weird thing on my zoas, please help!!!

[princesuhaib]

What is happening to my zoa's what is this stuff? How do i get rid of it or how to treat it? any info would be good and what i should do about it!


http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/princesuhaib/The%20Tank/RIMG0503.jpg

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/princesuhaib/The%20Tank/RIMG0505.jpg

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/princesuhaib/The%20Tank/RIMG0506.jpg

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/princesuhaib/The%20Tank/RIMG0507.jpg

Thank You

[ccombs70]

My first thought was a sponge of some sort. It looks like that is part of your colony though. It seems like the matt of zoas themselves is swollen. Personally I would cut out the mutuated/possibly infected part. I always frag my colonies just in case something happens to them. It's kept a couple species in my tank a few times!

[username in use]

Spaghetti worms. Nothing to really worry about.

[jasonrp104]

+1 on the worms. Mine do it all the time. No harm to zoas

[Ritten]

Are you looking at the white matt or the stringy worms?

[Frick-n-Frags]

the spaghetti worms are inconsequential. those messed up mats are very disturbing to me, especially since it is on several colonies. if those areas are increasing in size, what's to say the entire zoo colonies won't go down with that? that's what would be bugging me.

edit: that sort of translucent "veiny" look, and how it looks like it is growing up and over the polyps, does suggest some encrusting or parasitic sponge. i would be frickin fraggin those like yesterday actually, just in case i couldn't stop whatever it is.

[spsfreak]

The matting that you see is part of the colony.... I would not think that in-and-of itself is the problem. I would be concerned about what is making your polyps to close up enough that you actually see the matting. I have had many colonies that matted like that when growing fast, but I very rarely saw the matting unless something was bothering the polyps or when they were dying off\back. Just my observations.

[noahm]

Try pulling one of the segments with tweezers. If it doesn't retract, it is not a spaghetti worm, but it does look like some kind of striped spaghetti worm mouth parts. If it is, it shouldn't do any real harm, just the occasional irritation to the colony while it is feeding.

[princesuhaib]

hey thank you everyone, I just looked at them now and its all gone, and back to normal? what could it have been? Weird IMO

any idea's?

[noahm]

def sounds like a spaghetti worm as mentioned above. The body generally lives in a hole in the rock or in the sand. The mouth parts consist of several 'tentacles' that reach out and look for food bits. They will not directly harm anything, as they eat leftovers, but occasionally you will notice stuff like with your zoas. It is no different than when a hermit cruises through the patch.