killing zoas

[PurpleTang]

Hey, whats the best way to kill zoas in side of the tank? i have a lot of zoas that i want to kill but i am not sure what the best way to do so would be. could i just take a razor blade and cut them from the base? or would the zoas let out harmful stuff in my water?

 

[mr_X]

you could use kalkwasser paste, just like you are killing aptasia. put it directly on the coral you need erradicated, with the flow turned off so the mixture won't blow around on the corals you actually do like.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Why not just frag them and get rid of them here?

 

[PurpleTang]

i dont have any kalkwasser could i use joes juice then?

 

[pecan2phat]

Put a Regal angel in there temporarily. They always go for zoas first.

 

[PurpleTang]

i have a lot of rare zoas that i dont want killed so thats why i only want to get rid of the brown ones, also i just used joes juice on them how long should i let the paste sit before i turn my pumps back on?

 

[aborrero4u]

Ill take some if you want them part them out..

 

[PurpleTang]

i would give them away for free but i am not sure on how to make them into frags, and i cant cut the rock that they are on

 

[lunner]

I used a pair of surgical scissors and just cut off the polyps. Works fine without any ill effects.

 

[tangmaniac]

i used razor to cut from the base then glued the to piece of frag. it was easy.

 

[PurpleTang]

so when i cut them from the base in the water, they dont let out any thing that could harm my other corals?

 

[lunner]

no

 

[SevTT]

so when i cut them from the base in the water, they dont let out any thing that could harm my other corals?

It'd be a good idea to run carbon and wear shoulder-length gloves, or, better, take the rock out and do the fragging in a bowl. Zoas can contain large amounts of palytoxins, which can kill you if you get enough of them in an open wound or something. (As far as I know, there haven't been any reefing-related deaths related to them.)

For getting soft corals off rock, I recommend a curved scalpel blade. This makes it really easy to get them off rock -- you actually slice a shallow sliver of the rock off, instead of the flesh, and this also makes them easier to glue down to frag plugs or whatever. (Just use cyanoacrylate gel. Or rubber-band them down until they stick.)

 

[BFITZ06]

hey purple ill take them from you i have a grady clown crab in my qt that would love them, if you cant frag them you can have the crab. just put them in your sump so he stays away from you other zoas

 

[kevo220]

i dont have any kalkwasser could i use joes juice then?

You should definitely get some kalkwasser even if it's only to use as aptasia control, it's like 30x cheaper to use it than buying joes juice.

 

[Master Shake]

surgical scissors, coral cutters, kalk, razor blade all equal basically the same effect. think about it this way, the brown zoas make the rare ones look better.

 

[Master Shake]

zoas are where fox faces and fish like that get their toxin from, and when extracted it is one of the deadliest toxins around.