Zooanthid disease?

msullivan1983

Non-member
Hey Everyone,

For the last couple of months or so, my colony of pink ray zooanthids are not looking so great. I've had the colony for 7 months and for the first few months they appeared healthy and full with all polyps open. Lately (the last 2-3 months), many of the polyps throughout the colony do not open regularly and have shrunk in size and the colony is pretty sad looking - some polyps have died, a couple have jumped ship. Interestingly, all the other colonies of zooanthids around the affected one look perfectly fine. I also fragged the pink rays several months ago and the polyps on the frag are perfectly healthy looking and have grown from 2 polyps to about 14. This leads me to believe it's a disease and not a water quality issue (parameters below)

Other than some red cyanobacteria on a couple of the affected polyps, there's no visual sign of disease: no patches of fungus, no evidence of berghia nudibranches or eggs, no sundial snails. And once again, it's not affecting the neighboring colonies. Does anyone have experience with a similar problem with zooanthids? I'm probably just going to throw away the colony since I already have a healthy frag, but if anyone has advice it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

-Matt

40 gallon
pH 8.2
Salinity: 35 ppt
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <20 ppm
Phosphate: <0.25 ppm
Calcium: 440 ppm
KH: 11 dKh
 

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Hi Chris,

I've never seen any of my current fish nipping at them. I have 2 Bangaii cardinals, 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 firefish, 1 mandarin and a six line wrasse. I know six lines can get a little 'nippy' but I've only had it for a month and the problem predates the wrasse. It's also odd no one would touch the other colonies of zooanthids if they were attacking this one.
 
Do the polyps discolor or melt? Do they just disappear? Do you feed them?
Have you noticed any spiders/nudis on them?
 
The polyps don't discolor, but if by "melt" you mean they continuously shrink until they're practically nothing, then yes some do that. At least a couple have just fallen off the rock. I feed all the zooanthids occasionally (maybe once a week, with a product called Coral Smoothie), but again, it's only affecting this one particular colony, not others, nor is it affecting the frag I made of the affected colony.

I took the colony out of the tank and tried my best to look for evidence of any parasites like spiders or nudis with a flashlight but didn't see anything.
 
I didn’t see in the pictures but do you have any white fuzzies at all on the colony?
 
Got me stumped. Try giving it a iodine dip. Maybe it’s some sort of bacterial issue.
Sorry I couldn’t be much help.
 
I've been experiencing same issue for over a month. 3 of my 4 zoa frags (each different) have been mostly closed, though not necessarily melting. I gave them an iodine dip over a week ago, which almost looked promising as they looked as though they were opening a bit more immediately after, however no luck. I may try it once more. I also tried moving two of the frags to a spot a little less indirect of my lighting to no avail. I still have a hunch it may have to do with lighting though as they seem to be more open in the morning/evenings when the intensity and white spectrum of my Kessils are lower.
 
Regardless,, given you have cyno, try a ton more flow

Thanks for the advice, Frank. I hadn’t thought about flow, but the neighboring colonies with presumably the same flow are doing fine. I finally decided to just toss out the colony since I had a healthy frag of it. Placed the frag in the exact same spot so if this happens again, I’ll tinker with flow.

Maybe others call them something else, but from LiveAquaria they’re called pink rays:

https://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+599+677&pcatid=677
 
I've been experiencing same issue for over a month. 3 of my 4 zoa frags (each different) have been mostly closed, though not necessarily melting. I gave them an iodine dip over a week ago, which almost looked promising as they looked as though they were opening a bit more immediately after, however no luck. I may try it once more. I also tried moving two of the frags to a spot a little less indirect of my lighting to no avail. I still have a hunch it may have to do with lighting though as they seem to be more open in the morning/evenings when the intensity and white spectrum of my Kessils are lower.

If you figure it out, please post! I ended up tossing the colony since I had a healthy frag of it, but that healthy frag was located lower in the aquarium so it could have been because of light. The frag is now placed where the diseased colony was so if it happens again, I’ll know it could be lighting or flow
 
If you figure it out, please post! I ended up tossing the colony since I had a healthy frag of it, but that healthy frag was located lower in the aquarium so it could have been because of light. The frag is now placed where the diseased colony was so if it happens again, I’ll know it could be lighting or flow

So I'm honestly not sure why, but almost all of the zoa heads on the three 3 frags are now open! Only two of them were moved to a more shady spot, 1 remains in the same location. No other changes have been made to the tank. Maybe the iodine dip actually did help, they just needed a bit more time to recover fully? That's my best guess.
 
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