First Pest Prob - White Stuff on Zoas

[jgaepi]

First pest problem - Zoas have a thin white cotton looking stuff on them. Only had the Zoas for the past two weeks, the last 4 days or so they have looked a little droopy. Noticed the white stuff today.

 

I also recently noticed a little starfish with thin red lines in it. Hangs out around the Zoas. Only the Zoas have the problem. Assume they are related.

 

Bigger issue is that I have my first real corals on their way to me as we speak. Three of which are - semi expensive Zoas.

 

Lastly, I have been f'ing around with my tank lately to get it ready for real corals. I mod'ed my BioCube 14 a little (false bottom out, cut the lip from Chamber 1 to 2). Worried I may have stressed the tank too. And besides the new corals, I plan to add a second pump in tomorrow to use a wave maker and my InTank media rack arrives tomorrow - Perfect Storm?

 

Recommendations are appreciated.

[jgaepi]

No one responded so I dipped in a 3/1 SW to peroxide dip but then accidentally forgot about it for about 12 min. Zoas are still closed after an hour. Should I still be worried?

[Mariaface]

They're probably a bit pissed off, but they're the most likely to get through peroxide dips just fine. If you're really worried about pests, try setting up a quarantine tank for your incoming corals until you've figured it out? If they're all zoas, they won't need that much care and perfect filtration, but you'll still want to keep the quarantine tank clean. You can use that time to check the incoming corals for pests, too.

 

Do you have any photos of the sick zoas, the the 'cotton looking stuff', or the starfish?

[jgaepi]

Found the starfish floating in the dip so it obviously was hiding on it. Not sure if it was the only one. Won't know for sure if that was the problem for a while. I did my best to clean that stuff off so I need to wait to see if it comes back.

 

My bigger question is now that I have 4 new Zoa frags in my tank, why do people glue them down if they constantly get pests/diseases? How would I treat it if I glued it down. I put the frags in my sand for a few days to get better acclimated. Sand is blowing on them a little so it can't be too long.

[Tamberav]

Well... they don't get pests constantly. People dip their corals for pests before adding them to the tank. As they grow, they will attach to the rock either way.

 

It sounds like it could be a fungus?

[Mariaface]

People generally dip and quarantine before adding the corals to the tank so that the pests are gone by the time the zoas are permanently affixed to the rockwork.

 

Was the blob a round-ish shape growing around a fod source, or did it have channels for water through it? If it had channels, sponge/tunicate is likely. Take a look here, because I think the top right tunicate picture looks really similar to your photo.

[jgaepi]

Some of my Zoas are peeking back out. They r alive but don't look too happy. I also think there r one or two missing.

 

I can't take a pix now but it looked like a whitish looking string, like a cotton or spider webbing, between each on the rock. Not sure what asterina damage looks like but it certainly was present around the Zoas the entire time. Gone now though.

 

I am still new to this but will do a dip with each new introduction going forward.