Something is eating my zoas, maybe

Hi everyone,

So, it seems my zoas are disappearing, but only the new ones i've recently gotten from RE (sucks, I know since they looked awesome). I've tried the FW dip on all my zoa pieces, and killed some bristle worm type things, but that's it and they're still disappearing. I have had 2 rocks with zoas on slowly seem to lose their polyps. The purple/gray base is still there, but it just seems like the polyp is gone. Like one day they're open and looking ok, the next day there's just the base, which makes me think something is eating them. Interestingly enough, this only seems to be happening to my new zoas, not the ones I've had for a while. (months now)

I want to know:
1) will these re-grow from the base that still exists if any, or is it lights out for any missing their polyps?
2) where do I get/how do I make a red light so I can sit up all night tonight and watch what's going on?
3)Is there any way changing bulbs would make zoas melt away? Can *anything* parameter wise make zoas disappear.

My tank residents: 2 clowns, bicolor blenny, skunk cleaner, blue legged hermits, snails, 1 scarlet hermit, sand sifting star.

-Thanks for any help,

 

heck you can take a red dry erase if you want to go super ghetto. Try red cellifane(sp?) over the end of a flashlight

 

I sat up and found some more limpets in my tank, and some stometellas. I grabbed them both out since I didn't know they were reef safe at the time. Thought I'd provide a pic of them in a small dish for anyone interested. I haven't been able to figure out what is eating everything yet. I've noticed a rather large hole in the side of one of my GSP patches as well. I didn't think anything ate GSP?

Anyone heard of something like this before?

(from my phone, sorry for the weird reflections) snail right side up is in upper-right, snail upside down is in middle. You can also see their tails in the bottom of the bowl from where they dropped them trying to get away from me.

 

I have had zoa eating nudibrach, they are really small looking, looks loke a very small slug. Do you notice any eggs sacks on your zoas. Thats what im guessing thats eating your zoas.

 

I've seen small beigh starfish on my zoas and the after the colony is gone. The limpets and stomalas are safe but certain small starfish can be predators...

 

pull out the colnies and dip them in a coral dip not just RO

 

alright, I have a wild theory. I've been observing my 2 remaining patches of zoas over the last week or so at night with red LED lights. The only creatures that I've seen on the zoas are pods of some sort. I've never even heard of pods eating zoas before, but could it happen? Is there some bizarre strain of pods that I could be lucky enough to get.

The pods we're talking about here are fairly large, about a 1/4-1/2 inch total body length, but the back half is curled up most of the time. I've observed their head regions directly on the tops of the closed polyps. Polyps have began turning white and disappearing on my larger patch. I have not observed any nudi's, which would be easy to see on a fully closed zoa patch.

It may also be, and possibly more likely, that the zoas are dying and the pods are just cleaning up.

Other interesting things I've found. My GSP that contained the euchinid(Sp)-type worm from before now has a new worm inhabitant in it. It is solid black with white stripes around it, like some sort of coral snake. I believe what I have is a type of Nemertini worm. I'll tell you, looking in your tank at night is FACINATING with the entirely different type of life you see.



Havent decided if it's good or bad yet really. Seems to prey upon crustaceans from what I've read so far. Anyone else have experience with this worm? It's practically on the other side of the tank from my zoas though and seems to cling to it's burrow so I don't think it's the culprit.

 

Definitely dip the zoas in an iodine solution every 3 of 4 days for 2 weeks. I think the creature you mentioned could be a type of nudi.