The Importance of Dipping Zoas

[Snow_Phoenix]

I acquired a zoa colony from my LFS about two days ago. Unfortunately, I was a wee bit excited and might have gotten ahead of myself, so after acclimation, I plopped the coral into my tank.

 

I then noticed a small rusty-orange nudi on one of the polyps. Picked it out immediately with a pair of tweezers, but I learnt through googling that there could be more - and worse still, eggs.

 

So the only solution was dipping, and my LFS ran out of Revive, so the next best step would be a mixture of Lugol's Iodine in freshwater. I decided to be a bit creative since I heard one LFS dips their zoas in Malachite Green, and it achieves the same effect as Lugol's.

 

I had a bottle of Punktol Ultra on hand, so I placed 10 drops in 5G of dechlorinated freshwater and dipped my zoa colony in it. After five minutes, I swished the colony around - to which dropped out another stray nudi, a whole bunch of worms, a sundial snail and a dying feather duster. I then rinsed the zoa in DI and placed it back in my DT.

 

So I learnt my lesson: ALWAYS dip your corals before placing them in your DT.

 

P.S. I'm dipping my zoas again in 4 days time just in case there are eggs that hatch.

 

P.P.S. Here are some pics of the pests I uncovered:

 

 

Rusty-red zoa-eating Nudi.

 

 

Predatory Sundial Snail.

[FlowerMama]

Yikes. Thanks for the great reminder! Nasty boys! I heard you don't dip rics, is it the same with shrooms?

[Snow_Phoenix]

Yup, I don't dip Rics and shrooms. But I think you can dip them safely using Revive. Not sure if the Iodine technique works on the potential pests on shrooms (without harming the corals). I wouldn't risk it without proper googling though - too scared I might hurt the corals by accident.

[FlowerMama]

Yup, I don't dip Rics and shrooms. But I think you can dip them safely using Revive. Not sure if the Iodine technique works on the potential pests on shrooms (without harming the corals). I wouldn't risk it without proper googling though - too scared I might hurt the corals by accident.

 

I have CoralRx but I'm sticking to what you just confirmed for me. I have a couple of crazy shrooms coming in tomorrow, and a zoa I ordered from mstansbery.

[Snow_Phoenix]

I think CoralRX is safe to use for shrooms, but I'm not entirely sure. You have to confirm it with someone else who has done the same thing. As for the zoa coming in, best you dip it in Lugol's Iodine + freshwater. Make sure the pH and the temperature of the dip matches your tank's, or else it'll put the coral through unnecessary stress. Don't be worried if your zoas don't open up immediately after the dip. Mine took around six hours to bloom fully. Even then, my colony grows on both sides, and the sides that isn't exposed to much light isn't opening up very well for some reason. I'll give it a week and see how it goes. I just hope I got rid of all those pesky pests once and for all! D:

[sean1986]

Iv dipped my recs in 40% h2o2 and 60%tank water for a min. They do shrink up, but never had any die on me