Zoas closed for days...are these the reason why?

[PasoFish89]

I have 3 zoa frags in QT right now. Parameters are 78 degrees, 8.2 Ph, 7.8 dKH, 440 Ca, 1600mg (it was 1400 yesterday, I'll be posting to reef chemistry about this since I haven't dosed or done a water change). Nitrates hovering around 1, phosphates .02. I've had these frags since 9/28 at the earliest and 10/8 at the most recent. The two I got on 9/28 were super happy and healthy, adding a polyp per week. The one I got 10/8 has been super happy and healthy as well, added 1 polyp. I've been giving them reef roids 2x a week. About a week ago I've noticed they barely open during the day and stay mostly closed. I've been noticing a TON of tiny tiny little worms all over the glass so I thought maybe these worms were irritating the zoas. Attached is a video of the water from a dip I did on the corals tonight. Tons of those little worms came off the frags, could these be irritating the polyps and making them close? If so, what are they and how often can I dip in coralRx without hurting the zoas?

 

[T-J]

I'm no expert, but they look like Hydroids.

 

[tankstudy]

Is your QT a separate tank?

 

[PasoFish89]

Is your QT a separate tank?

Yes I have a completely separate QT tank I am running fallow currently. Inverts/CUC plus 2 SPS,1 LPS and 3 Zoa Frags.

 

[tankstudy]

What's the tank size?

Run an ammonia test just to be safe.

 

[PasoFish89]

What's the tank size?

Run an ammonia test just to be safe.

10 Gallon, 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrites, 1-2PPM on nitrates, hard to tell for me.

 

[tankstudy]

Is the frag tank cloudy?

 

[PasoFish89]

Is the frag tank cloudy?

No, however I am dealing with some diatoms on the sand right now. I should mention that there is a notable improvement this morning with the lights on for 2 hours now. The eagle eye zoa polyps are almost all open, the cats eyes are all about half open and have better extension, and the utter chaos are 2 open 1 closed. How often can/should I dip in the coral rx to keep shedding those worms? With these results after the dip and no water changes, I'm thinking those guys are the irritant.

 

[tankstudy]

No, however I am dealing with some diatoms on the sand right now. I should mention that there is a notable improvement this morning with the lights on for 2 hours now. The eagle eye zoa polyps are almost all open, the cats eyes are all about half open and have better extension, and the utter chaos are 2 open 1 closed. How often can/should I dip in the coral rx to keep shedding those worms? With these results after the dip and no water changes, I'm thinking those guys are the irritant.

Must be a ridiculous amount of worms to cause that much agitation.

With Coral RX especially on the concentrated formula, it may cause some of the polyps to blister. I would dip once every 6-7 days. You could go with a shorter time frame but you'd have to reduce exposure time to coral rx.

You could try Dr. G's coral dip which is Milbemycin oxyime. It's extremely gentle on zoanthids and it's the number one thing I use. You can leave it in the solution for a very very very long time and not have any real issues. See if that will kill the worms. I do recommend that if you use milbemycin, run some carbon on your frag tank after the last dip for a few days before putting it in your display. The dip won't kill your other corals or anything but if present in good amounts will do a good number on your copepod population in your display tank.

 

[PasoFish89]

Must be a ridiculous amount of worms to cause that much agitation.

With Coral RX especially on the concentrated formula, it may cause some of the polyps to blister. I would dip once every 6-7 days. You could go with a shorter time frame but you'd have to reduce exposure time to coral rx.

You could try Dr. G's coral dip which is Milbemycin oxyime. It's extremely gentle on zoanthids and it's the number one thing I use. You can leave it in the solution for a very very very long time and not have any real issues. See if that will kill the worms. I do recommend that if you use milbemycin, run some carbon on your frag tank after the last dip for a few days before putting it in your display. The dip won't kill your other corals or anything but if present in good amounts will do a good number on your copepod population in your display tank.

Good info thank you! Did the video load for you? I have to switch to Chrome to get it to load for me in the forum. I feel like it's a lot but I have nothing to base it off. The worms are so tiny they're really hard to see without intense lighting from a flashlight during the dip...they were crawling all over the polyps and eventually I noticed most had shed and were into the dip water. I dipped for 10 minutes and the worms that were in the water were still moving, however about 20 minutes into it after the corals had been rinse and put back into the tank the worms in the dip were dead. I don't see any really on the glass anymore, there was definitely an outbreak of some kind leading up to the Zoas being closed up.