Anyone know about zoa infections?

[impur]

Well my problems continue since my upgrade. I've had to throw away 4 colonies of zoos so far, and just tossed another 30 or so polyps last night after fragging away infected polyps. Some of my most favorite zoos are now gone, or down to just a couple polyps and i have no idea if those will make it.

 

What is happening is a few polyps will close one day, then the next they turn yellow-brown or grey, then by the next day the pods have eaten the infected polyp. These are zoos that have been in my tank ranging from 3 years to about 7 months.

 

My course of action has been to remove the zoos, cut away the infected polyps including a couple layers of good polyps, then dipping in FW and TMPCC at 2X strenght for 5-7 min. This hasn't done a thing except dwindle the number of zoos that slowly die. A few days later the rest on the frag/colony close, turn yellow, and are gone. Last night i took it to another step. I had 3 frags showing the problem. I cut away large sections of polyps from around the single infected polyp, scrubbed the area with a wire brush, then covered the area with lugols iodine for a minute out of water. Then i gave them all a 7 min FW dip w/ TMPCC. I hope this proceedure will do the trick, but i've lost pretty much all hope.

 

The last thing i have yet to try is a FW dip with hydrogen peroxide. I've never done this dip, and it hasn't been tried very often from my reading. Anyone tried it before?

 

Has anyone heard of this happening? Any other ideas for me? I'm all ears, i really don't want to lose all these zoos. I've got a lot invested in them, and if this infection spreads throughout my collection i will be getting out of the hobby.

 

PLEASE HELP I'M DESPERATE!!!

[reefgeek84]

I have not heard much about that dip, however, trying it on a small colony is worth a shot, if it does not make it, then you know not to do it. if it does, then it is better to have not tried it and throw away a whole bunch more... Maybe try putting them in a container with very low salinty, like 1.015 or something and see if that will get rid of it. I am not a zoa expert, just trying to help.

[CCR]

I have not ever heard of them turning yellow, so I'm not much help there. What I have found it when I have had a vew closeup, not reopen and shrink to nothing. I have foung that something has irritated them. I can tell you they don't like silica sand in the system.

 

I have a 72 gal tank setup for EM reasons, that doesn't have anything in it. No cridders or livestock. If you want to bring what you have over. I would be happy to help you try and save what is left. It is at .025, 78 degrees, water only. If they recover, then atleast you will have the chance again with them, and be able to see just what is going on in your tank. I would be running carbon in your's, changing once a week, as I'm sure you have tokins from the ones you have lost. Really sorry to hear. But my offer is good

[impur]

Thanks for the offer, much appreciated. I do have a QT tank i may setup this weekend. But the problem is i don't know which ones are infected until its too late. And it is obviously spreading throughout them since they are all in the same system. I do have carbon running and do not have any silica sand. Also nothing is irritating these zoos, 1 polyp in the center of the colony becomes infected and the rest are just sitting ducks.

[CCR]

I would get carbon asap, at the lease it will help out the system as a whole. Let me know if I can be of some help. If you have healthy ones left. get them out. At the lease, frag them to the QT tank.At least you will have a "stock" to redue from.

[reefboy]

ive done this on zoo's with the fung i do 50/50 fresh/ prox for about two mins then they go in a strong saltwater lugals solution for about 5 and has worked my last idea bud. ive delt with this to in a lower degree but ive done this then put in high flow area has worked for me in the past.

[reefboy]

may want to run uv if you got one also

[impur]

I am running carbon. I don't have UV though. I'll give the peroxide dip a try at 50/50 concentration with FW and follow that with SW/iodine. It will be a couple days to see if it spreads to anything else though. Thanks for the info Jody.

[vanz]

That sucks dude. The new tank sounds like bad luck.

[siskiou]

I don't have any insight, but just wanted to let you know how sorry I am this is happening, Miles.

 

I've had zoas close up and slowly melt away in my 120G (not sure why, too much light?), but they always recover again when I put them in my 20H.

 

I had a little scare with the "armor of God" zoas, but they've since come back (except one that never opened again).

 

Let me know if there is anything I can do!

[Twitterbait]

I would really have to look at one under a scope to see for sure. you are moving in the right direction for sure QT is the way to go for the whole crop. i would recommend adding a good antibiotic to the QT to hit any bacteria infection you may have. is there any way you can get me a shot of a partially infected colony so i can see what you are talking about? the lugols dip is good but the peroxide will probably kill them unless it is really dilluted. I would lugols and then qt with eurithomayacin first. because it is corals only you should not have to worry about cycling the qt first, just keep the tank clean if more die.

[impur]

How much erythromycin would i dose? Cuz isn't this for fish? Just follow the instructions?

 

My pics don't show much, but i found this picture on a vendor site that is really good. Check out the 2 top right closed polyps. One of them is yellow. That is what it looks like. Then the next day its covered with pods and gone by day end.

 

[Ronjunior]

Erythromycin is Erythromycin. It mainly kills off gram-possitive bacteria; same thing your doctor may give you.

[SeanF]

Hey Miles I have a UV you can borrow if you would like. I have to remember to bring the pump back over to the shop though. You would probably need to get some tubing to run into your tank.

[Twitterbait]

find something penicillin based and then dose it normal, then increase if they keep going. TRT has a similar problem with one of the members zoos. pretty much the same advice across the boards.

[impur]

Penicillin based erythromiacin? Or just a penicillin based med?

[impur]

Hey Miles I have a UV you can borrow if you would like. I have to remember to bring the pump back over to the shop though. You would probably need to get some tubing to run into your tank.

 

I might take you up on that. Let me get the QT tank up today and i will give you a ring tomorrow.

Thanks.

[Twitterbait]

med... anything that is antibiotic is a start.

[impur]

Well i've got em in my QT and dosed the erythromiacin last night. Says to dose again in 24 hours then after another 24 hrs do a large WC. Got my fingers crossed!

[impur]

Could you give me the link to the thread at TRT where someone is having a similar problem?

 

 

So the erythromiacin seems to be working. Its tough to tell, cuz most of the zoos are closed in the QT. But i've been watching a couple polyps that started to decline and they haven't gotten any worse. The key there is that there are no pods to devour the declining polyps. So they actually have a chance to recover maybe. I'm doing a 25% WC on the QT tonight and will continue the dosing for at least 7 days or till i run out of meds.

[impur]

I just got back from lunch and inspecting the zoos. They are still turning yellow and dying, just it takes longer for the polyp to disappear since there are far less pods eating them. :/

 

So i'm not sure if the med is doing anything, but i'll keep with it till i use up all the meds.

[Ronjunior]

Could you give me the link to the thread at TRT where someone is having a similar problem?

I think this is the one he was talking about. Pimples on Polyps.

http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91679&highlight=pimples

[impur]

Ooohhh that is a completely different problem altogether. Dang. Looks like i am the only one who has ever had this type of problem, ever. :( At least i've not found anyone that has a clue where to start on 6 different boards.

 

Figures.

 

 

Thanks for the link.

[Ronjunior]

Sorry, thats the only zoo one I remember reading lately. Twitter, go fetch for Impur, I don't/can't read all the articles, gets overwhelming.

[Randy-S]

Is it that they are turning yellow and dying or that the pods eat them? You could treat with interceptor to get rid of the pods. Not sure if it would help.