zoanthid eating imposter

[Europhyllia]

My superorange zoas have been looking a litle unhappy (I have two rock of them below is a picture of the happier ones) so I took a closer look and found these critters -presumably nudibranches!

http://www.dominopads.com/superorange.jpg

Here's one of the critters:
http://www.dominopads.com/nudibranch.jpg

What am I going to do? I just took the rock out for now and put it in my quarantine tank until I have a better idea.
All of my other zoanthid colonies are tiny and easy to inspect...

[Gseclipse02]

any time i see something i didn't buy i take it out and kill it ... i have had this happen to me once so now i inspect every coral .... i don't dip i know i need to

[Europhyllia]

I saw at least 3 including one tiny one. I'm afraid to pick these off and put the rock back in the tank with something left on it.
What should I dip it with (should I dip?)

[ErikH]

hmm maybe you should toothbrush the rock. works well.

[snfkotara]

Yep that is what it is. Freshwater dip will do it but you will need to do again in a week or so I believe just incase eggs hatch out.

[Europhyllia]

I overestimated how much buffer it would take to buffer a few gallons of freshwater so I skipped the freshwater dip.
I did the toothbrush thing and that worked surprisingly well!
I also found about 10 more of my little tiny trochus snails. Hopefully some of them will really grow to be big snails. :)
Toothbrushing the rock was kind of fun. So much to see!
Anyway. The rock is staying in my QT for now.
Thanks!
If I ever manage to dillute that buffered RO water back down to acceptable levels I'll do a freshwater dip too ;)

[Gseclipse02]

What should I dip it with (should I dip?)
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/gseclipse02/chewing1.jpg


jkjk lol

i hear a lot of people using (lugos) sp

[JoshOdphi]

do regular freshwater dips....that worked for me...they messed up my zoas...but they recovered...

[allan]

Milly found one of those guys in her tank, took it out and destroyed it.

It's too bad that they're not good for the tank because they are rather interesting to look at.

[ShAgMaN]

Man I hate those guys. I did freshwater dips and it killed them within a minute. Zoo's came back fine (I used a little iodine w/the dip). Also I've snagged them with tweezers. I haven’t seen any for months. Just keep a close eye out for a stray or two.

[Kristy]

Hey Karin,

There is a really helpful presentation in the Reference section of the Library. You should check it out here:
http://www.maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41265
Main thing is that you should not assume that you got them all, because if you found one or two, there could be eggs you've missed and then lots of new ones next week!

Good luck with these guys. Not fun.

[stoneroller]

The egg cases are spiral shaped and won't be killed by freshwater or iodine dips. You have to pick them off with tweezers.

Those zoas will do fine in an unbuffered fw dip. I take a cup of RO water and add a little Seachem Reef Dip and vigorously shake the zoa frag or rock around to dislodge any and all pests and critters. Let it sit for a minute or two and shake again. You can also use Lugol's (one drop will do in a gallon) or Revive coral cleaner. I have good results with all. Before placing it back in tank, dip in tank water or fresh untreated RO.

[ddelallata]

Here's what I have done in the past... do this at your own risk.

I take the rock/coral out

run it under cool freshwater in the kitchen sink, making sure to carefully inspect the polyps for any eggs before putting the colony back in the tank. I haven't had any coral losses yet.

the first couple of times I would cover the drain hole and have fun killing the nudibranches afterwards. My tank has been nudibranch free for months.

Dr. David de la Llata