Utter Chaos Struggling, Any Ideas?

[MrObscura]

Hey, overall my ranks doing well with everything from zoas to acros seeming happy, but for some reason my utter chaos are acting weird. They've been under the same lighting, flow, etc for months and they all went from open and happy to one suddenly refusing to open, then 2, and so on. Yet a few larger polyps are still looking good. I've also noticed that there's something in their mouth or it's their mouths themselves, I'll post a Pic below. 

 

Parameters

Alk 8.4 no recent swings

Calc 450

Mag 1300-1500(red sea is a pita)

No3 20-30

Po4 now this is the only thing I can think of, po4 did bottom out for a week or so, but I can't see it causing this as I was still feeding regularly and it wasn't for very long. Last time nutrients fell it was for much longer and while they didn't open as much they didn't do this so, idk... 

 

Any ideas? 

 

 

[Ratvan]

I dont know if it is related by that is how mine looked before I found an evil zoa eating nudibranch. 

 

Currently I have pulled the frags and am dipping twice a week with seachem. They dont like it much but when the heads do open they look brighter

[MrObscura]

I thought about nudis but I haven't spotted any(I know they're hard to spot)and it seems odd that it would start all of a sudden when the last time new corals were added was 3 weeks ago, and the only zoas were a small AOI frag that was dipped and are still on a rack looking great. 

 

Plus no other zoas are having issues. It's weird. Did yours have the weird mouth thing going on? 

[Ratvan]

Only on the longer lashed varieties. It could be the mouth formation like you suggested? 

 

I added mine after a FW dip 2 weeks ago today.

 

Hope its not Nudi's

 

 

[MrObscura]

I'd pull emm out to give a dip just incase, but they've moved from the plug to the rock as well. 

[SaltyBuddha]

You mentioned something in their mouth. Zoa spiders lay eggs INSIDE of the zoas and melt them from the inside out...I hope it is not those. They will also hide inside a closed polyp.

 

https://coralrx.com/2018/12/26/zoanthid-eating-spiders/

 

I would watch the other corals and try isolated coral dips if you are worried.

[MrObscura]

Thought about those as well, but the only new zoas are the AOIs on the rack which look great, so I don't know how spiders would have suddenly been introduced. 

 

And the mouths look more like the flesh of the coral itself than the pics of zoa spiders. 

[SaltyBuddha]

 

4 minutes ago, MrObscura said:

Thought about those as well, but the only new zoas are the AOIs on the rack which look great, so I don't know how spiders would have suddenly been introduced. 

 

And the mouths look more like the flesh of the coral itself than the pics of zoa spiders. 

 

I've had monti nudibranches show up 2 months after the newest item was introduced.

I do not know the life cycle of zoa spiders though

 

I agree from the picture I can see that it looks like a weird button of Zoa flesh and not spider legs

[Tamberav]

I would check for pests as others said. I found utter chaos to be super hardy and fast growing.

 

An iodine dip will treat bacterial infections. This usually the first thing I go for if zoa's look pissed.

[MrObscura]

I've been looking for pests and can't find any signs. And unfortunately they've attached to the rock so I can't get them out to dip.