Zoa ***?

My Zoas on this rock look like they are all dying. I'll post a before and after pic. I noticed a white mold looking stuff in and around a couple heads, also one of my hermits is all of a sudden in there picking around. Only thing that has changed is my lighting. I made a big jump from T5 two bulb to a T5 eight bulb HO. The eight bulb has older lights, but I did not acclimate by cutting the light time down. I didn't even think of it til 2in10 mentioned it in a different post. Thoughts please.. FYI all my other corals look fine if not doing better or is it a matter of time before they start going downhill?

 

can you elaborate a like more on the white mold looking stuff?
dose it look like it could move?
does it have a design to it? Circular?
is it on all the zoa or just a few or just one?
in the area of the white mold how many of the heads are closed?

 

Well now that I go to try n get a better pic the "mold", it looks to be going away. Here is the best pic I can get. Its under the heads of the ones at the tip of the rock on the left. "Mold" doesn't seem to be alive, like a worm or anything, more of a white film inder the heads of a few of the Zoas. But look at the pic in general.. The firs pic Zoas are full and second pic is like they are all shriveling up?

 

Does the "mold" look to be in the shape of a tunnel? Like it's a wax tunnel.

 

Sounds like sponge and I see sponge in the image. Fungus/mold is not common in SW tanks. Encrusting sponges can kill or inhibit zoanthid growth. A soft tooth brush is usually all that is needed, you may have to repeat the process though.

 

Sometimes if a soft coral gets stung or upset they will put out a mucus layer and look really sad for a few days then shed the layer and be just fine. I would just observe them for a few days and see what happens.

 

Id dip them asap chris.

 

I dipped them in Coral Rx. Silver lining is I got two frags off the main rock when I took it out to dip it. Some heads are already coming back out. I looked closely at what ever it was, mucus I think, when I pulled the rock out. Def not tunnel like or encrusting.

 

The dip did not work. The main rock is still going downhill. The two little frags that fell off are doing good though.. ***

 

It sounds to me like Zoa pox. Is it white patches on the polps and stems of them? Zoa pox will slowly decimate a Zoa colony.


Furan 2 should I be used. Mix with tank water till pea green. Dip all zoas showing symptoms for 30min to an hour. I have done dip for an hour and had no issues. Then rinse well in tank water.

I used a 1 gal zip lock for my frags on plugs, filled with pea green water mix, and then floated in the tank to keep temp stable. Repeat the dip for 4 days straight, leave alone for 3 days. Then repeat 4 days dip, and rest 3 days. Needs to be done for 3-4 weeks for best results. Pox can clear up after one dip and you think you got it beat and then will come back twice as bad.