hey guys i havent posted here in what feels like AGES! I have a question for you guys here, what is wrong with my zoanthids?

it looked like this when i first got it maybe about a year ago
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_0026.jpg
then after a month, it lost color, but then i started adding additives and it started looking good again

and then just recently it started to shrivel up and die. they slowly started to disappear to look like thishttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1793.jpghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1807.jpghttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1808.jpg


and i also have another group of zoos in the tank that are doing fine
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1805.jpg


ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

hmmm....have you been able to see any kind of parasite on the zoos? You might want to have a good look at the colony and make sure there's nothing eating them, such as nudibranchs!

would you happen to have a picture ? =D

theres a frag of them across on the otherside of the tank and it is also suffering from the same condition

sounds like something from that particular colony to me, and it has not spread yet.

here is a link to a list of things that irritate and eat zoanthids ...

ZoaID.com! :: The definitive repository for named Zoanthids! (http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=384)

wow thanks bobby...its Asterina star fish that i have ...i am positive ive seen it in my tank
ZoaID.com! :: The definitive repository for named Zoanthids! (http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=1460&g2_imageViewsIndex=1)

is there anything i can do about it?

well, i have never known of the asterina stars to EAT zoas as much as irritate them, but there are people that say that they do. you can maunually remove them when you see them in the tank. i was leaning more towards a zoa eating Nudi or spider, they are really hard to see, and about the only suggestion that i would have would be to do a FW and/or reef dip on the affected colonies.

ahh thanks very much..i will try that freshwater dip

Mark, I have asterina stars all over in my tank and I also think they irritate the zoas but don't eat them. Kind of like your hermits crawling over them.

well today i saw one of the star fish wrapped around a closed up zoa...i was trying to get a picture of it, but i couldnt zoom in for it to be clear enough...but it sure looked like he was eat it.

the thing that is confusing me is that i never really saw it eat the zoas before and i know ive had it in the tank for a while. do you think its because it is hungry?

it very well could have been eating it, i was just stating that i have never heard of it before. i would go ahead and yank that sucker out and see what happens. the dip wont hurt anything, just make them mad for a while.

ill try my best to grab him....do they multiply or do i probably onnly have maybe one or two of those stars in there?

They multiply by fission. It may have just been eating the detritus off of the closed up polyp.

How old are your bulbs?
My Zoanthids did that when I let my PC bulbs get to old.

How old are your bulbs?
My Zoanthids did that when I let my PC bulbs get to old.

another option yet, i did not think about that. could be a spectrum shift from the bulbs too.

K, I have zoas that are fine and then this one single colony that was going down hill. I had it forever so I wasn't really suspecting a parasite/predator. Then one day, I'll be darned....

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/critters_album/zoaeatingsnail3.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/critters_album/zoaeatingsnail2.jpg

Note the size when compared to the dime.... Epitonium spp BTW


Now of corse there are predators such as the sundial/box snail.......

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/critters_album/beauty.jpg


Or a zoaeating spider....

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/critters_album/IMG_2675.jpg

Or the nudi

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/critters_album/nudi.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/critters_album/nudzoa.jpg

I honestly doubt it is the asterina... some varieties have been known to be predatorial, but a lot of people has these in there tanks without in incident. These odds are low you have that variety.

everyone says im wrong D=

well today i saw...
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1819.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1820.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1821.jpg

unless thats not eating it...sure looks like it to me

after the FW dip it started to let go and i noticed there were two of them
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1822.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1823.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/keyozoxmfc/IMG_1824.jpg

i must admit i feel sad that i killed them though..they were interesting to have in my tank..but my mom wanted to save them so now theyre in a small vile filled with rubbing alcohol..LOL but they got all bleached

They wrap around everything like that... zoas.. sponges... plastic... they're eating the film algae. Albeit they tick things off in the mean time.

well i got them off anyways so its too late to "save" them. but if they keep dying out ill know something is up. i didnt see anything else drop off in the freshwater dip though either

Great shots! Lets see what happens now that they are out of the tank.

I use a FWE dip on my zoas... just did it last week. It's best to redip in a couple of weeks because nothing kills the eggs. They have to be picked of manually (albeit, next to impossible to see) or redip until you killed all hatchlings. Both snails and the nudi are what has these eggs.

if its the bulbs though wouldnt all the corals be heading down hill?

not necessarily, some prefer different lighting than others.

well i have moved them after the FW dip and now theyre starting to shrivel up again. and even worse, my other colony of zoos are starting to do the same!

is it possible that my copepods or amphipods are eating it? because when my fire fish died, i stopped feeding my tank mysis shrimp. are the copepods or amphipods possible eating them because of this?

no, the pods wouldn't be eating the zoas.

Either you've got a predator in there that you just haven't been able to detect, or it's something else in the water parameters.

I have several batches of the same zoa colony in my tank. In three of the areas, they're doing beautiful, but in one of them (which BTW also has worse lighting), they often stay shriveled up and don't look so healthy. It's strange, but the edges of the individual polyps are rough and chewed up looking.

I also had/(maybe still have?) the tiny little snails that Renee hinted at (sundial/box snail); however, they never seemed to bother the zoas too much...they just kind of hung out in between the polyps munching at the rocks...

I hope you can figure out what the problem is. Try putting the rock in a different area to see if it's the lighting.