NOTE: I don’t advocate following any medication or dosing unless you do the research first and accept the potential devastating risks!

Tubb's Blue Zoas Losing Color

I’ve got two colonies of zoanthids that were doing awesome and spreading like wildfire but over the last few weeks have noticed what appears to be receding and bleaching polyps. One colony is a Tubb’s Blue that began to pale shortly after noticing the skirt “arms” were growing quite long. The other is an unknown that is green with a burgundy/brown skirt that seems to lose polyps. For a while both colonies did not open and I did notice some small specks on the closed polyps. I am not 100% sure this is zoa pox but the symptoms do explain my troubles.

I have done a lot of searching around and seemed to find a description that fit pretty well and a potential treatment I am going to try out. The article at the former ZoaID now CoralPedia.com discusses using a strong dose of Furan-2 in a cup of new saltwater for three days, letting the corals rest a week and then dosing three more times.

Figuring if I do nothing I am going to lose the colonies, I gave it a shot. These are two really nice zoa colonies that were the best performers in my tank so far. I have tried the freshwater dips and dipping in Iodine with no luck. I have observed them for parasitic creatures and have found no signs of zoanthid eating nudibranchs or other nasties.

The recipe calls for using one pouch or capsule of Furan-2 (a brand name of Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) containing Nitrofurazone, Furazolidone and Methylene Blue Trihydrate. I could not find Furan-2 around locally but was able to find a product called “Fungus Clear” by Jungle Labs’ Tank Buddies that contains Nitrofurazone, Furazolidone and potassium dichromate.

For my recipe, I used one tab (rated to treat 10 U.S. gallons) in about 8 oz. of newly mixed saltwater at tank temperature. I soaked all my zoas in there for about 20 minutes each and then rinsing in fresh saltwater before returning to the tank. I completed the first of the initial three rounds yesterday and have full open polyps today. So far no noticeable improvements and no negative side effects either.

I’ll continue to update on the progress and let you all know how it is coming along.