Zoanthid issue..

Ok guys a few weeks ago I posted having problems with my Zoas and I couldn't figure out why they were not opening and dying off.
 Today I noticed little like bugs like this going in and out of my huge colony of Zoanthids that I am now losing. There are a ton of them on there but I don't know what it is?? We did a dip on these two particular colony's and it doesn't seem to have helped. PLEASE HELP!

 Pam

this is happening to mine to but mine arent deing so i dont know maybe the light? 

What color are the bugs and what type of lighting do you have.  If they are pods I would think they would be fine.  Maybe annoyed but should not be dying off.  If they are pods I would think it would be another cause.  Are they melting or disappearing when they die?

If they are disappearing I would suspect some sort of predator in your tank is eating them unless the bug is something else.  Do they look like little shrimp or more sluggish like?  If they are shrimpish probably a pod and if sluglike may be some sort of zoa eating flatworm

Do you dose iodine? Or you can just do an iodine/iodide dip.... has saved a few of my zoa colonies

Do they look like this?

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/mobile-inverts/42248-zoanthid-eating-nudibranch.html

or this:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b294/mantisfreak/nudiandpenny.jpg



I was losing zoanthids like crazy then I noticed these little guys. I sucked about 5 off 1 colony, but quickly realized I couldn't keep up. That's when I bought my yellow coris wrasse and now I don't have the problem.

If you buy some sort of wrasse they will take care of them in a hurry.  Does not really matter what they are.  They are awesome for getting rid of little pests.  My sixline quickly takes little guys like this out.

When you dip them do you pull all your zoas and dip them? I know when mine were having issues that's what I was told to do not just the ones being effected. And as said wrasses are awesome little bug eaters:)

my sixline didn't touch the nudi's I had.. the coris wrasse took care of it

In the other thread we helped you see that the snails, stars and worms you thought were a problem were all good but we never really got around to discussing the Zoanthid problem. Now we are working on a certain bug, a "shrimp looking thing". Here is the common Grammerus/Amphipod. Does it look anything like this?

The head and antennae are on the right. They are usually about 1/4 inch but I have seen some up to 1/2 inch long. Sometimes the grammerus stretches out as it crawls around. It does not harm anything but eats dead flesh, algae, leftover food and detritus. If Grammerus is not what you see, then we need to keep going to find the cause.

In the other thread we never saw a pic of the Zoanthids, yet we have crossed off a few animals that are not the problem. At this point we really need to stay on this if we are to help you save the zoanthids. Please post some pics or email them to [email protected] They do not have to be show quality pics, even just cell phone pics can often give us what we need to know. Please provide a pic of the entire tank and a closer shot of the problem zoanthids.
Did we already talk about brushing the zoanthids with a toothbrush?
Also, please give some information about water parameters.
Thanks,
Mark



Edited by Mark Peterson - December 06 2010 at 12:07am