A Polychaete Word of Caution

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by naesco

Zoaelite all of us that have established tanks will have tonnes of bristle worms. They can devour a small dead fish overnight with no trace. What attracts them is dead, decaying tissue or matter.
Most of us have a zoa here and there and if one of them gets sick and dies it is another lost coral with no explanation.
But a specialty tank like yours that is covered in stunning beautiful coloured zoas would allow a disease to spread easily.
Yes it is possible that dead, decaying zoa that attract bristle worms could also cause inadvertent bristle damage to some healthy polyps.
But, the problem is the determining the cause of death and doing something to stop it and not the bristle worms.

If it is disease you will have to be strong and remove most of the polyps in each colony leaving only the guaranteed healthy ones and keep them as far apart from each other.
Look for a chemical or drug solution that you could use as a dip.
Does anyone have any ideas?
If I can find something I will let you know. sorry!

Naesco, you know I am a suported of bristle worms and like tyou there are many benifits to havign them, but there are different types of worms and there is one type that feeds on polyps which zoos are. so it is possable he has 1 or 2 zoo eating worms. I had one very large zoo eater which I just lived with as my tank was a SPS tank and the zoos I did have were ugly.

Steve