Copepods eating Zoas? :S

[Pauliox1]

Last week I visited my LFS and noticed a little frag sat in the bottom of his coral tank. I asked him what it was and said he'd found it at underneath all the other rock when he cleaned out the tank the day before. It was pretty well closed up but looked like a little Zoa to me so asked if I could give it a home. Anyway I stick it in my tank and all looks well. Starts opening, not all though but most. Anyway.. over the last few days I've noticed what look like the same copepods all over my glass swarming on two of the polyps, they look pretty dead now like they are slowly being consumed by them. Do you think they were dieing anyway and they are just getting a free meal or they are attacking weak polyps?
Like I said, they LOOK like harmless copepods to me, move in the same way but Ive never seen or heard anything about them eating corals :confused:

Paulio

[Tangman]

Last week I visited my LFS and noticed a little frag sat in the bottom of his coral tank. I asked him what it was and said he'd found it at underneath all the other rock when he cleaned out the tank the day before. It was pretty well closed up but looked like a little Zoa to me so asked if I could give it a home. Anyway I stick it in my tank and all looks well. Starts opening, not all though but most. Anyway.. over the last few days I've noticed what look like the same copepods all over my glass swarming on two of the polyps, they look pretty dead now like they are slowly being consumed by them. Do you think they were dieing anyway and they are just getting a free meal or they are attacking weak polyps?
Like I said, they LOOK like harmless copepods to me, move in the same way but Ive never seen or heard anything about them eating corals :confused:

Paulio
Hi Paul they wont be copepods eating the zoas they will be nudibranches that are eating the zoas. Copepods are nearly invisible and dont feed on corals, as there food is rotifers and plackton. You need to take all you can see on the glass out and dip the piece of zoa in some fresh RO water that is the same temp and PH as the tank water. Dip them for about 5 minutes and keep swishing them in the water to wash out the nudis. Then after a few days watch out for more nudis as eggs will be hatching and you will have more to contend with. HTH Twiggy:D:D

[Pauliox1]

Thanks for the advice. I was planning on doing a RO dip anyhow! Thing is though (although having no experience with Nudis) I thought they were fairly slow moving slugs. These look and move just like the tiny flea like things on the glass, fast and jump jerking through the water, which I always thought were a type of copepod. But I know nothing so I shall listen to the words of the wise lol :p

[Gaters]

I've got to disagree Eric, amphipods do eat zoas. I've seen them eating mine. Something must have been causing the zoas stress and keeping them closed. The pods then eat them when lights are out in my tank. If you look closely you can see the pods front mandible munching away. There's loads about this on ReefCentral-the US site.

[Pauliox1]

Obviously it was the move of the coral then? Its only 2 polyps out of about 30ish that seem to being attacked. Some still haven't opened completly since I got it, but most are. They have also ejected their brown stringy waste today. Could that be a sign of stress? or do they do it anytime they need too?

Paul

[treeboa]

as eric says give it a fw dip, kill the little swine off, just watch out for more, if they are pods then a mandarin will sort them out

[Pauliox1]

Well whatever they were they are gone now :D
I'll keep my eye on them for awhile though!

Paul

[cl0wn]

would have thought that if it were pods eating the zoos then perhaps the 2 zoos were already dead / dying. maybe from lack of light / stress. as previously stated, freshwater dip and perhaps even take a very sharp knife and cut away the dead / dying polyps.

[Gaters]

would have thought that if it were pods eating the zoos then perhaps the 2 zoos were already dead / dying. maybe from lack of light / stress. as previously stated, freshwater dip and perhaps even take a very sharp knife and cut away the dead / dying polyps.

Just one thing if you cut them away make sure you wear gloves. Zoa's contain palyotoxins of which there is no antidote:eek:.

[cl0wn]

yup, good point gaters.

[Pauliox1]

I imagine they were dead due to stress. All the others are doing great! I FW dipped and cut away the dead ones. I always wear gloves when im handling any corals. I don't know why but it just feels safer with them on :p Zoas are doing great now anyway! Ecspecially now they are alittle higher in my tank! Thanks for the top notch advice everyone!

Paul

[dickwilly]

My 2 cents:

I have seen pods crawling over my zoas after lights out, and at one point thought them responsible for my declining zoa population (this was 2yr ago in my old tank), it turned out that I had something of a spider infestation and I believe the pods were just eating what was already dead/lost tissue. After the spiders were taken care of (which resulted in the loss of ALL my zoas) I still noticed the pods scampering over the zoas but in the morning all was fine.

In a similar thread, you always read that zoas area one of the easiest softies to keep. This may be true for the majority of those lovely brown/green ones we all see in the LFS all the time. But as a keen collector of high colour zoas, my experience is not so. Each morph has its own sweet spot in my tank - some prefer lots of light, some nice shady areas. Some directly in front of a power head others in the "dead zone". Whenever I get new zoas I put them low in the tank, then over the following week(s) move them around until I find the sweet spot, where they open fully and don't look stringy. For example my prize colony of fire and ice zoas were going belly up after 2 weeks in my tank - all stringy and never opening - I moved them to an area of increased flow higher up the tank closer to the light, and low and behold they have been growing at a fair rate ever since.

My what a long rant!! Hope it is of use to someone??

[lasgringo]

after seeing your tank in the flesh mate and how nice all your zoas look anyone would be daft not to take on board what you've learnt through trial and error:)

[Tangman]

My 2 cents:

I have seen pods crawling over my zoas after lights out, and at one point thought them responsible for my declining zoa population (this was 2yr ago in my old tank), it turned out that I had something of a spider infestation and I believe the pods were just eating what was already dead/lost tissue. After the spiders were taken care of (which resulted in the loss of ALL my zoas) I still noticed the pods scampering over the zoas but in the morning all was fine.

In a similar thread, you always read that zoas area one of the easiest softies to keep. This may be true for the majority of those lovely brown/green ones we all see in the LFS all the time. But as a keen collector of high colour zoas, my experience is not so. Each morph has its own sweet spot in my tank - some prefer lots of light, some nice shady areas. Some directly in front of a power head others in the "dead zone". Whenever I get new zoas I put them low in the tank, then over the following week(s) move them around until I find the sweet spot, where they open fully and don't look stringy. For example my prize colony of fire and ice zoas were going belly up after 2 weeks in my tank - all stringy and never opening - I moved them to an area of increased flow higher up the tank closer to the light, and low and behold they have been growing at a fair rate ever since.

My what a long rant!! Hope it is of use to someone??
Hi Ric where would you suggest i put the frag i got off you as i forgot to ask you. Twiggy

[Gaters]

My what a long rant!! Hope it is of use to someone??

Excellent cheers for that i love the high colour zoas and your tank is inspiring. The next time you harvest any zoa frags will you put my name down for 1 of each colour please;) I live in Leeds so can pick up also. Cheers, Neil

[dickwilly]

Tangman et al,

I've split my mother colony into two, one at the top of the tank near the sump return and the other at the bottom on the sand. Both open up and look very healthy. But I think there is slightly increased growth rate with the ones higher up. Whether this is due to the increased flow or light...I'm not sure. - I'm running 1x150W MH with a 14K marine lux lamp. Trial and error is my best advice.

[Tangman]

Tangman et al,

I've split my mother colony into two, one at the top of the tank near the sump return and the other at the bottom on the sand. Both open up and look very healthy. But I think there is slightly increased growth rate with the ones higher up. Whether this is due to the increased flow or light...I'm not sure. - I'm running 1x150W MH with a 14K marine lux lamp. Trial and error is my best advice.
Hi Ric thanks for your reply m8, i have it up near the top under T5s and not getting blasted with flow either so i will see how it goes. Twiggy:D:D

[jester]

I have a dragon eye zoa that has covered a fair chunk of rock. need some advice on how to peel it off the rock to frag it. dont want to frag all of it just some of it. as it is near the bottom of the tank you tend not to see it. many thanks