Zoanthids vanishing - help!

[Playdope]

I'm worried about a colony of zoos I got about 1-1.5 months ago. It was about 13 in. below 432 watts of t5, and I noticed the centers started getting less detailed... so I moved it down a few inches. Then it went from looking like the top picture to the bottom one! I don't know whats going on. It looks like some zoos actually got eaten or completely came off.. you can see some circular marks where they used to be:

There are no fish in the tank... just snails, a pepperment shrimp, hermits, emerald crabs, and a cleaner shrimp.

Any help to save the colony would be really appreciated!

 

[Anonymous]

I have had them recede to a few polyps when first introduced to my tanks. The remaining polyps will spread if the water perams are reef quality.

 

[Ben1]

Are you sure you have peps and not camels?>

 

[Playdope]

Ben - read an article on the peps vs. camels, and if I'm looking correctly its a type of pep. I ordered it as a pepperment shrimp from saltwaterfish.com, so I would hope it is. I'll post a pic later, and maybe you're opinion will differ with mine.

 

[garagebrian]

Have you checked for snails that might be eating your zoas? The attached picture is the most common kind of snail that eats zoas. I've also seen another one(personally), but I didn't take a picture and I have not found a picture online yet.

B.

 

[Anonymous]

To add one more thing to worry about. You could have a zoa eating fire worm.

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

 

[garagebrian]

Wazzel,

You are just trying to freak him out more than me

B.

 

[Anonymous]

Not really, I just have the link and it showes how bad things can be. I pulled a normal bristle worm out of a rock the other day and it was over 2 ft long.

 

[garagebrian]

Wazzel,

I was just joking around with you Good thing to post that thread, always good to see options for problems.

Do you have a thread with your 60 gallon cube? I started my 75 on edit: 01-28-2005, our tanks are the same "generation".

B.

 

[Anonymous]

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t ... c&start=40

Since you asked. I need to take a few pics since I have added some things. I am kind of ashamed of the hair anglae I brought over from the other tank.

 

[Unarce]

To add one more thing to worry about. You could have a zoa eating fire worm.

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

Funny you should post that, Wazz. I'll be getting an Oregon Tort frag from him next week.

 

[Anonymous]

AFAIK Steve is a nice guy. Great tank too.

 

[Playdope]

Well, I lowered the orange zoos down to the bottom of the tank to see if maybe lower light levels would help them... but still doesn't seem like much of any help. What could I do ??? They seem to be just vanishing!

I saw a bristle in my tank about a week ago, and I caught it (light tan color).. but I threw it back, because I was told it was a good kind.

Here was a pic of it:

 

[Playdope]

I don't see any of the snails pictured above.. but I do sometimes see Astreas or the Mexican turbo cruise right over colonies... causing the polyps to close. Could that do damage?

When I look close at the colony, I often also notice what appear to be some kind of pod scurrying around the colony. Could they be some kind that eat zoos? There seem to be a few of them wandering around the colony.. noticeably more than just around the other rock in the tank.

I also just isolated a "Mexican hermit crab" (red coated black legs - not bright red legs like scarlet hermit) .. because its the second time that I've seen it standing on top of a zoo colony. Are any hermits in particular known to eat/aggrivate corals?

 

[Playdope]

Another thing I should add is that I have recently been doing 15 gal water changes every 5 or so days because I don't have a skimmer currently running. I'm going to test the parameters tomorrow, but there has been a definite change in the way the tank has been running with the more frequent water changes, lack of a skimmer, began to feed the tank cyclopeeze and brine (never fed before).

 

[Playdope]

It may also be important to mention that when I first got the zoanthids, they had a more noticeable white ring around their yellow mouth... but after a little while of being added to the tank, the ring went away. The only thing that I could think of is lighting. Could the actual cause of this be lighting and not something eating them?

The reason I pointed to the possibility of something eating them is because you could see whole round spots where old zoos used to be.

 

[Anonymous]

FWIW i had the same problem a while back with my zoos... I couldn't keep them alive for nothing. One night armed with my trusty flashlight I decided to look around my tank's "nightlife". To my surprise I found my hermits feasting on a zoo colony and on a yellow polyps colony. needless to say I took them all out and replaced them with an assortment of snails.

George

 

[Playdope]

Bastards.. what kind of hermits?

I took out the mexican hermit, but I have a bunch of others.. like the left (or is it right) handed hermits, scarlet reef, and a few blue leg.

 

[scottfarcuz]

Is it possible you have zoo eating nudibranches? From the pics I have seen they are really small, and Ive been told they are not easy to spot.

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

It's the emerald crabs. I would DEFINITLY bet on it. I've caught them eating zoanthids on many many occassions. Take out the emeralds and I think your disapearing zoa problems will be gone forever.

Dennis