I will preface this with informing you that I do not have a picture of the colony. I removed whatever the substance was as soon as I saw it. i wish I would have had the foresight to document it but alas it is not so.
Ok, anyways, whatever this thing was it has caused my Zoanthid colony to cease opening up. They have not opened in over a week. The substance what white and gray and filled in the space between the polyps. It covered an area about the size of a silver dollar, encasing about 12 polyps. It did not completely encapsulate the the polyps but it did cover them up to the tip of their heads. it looked like it had small pores around its mass which were not as prevalent as a sponges pores and appeared to be more random and less frequuent. It was whiter toward the top of the mound (that's what I will call it) and grayer towards the bottom where it sealed with the frag plug and seemed to almost bind with the polyp stalks it was touching or covering.
I used tweezers to pull/rip off pieces of the mound until it was completely removed. it looked organic in composition for sure. It didn't smell any different than zoa's normally do but it was gross as hell. the inside was brownish and much grosser than the outside of the mound. I am not sure how long it took to grow or how long it had been there.
The polyps it was not touching were opening (slightly and not all of them), however after removing the mass (and the polyps that had bound with the mound) the polyps that appeared unaffected by the mound would not open even days later. I dipped the colony in CoralRx and even put the coral in a different tank days later and saw no change. The water quality is suburb and there is no predator visibly eating them. After several dips (days apart) and a tank change, I am at a loss. cannot find any inforamtion on this growth/mound and I am a little pissed because this colony was quite expensive.
Does anyone know what the hell this could be?
Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrite: 10
Alk: 8
Ph:8.2
PO: .02
mag: 1320
Ca: 420
Ok, anyways, whatever this thing was it has caused my Zoanthid colony to cease opening up. They have not opened in over a week. The substance what white and gray and filled in the space between the polyps. It covered an area about the size of a silver dollar, encasing about 12 polyps. It did not completely encapsulate the the polyps but it did cover them up to the tip of their heads. it looked like it had small pores around its mass which were not as prevalent as a sponges pores and appeared to be more random and less frequuent. It was whiter toward the top of the mound (that's what I will call it) and grayer towards the bottom where it sealed with the frag plug and seemed to almost bind with the polyp stalks it was touching or covering.
I used tweezers to pull/rip off pieces of the mound until it was completely removed. it looked organic in composition for sure. It didn't smell any different than zoa's normally do but it was gross as hell. the inside was brownish and much grosser than the outside of the mound. I am not sure how long it took to grow or how long it had been there.
The polyps it was not touching were opening (slightly and not all of them), however after removing the mass (and the polyps that had bound with the mound) the polyps that appeared unaffected by the mound would not open even days later. I dipped the colony in CoralRx and even put the coral in a different tank days later and saw no change. The water quality is suburb and there is no predator visibly eating them. After several dips (days apart) and a tank change, I am at a loss. cannot find any inforamtion on this growth/mound and I am a little pissed because this colony was quite expensive.
Does anyone know what the hell this could be?
Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrite: 10
Alk: 8
Ph:8.2
PO: .02
mag: 1320
Ca: 420