Has anyone successfully dealt with ....

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Zoa Pox?

If so -- what's my best bet? Are any new Zoas at risk in my main tank?

 

[jonmos75]

Maybe @Enderturtle might know as I think of him as the king of Zoas, on the other hand I am not the one to ask because I can't keep them alive for the life of me.

 

[tankguy]

Never heard of this? What is it?

 

[jonmos75]

Never heard of this? What is it?

Lol... I had to Google it myself

Jon

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

I had to goggle it too. It started a few months ago when I moved everything to a new tank. At first I assumed it was the zoas getting used to a new light. Then, since the tops were closed and a slight translucent green, I was told to pull all the zoas out and re-dip them as it was a "zoa algae." That helped with a few of them for a short time. Now about 75% of my colones and frags are affected -- some of them completely. So I decided to do some in-depth research and discovered that this is not a rare thing. Every forum (starting around 2005) has numerous threads about it and the various cures. It's a fungus that effects Zoas (but not Poly's).
Furan-2 seems to be the cure of choice and I'll be QT'ing all my zoas and starting a treatment with that on Wednesday. I was hoping someone here had experience with it beyond that though and had any insight as to whether it exists within the DT itself once the Zoas are pulled out. In other words, are the new nice colonies I ordered the other night when I couldn't sleep at risk once I put them in. #InsomniacCoralBuyer

 

[tankguy]

Thanks for the heads up. Always learning something new in this hobby no matter how long you've been in it

 

[F6553066]

I haven't had it but some research indicated to use the furan-2 and dip separately three times and then wait to see what the results. At the same time increasing the tanks flow seems to help. Seems like it's curable but is a pain.

 

[Roc]

i had them once, i tried for months to contain the issue, ended up pulling every zoa out, dripping then QTing before putting em back, was a huge pain in the ass and i lost a lot of stuff.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

i had them once, i tried for months to contain the issue, ended up pulling every zoa out, dripping then QTing before putting em back, was a huge pain in the ass and i lost a lot of stuff.

Once you went through that did it return after you put the zoas back?I don't mind QTing the zoas. I'm looking around for a little nuvo to do that now -- I'm just curious to know if that's enough or if I need to be concerned the cause of the fungus remains in the main tank.

 

[Roc]

Once you went through that did it return after you put the zoas back?I don't mind QTing the zoas. I'm looking around for a little nuvo to do that now -- I'm just curious to know if that's enough or if I need to be concerned the cause of the fungus remains in the main tank.

Mine didn't return, but again I lost about 4/5ths of my zoas, and the only ones that did return were hardy ones that had been through hell and back

 

[Corallus]

I had a couple of colonies come down with what I think were zoa pox a while back. The stocks of mine were covered with white, zit-like blisters they basically stopped opening up, and looked just generally bad. I picked up some BiFuran+ from Neptune, I understand it's the same as Furan 2. As I recall, I dipped my effected colonies (they are on smallish rocks) either every other or every three days, three times. I dipped, allowed the zoas to recover for a day or two, and dipped again. They don't like the chemicals, but they did recover. I'm pretty sure I would have lost them if I wouldn't have treated them. Should have taken pics of the process... but I was kind of panicking and didn't think to. I did have other non-effected zoas in my tank, and I haven't seen any of this since I treated for it around 4 months ago.

 

[Flagg37]

You guys are scaring me. I've been inspecting all my zoas the past couple days.

 

[mattcoug]

yes, furan-2 dips, no losses

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Alright, alright, alright -- I started treatment of all zoas today. Here's a log of the process for future reference.

Yesterday I set up an Innovative Marine Nuvo 10 to use as my hospital tank. While doing a water change I transferred over 10 gallons of the water from my DT to use in the hospital tank. I won't be using any filter, but I left the Nuvo 20's filter sock installed and dropped a bag of charcoal into it. Then I simply added a heater, plugged in the built in pump and added one small bottle of Dr. Tim's One and Only just to be on the safe side.

This morning I pulled the zoas and placed them into a plastic container with tank water and Furan-2. Ratio of one packet per one CUP of tank water. It took me a few minutes to get them all into the container gently with the Furan-2 (about 5 minutes. ) I then set the timer for fifteen minutes. That assured that they were in the bath less than 20 minutes total. I used a turkey baster a dozen times or so to make sure there was movement and targeted each colony.

Once they were done bathing I used clean saltwater to rinse each colony and then placed them into the hospital tank. I wasn't very concerned about a little Foran 2 residue getting into that tank as some people actually treat the whole tank with the fungicide as well. I chose not to do that because it seemed excessive.

I'll repeat this procedure every 24 hours for the next two days (three total treatments). The I'll let them rest in the hospital tank an additional day or so and put them back.

A picture of one small colony prior to treatment. If you look closely you can see the polyps are not just closed, but the tips have a little bit of almost translucent green fungi covering them. This colony is completely effected. Some colonies have anywhere from a couple to half (or more) of their polyps affected.

:

Hospital tank: IM 10 :

Dipping Zoas in Furan -2