White blotches on zoanthids (and other growths) - ID?

kyley

Active Member
Hi All,
Wasn't sure if this should go in the hitchhiker ID or here - but these are all recent discoveries in my tank...
1. I think I have gotten rid of the zoanthid nudibranchs I had, but now I'm seeing something else on my zoanthids (not nudi eggs either). Any idea what these white growths / spots are? I should note, the zoas are opening - they're only closed b/c these pictures were taken at night. 3 pics:
zoanthid_spots_1.jpg

zoanthid_spots_2.jpg

zoanthid_spots_3.jpg

Are they destructive to the coral?

2. I also have these white spots all over my glass (I moved a nerite snail in the photo to closer to the spots so you can have an idea of size - match-stick head size). Any idea what they are? I thought coralline (and maybe that's it?), but they're growing in areas other coralline isn't (further down the glass in most cases):
white_spots_glass.jpg

I don't think it's the same as what's on the zoanthids, but I could be wrong... These are very round while what's on the zoas is irregular shaped.

3. There's only one of these in my tank, but it's been slowly growing. It looks like maybe some kind of fungus that's grown outward? It's on the underside of a dead coral branch (that I just used as live rock) so it doesn't get a ton of light and I wouldn't imagine it's an algae:
fungus_circle.jpg

Any ideas what that is? Harmful? Thanks,
--Kyle
 
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kyley

Active Member
Hi All,
So on the first one, it looks like Zoa Pox according to this article. It doesn't say too much about it though. Will it kill the zoas? Solutions listed are Lugol's and FW dip. I actually did that to my zoas about 2 weeks ago (maybe a bit more) :( I don't like the idea of exposing them to air for an extended time (how long should that be?)... Ugh, another battle... Thanks in advance for any more advice on this,
--Kyle
 

yvr

Member
Looks like it may be Zoa Pox...I prefer not doing freshwater dips on my corals because of their poor ability to osmoregulate, I fear that some polyps may get damaged (cell repture) duing the procedure. I do however dip all my new corals in an iodine bath like Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure before introducing them into my tank.
 

kyley

Active Member
Yeah, I'm doing iodine dips on my corals as well - did it on these zoas just a few weeks ago (and FW dip) - so this is frustrating... :( I just found this article and plan to follow the method there using Furan 2 (hopefully I can find it locally). Thanks,
--Kyle
 

Schwa

Member
I know this is an old post but several months ago I battled these zoa pox and won. These spots are pustules. What I did to get rid of them was a long lengthy process. If possible remove the infected colonys and put them in a lugols solution . Take a needle and poke each of these spots and drain them. As you know zoanthids contain a toxin that they can spit at you so be very cautious and wear latex gloves and some safety glasses. This process will probably need to be repeated a couple times and you will most likely lose some of the colony but as long as you can get rid of the pox they will regrow. I had 4 of my larger zoa colonys get infected and I am happy to report that all survived short a few polyps but now it is impossible to distinguish which were infected.
 

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
Revival!!!

So i got this pox on my bam bams.......dippped them 2 days ago. I also have one polyp on my Tubb blues that has this as well. Does this spread from colony to colony? can I just slice the infected polyp off?
 
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