Paly/Zoa has white film on it?

tkh

tkh

New member
So, I think some of my zoas and palys have developed a fungal infection, but I am not 100% sure... Relatively though. Here's a picture of one of the 3 frags affected:

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I would really rather not lose the 3 frags, not to mention I'd like to prevent it from spreading. In my very brief search just now, I keep finding solutions that deal with zoa pox, which I guess is also a fungus (? Not sure, I haven't read up enough on coral disease yet), but definitely different than this.

Anyhow - what should I do to save these poor guys? Also, should I do anything to the tank (sole inhabitants are coral and a bristle star)?

Thanks!!
 
Erik, what happen? All the frag are not ok? Your rock seem white to me? Can you post picture of other frags? Don't worry I got you cover if they are gone.

Mai
 
Thanks Kratos, I was thinking the same thing, but wasn't sure.

Thank you Mai!! Out of the frags I picked up from you, only this one is affected. I am still trying to get a good shot of the other frags :) I will soon! That's really kind of you though! Hopefully they pull through, just saw the film on them today, noticed a very small patch on another frag 2 days back, but I wasn't sure at all what it was then. Only once it spread to this frag did I get a chance to really look at it. Oh, and only this one frag of yours is affected Mai, the others are doing well! As for the rock, part of it is white, it used to all be covered in a layer of diatoms (new-ish tank, they're all in my cube, not my 90g), and I dropped in a bag of chemipure and purigen yesterday, so I guess slowly the rock will all go white again! Hopefully then it will go back and get colored with some coralline...

I'll treat the 3 frags today, and hopefully they should all recover. I'll post pictures to track it all here too, why not, right? Updates may be later tonight though... I have to study some too! (and find a cool shrimp today... other than the tempura kind ;) ... although that sounds like lunch....)
 
OK, my long overdue update. Sorry, I got caught up with, well, mostly tank stuff, but not the photography side of it all!!

In any case, update on the situation with the fungus on my zoas, I lost 1 frag after the first treatment - in reality, I think they were dead before-hand already (not when I received them, just having succumbed to the fungus before I could properly figure out what was going on). The other two frags took to the furan2 dips well, and generally looked better after the dips, even opening about an hour or two later. By the next morning they had a covering of fungus again though. Since the treatment regime that I'd read about mentioned doing only 3 consecutive days of treatment, and then allowing them to rest, that is what I did. On Day 4, however, they still had fungus, so I looked around and saw people also recommended dosing the tank with melafix. Well, not being a big fan of dosing the entire tank, and after having spoken with Glenn at Advanced Aquatics, I dip Melafix dips on the coral to get rid of the fungus. This seems to have worked somewhat, so I have done 2 days of melafix dips. Over the last few days of treating, I ended up losing a few heads while cleaning fungus off manually post dip. The remaining heads look better, and I am just hoping that there is no fungus tomorrow morning! Assuming I have time, I will get an up-to-date shot tomorrow of them as well. Anyhow, pictures to follow:

Day 1 (July 4th) Both Predip, during dip, and post dip:
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Day 2 (July 5th) Pre-dip:
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Day 3 (July 6th) Pre-Dip:
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So, I did not take pictures in the meantime, but will try to tomorrow morning. The fungus is somewhat clearing up... but I did lose a few polyps in the process! My suggestions would be for anyone else trying this is to make sure to have a small pipette style baster on hand to help remove the fungus during and after the dips. I tried q-tips once and squished a polyp by mistake (granted, it was super squishy, so maybe it was already dead, but still, a small pipette would be safer).
 
Pufferpunk said:
I always brush that fungus off with a soft toothbrush, pre-dipping.
Click to expand...

Oh, pre-dipping actually makes more sense. I'm afraid that I've reinfected the phantoms by dipping them together - stupid move on my part in retrospect! I took some pictures this morning, neither remaining frag is looking terribly well, but I will keep trying. If they look like goners, I may try a high alkalinity dip that I read about that some other reefer tried out with success. I also noticed some fungus on a rock that I have a few gonipora polyps growing on... I hope this stuff doesn't spread (although I understand that there are likely fungus spores throughout the tank at this point). Pictures this evening!
 
Final Update:

So I continued the Furan2 method of dipping, and the end result is just one colony survived sadly (Your pinks made it Mai!)! I am hoping it survives at least, and so far it has had no recurrence of the fungus. I will try to post follow-up pictures tracing the demise of one, and the ultimate survival of the last, although only two - three polyps survived out of a nicer small set. Hopefully I am through dealing with fungus on zoas and palys! I am also hoping that it has not spread, so far everything else in the tank continues to look healthy. Pictures this weekend most likely!

Thanks for all of the support and advice!
 
tkh said:
Final Update:

So I continued the Furan2 method of dipping, and the end result is just one colony survived sadly (Your pinks made it Mai!)! I am hoping it survives at least, and so far it has had no recurrence of the fungus. I will try to post follow-up pictures tracing the demise of one, and the ultimate survival of the last, although only two - three polyps survived out of a nicer small set. Hopefully I am through dealing with fungus on zoas and palys! I am also hoping that it has not spread, so far everything else in the tank continues to look healthy. Pictures this weekend most likely!

Thanks for all of the support and advice!
Click to expand...

Glad you were able to get the upper hand on that fungus though! It's definitely a scary time when you see your critters ailing!

One favor: If you wouldn't mind posting your method on the tips, treaments, etc in one place thread, I'll incorporate the furan 2 dip into it. That one I don't have in there yet and I think it would be helpful to everyone. Whenever you have a chance to though, no rush :)
 
Thanks Mai and Dom!

I will definitely do a write up on it for the larger thread Dom, although I essentially copied the protocol posted in zoaid.com.

Mai, I am not sure about dosing the tank - I think Furan2 has both antifungal as well as antibacterial properties. I know you can in theory, but I would be very worried personally. If you had nothing but coral in the tank, it would likely be fine. I would have actually dosed my tank, but I had previously foolishly put in a few invertebrates (fire shrimp, two starfish, and a serpent star).... Dosing the tank in this case would have been preferred, as I definitely did have some fungus growing elsewhere for a bit, and certainly there are spores in the tank. I did dip a gonipora frag with no problems and the fungus died after one dip... But I have no photos of that. I think the fungus was also on the rock rather than on the actual coral itself.

EDIT: People much wiser and more knowledgeable than myself have thankfully recommended against dosing your tank directly! Being an antibacterial, it has the strong potential of knocking out your beneficial bacterial colonies! Do NOT dose your tank if you can help it! (so ignore the stuff in grey, no idea how to put a line through it all...)
 
Thanks for sharing your experience tkh. It's true that Furan 2 is an antibiotic that combats gram positive and gram neg bacteria as well as an anti fungal. Dosing the water column can crash a tank, as pufferpunk said. Besides, the concentration needed for that volume of water would be cost prohibitive.

In my experience the white film fungus will only spread to other zoas with existing health problems. This doesnt mean you shouldn't remove it as soon as humanly possible. This is the most insidious zoa ailment, and will wipe out a colony fast. For larger zoa colonies, your best bet is to frag away the non-effected polyps and throw away the smelly portion.

Being the most severe type of zoa infection, I personally prefer a broad spectrum treatment. Since the zoas are very likely going to die anyway, dip in a solution of not only furan 2, but also fish flex and coral rx. You dont want that crap surviving and mutating into the next zoa super-bug!
 
Thank you for the corrections Jeni and Travis!!! I will go back and edit my original post regarding treating the water column, just in case someone does not read the entire thread. I did have concerns (antibacterial anything I have concerns with when used on the tank), but there were instructions for doing so. Glad someone wiser corrected me before anyone did any serious damage to their tanks!

Thanks for the interest in this as well! I looked everywhere Jeni, and also did not find as much as I had hoped for. I will try and post links this weekend as well (on my way out the door to the airport shortly), but essentially most people seemed to use Furan2, with varying degrees of success. There was someone else that literally dripped his alkalinity solution into a dip until the fungus flaked off (from either high alk or pH, one of the two I would gather), but that was only reported by one person. Others recommended Melafix (which I also tried for a few days in the middle).

Ultimately, I think fragging the healthy portions off is the wisest thing to do - if I had any fragging tools / knowledge I may have tried that. I think ultimately that is more or less what happened with the survivors - every time I went to gently brush things off before dipping I ended up losing a head or two - it just slimed off, so I think it was dead or severely wounded by that point anyways. The surviving polyps were never directly affected (although their brethren, and their mat was).

Thanks again for chiming in and for the advice! If anyone does come up with more information on zoa fungus, please speak up!

Oh, and that picture is pretty much exactly what I had on the affected frags!
 
Your welcome tkh.

I would advise against the alk dip or any other method that changes water chemistry such as fw dips. Sadly, this fungus is nearly impossible to stop once it reaches the zoa stalk. If you can catch it in the early stages, while its still on the zoa mat, then you might stand a chance. And dont worry about daintily fragging the healthy polyps. You want the infected portion hacked away as quickly as possible. If I could take a chainsaw to it, I would!
 
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