caljacks Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 I need some serious help... I have about 12-15 palys of blue tubs and I noticed about a week ago they all closed up but one. At the closed zoa body it has some brown color stuff so I thought it was algae growing on it. I did a dip on it but shows no progress. Today I was trying to see if I can peel off the brown stuff from the zoa but nothing came out, all I saw on a white towel is just brown stuff. I noticed the one head that is still open has a spot of brown on it, as soon as I touch it, the brown spread all of the head... What should I do? Everything else is doing okay, I also have a colony of dragon eyes and they're doing fine. All of my caps are doing great... Water levels are all good. Please help... Link to comment
ajgouty Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 hmmm...zoas sometimes without warning will close up for weeks. it is thought that they are doing an internal clense. so that stuff your seeing might be a waste by product. have you added any new chemicals? Link to comment
caljacks Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 hmmm...zoas sometimes without warning will close up for weeks. it is thought that they are doing an internal clense. so that stuff your seeing might be a waste by product. have you added any new chemicals? Nope nothing is added. The thing that freaks me out right now is that brown spot spreading all over the open polyp... I don't even know what that was... Oh one thing I also noticed is a stream of brown stuff came out after I placed the zoa back into the water, as if it was melting... Link to comment
reef-luva Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 ...any recent changes in lighting or over night temp drops? Link to comment
caljacks Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 ...any recent changes in lighting or over night temp drops? Nope, no lighting changes, no over night temp drops... I decreased the temp a bit b/c I was having some algae outbreak few months back, and about a month ago I increased the temp to about 77F. All the corals are fine. Until last week... but nothing change though... Link to comment
ajgouty Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 and the brown has been their for days, bc sometimes mine poop for awhile lol Link to comment
reef-luva Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 How long have you had them?.. Link to comment
caljacks Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 I had them for few months now... It was doing fine for a long time... growing extra polyps and stuff... until last week when everything closed up... Link to comment
justinT Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Does it look like a rusty-red-brown dusty-algae covering on them? Because if so, I have some of this on different corals in my tank. Some on SPS tips, some on zoas (making them close up too) and some on a finger leather, making it shrink up too. I am at a total loss to what it is, nothing has changed in my tank, its at a constant temp, everything. No new additions either. Some things are affected where others are not. If you figure it out, i'd love to know! The only thing i DO notice is that if i brush it off, they seem better for a couple days. I wonder if its like a coral 'cold', and the algae is being an opportunistic infection? Brushing it off seems to make them happier, or at least relieve their symptoms! Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Sigh. Brown crap on your corals is bad. Always. What dip did you use? What are your tank parameters? Have you looked at the Zoa Pests & Diseases thread stickied at the top of the Pest & Disease forum? Link to comment
reefer916 Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Zoas are weird.. I'll have colonies that thrive and all of a sudden begin to develop the brown algae and die back or die off. I've dealt with zoa pox which Furan 2 seems to do the trick everytime, but the brown algae is still some what unknown. I even went to the extent of trying the Hydrogen Peroxide dip, but it ended up frying the colony of Spartans Pride. It's probably because the polyps were already goners, but watching the tissue bubble is a little uneasing to me:) Tank parameters are fine because sps, lps, and other zoas could be doing great, but one colony or frag of zoas will just get pissed off and have some polyps die off or even melt the whole colony. I've read in one of last years reefkeeping magazines about zoas and palys. Depending on where they are collected and there are certain indicators of how they mat, length of the stalk, and various other aspects I can't remember that will help identifying light and flow placement of zoas. Also, they the article discussed seasonal and year round zoas, which remind me of flowers. I have no idea which ones are known to be seasonal and which are year round. I have a frag plug of Tubbs Blues that started off with 10 polyps got up to 120 and then died back to 50. It came back and went back to over 100 and now the brown algae is on some of the polyps tissue. I dipped in Revive on Saturday and placed them in higher flow. I'd say I lost about 30% of the colony, but I have a backup 300 polyp colony in my 95 gallon and I definitely would recommend to have several different frags just in case. Seems like it happens the same time every year, but the weird thing is that the temp and parameters pretty much stay the same in my tanks. I just usually dip in Revive and place it in a little higher flow to make sure the brown algae doesn't spread. I also brush them a little with a new soft bristle toothbrush to try and get it off. Good luck and I'll try to find a copy of the reefkeeping magazine from last year, so that you could reference it. Sorry I can't be of more help, but if you find a cure please let me know. I hate that brown algae... Link to comment
caljacks Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Justin T: It's some brown stuff on the zoa, not dusty... just browning on the stem of the zoa... Weetabix7: Yes I read the thread on the pests and diseases, but nothing there that described my problem... The water parameters are: PH 8.4, SG: 1.023, Nitrite: 0, temp: 77F I use Seachem Reef dip on the zoa. I'm at a lost in terms of what to do with this... Link to comment
Akwarius Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 +1 to brushing it off lightly with a toothbrush. This is why its important to not let detritus accumulate in between polyps, because nuisance algae and infections can pop up. Good luck with your treatment. Fortunately for you tubbs blue are fairly common and inexpensive. Link to comment
caljacks Posted March 17, 2011 Author Share Posted March 17, 2011 +1 to brushing it off lightly with a toothbrush. This is why its important to not let detritus accumulate in between polyps, because nuisance algae and infections can pop up. Good luck with your treatment. Fortunately for you tubbs blue are fairly common and inexpensive. Hi everyone, my zoa came back to life! The PH was a bit high in my tank and I think it was more like a sudden change of water perm on PH... maybe overdose on kalk... Anyway, thanks for the help everyone! Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Tooth brushes are not a good method.Get a waterpick so your not scrubbing your coral. Link to comment
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