Zoa's thinning out

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rancidpetals

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
86
Location
kings mountain, north carolina
I have several different types of zoanthids in my tank, and they have all been thriving for a long while. Just a few weeks ago, I noticed alot of them have been plucked off my rock and some are just floating around, or are in a corner of my tank. Now, my pink ones (which just so happen to be my faves) just so happen to be almost gone, but it's like something is eating them. They are nowhere in the tank. I have reef safe fish, and the normal crabs and snails. My water parameters are fine, 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates, calcium 500, salinity .025. Everything is where it needs to be. I am just clueless as to what is happening to my zoas. Any ideas?
 
What are the fish...? Don't just say reef safe. And some hermits pick at zoas. Could be a disease as well. There are several well known zoanthid diseases unique to the genus.
 
Sarcothelia has some good points. What type of lights do you have, and how old are the bulbs? Have you added anything new such as a new rock or coral lately that something could have hitchhiked in on? Sundial snails will go after your zoas, and are a fairly common hitchhiker.
 
I have a unicorn tang, a regal blue tang, percula clown, lyretail anthias, mandarin goby. I have a Marineland pro series light with a 150 watt 20k halide and 4 39 watt actinics. I just changed my bulbs, but the thinning out started happening before I did that, so I don't think I'm burning them. Besides, I've had my zoas for about 2 years. I added a hammer coral about 4 months ago, but other than that, nothing else new. I was told by my LFS that some hermit crabs do pick zoas off the rocks. What types of diseases are you talking about, Scarothelia?
 
Euphyllia do have sweepers. However, since you say they are detaching from the rock it's probably not a disease. Zoa diseases usually involve them becoming covered in cheesy substances or not opening. How close is the Euphyllia, and if i were you I would check late at night to see whats going on.
 
My hammer coral is far away from any of my zoas, because I do know that they can sting. The zoas that are thinning are very far away from the hammer, atleast 18 inches. The zoas that are left are very open and still acting normally to the passing fish and critters. The colors are still as bright as always, and no cheesy stuff.
 
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