polyps probably landed on the zoas as larvae and settled there; if it's a soft coral, then it probably spread by dropping fragments.

Regardless, it's an odd place for new coral to spring up from.

 

[sfin52]

Almost looks vertmid snails

 

[Derrick0580]

Almost looks vertmid snails

I was thinking the same exact thing!

 

[E.R.A.]

If you are comfortable with removing the zoas I would suggest getting rid of the unknown stuff. If not remove the zoas then I would scrape off the none zoas matter and depending on the dip solution and the instructions maybe dip it again. cant tell is there are eggs or anything else.

I would at least frag a few zoas off and get them on a clean plug.

 

[scomac88]

Almost looks vertmid snails

Don't put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!! (Jokes)

I'm waiting for the polyps a bit more to extend to post another picture.

Cue Jeff Goldblum quote.

 

[scomac88]

Polyps all extended. Are these a pest? Or just rogue Xenia-y type things?? Looks like I'm headed for manual removal and a fresh frag plug either way.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Interesting. Looks almost like some form of Clove polyp.

 

[paragrouper]

Looks like Xenia or clove polyps. I can’t really tell which. In either case, I would scrape them off.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Polyps all extended. Are these a pest? Or just rogue Xenia-y type things?? Looks like I'm headed for manual removal and a fresh frag plug either way.

Yeah, definitely a soft coral like xenia, anthelia, clove polyps, etc. - I don't know how to tell the difference between any of them at this stage of growth, but a lot of them are highly invasive. So, I'd remove them to be safe.

 

[AKReefing]

Cloves or pipe organ

 

[littlebigreef]

That’s either blue or brown clove polyps - you absolutely do not want those in your tank. I’d trash the frag, bcp are an absolute nightmare.

 

[sfin52]

Definitely clove type corals

 

[scomac88]

Welp, I am now the proud owner of one extremely ticked off Zoa colony. After scraping and scraping and scraping, I threw it back in the DT. I'm not super hopeful these survive. It took a lot of gentle scraping on the Zoas themselves.

I'll keep a close eye on it over the next two weeks to see if any polyps come back. Thanks for the help and input y'all!!

 

[GratefulDad1968]

Can we get an update soon? How are they fairing?

 

[scomac88]

Can we get an update soon? How are they fairing?

Look at these resilient little things!!

 

[GratefulDad1968]

Nice! Congrats.

 

[scomac88]

Following up on this thread. Unfortunately, the polyps came back about 4 weeks later. Still isolated to this frag thank God, but time to figure something else out.

I decided to try a fenbendazole dip, based off this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/f...e-clove-polyp-hydroids.1020246/#post-12177284

My reply is also in that thread. But here's a recap:

Did the dip last night. I ended up using the granulated panacure, I just stirred it in water as I believe that version is water soluble. I did .8 grams (22% concentrated) and a cup of salt water. The water was very cloudy. 5 minutes total. Then a three stage rinse for the frag, including blowing off the frag with my bulb feeder.

Zoas opened up fat and happy first thing this morning, and no polyps to be seen. Far happier than they were after I did the first round of scraping.

I'm very happy with this method. I'll follow-up on this post if I see any downsides/negative reactions.

Hopefully this knocks them out for good.