Advice on new Zoas? White mush inbetween them.

[Kristal]

Heyo!

 

For the first time ever I got new zoas... The frags are WAY TOO BIG for my aquarium so i had no choice but to drop them in my tank without any sort of preparation. Next task is to frag them and give the bits I can't use away.. And they haven't opened up yet... but.. I just saw this and was worried:

A sort of white mush between some of the buttons??

Should I be worried??

 

 

[fishfreak0114]

Is it a sponge? I have sponge growing in between some of mine. Not a problem unless it starts keeping them from opening, in which case I pluck off the offending piece.

[ajmckay]

Guessing it's a sponge as well.

 

I usually scrape it off when it's growing in-between zoas. Under certain conditions sponges can really take off and limit the growth of the polyps.

 

It might be pretty hard to scrape off though with the zoas so close (wear eye & face protection), so if you're going to break up the rock anyways you might consider just chiseling off that entire area of rock and trashing it.

[dadummy]

think it's a fungus or bacteria of some sort. See the same thing at LFS when they bring in zoas from Vietnam. All the zoas usually end up melting. I would try a good salt water rinse and a dip in some Lugol's or other iodine based dip. Hopefully a zoa head will chime in with the correct treatment and/or I.D.