Paly Problem ID

I posted a couple of months ago about my Devil's Armor Palys shriveling up and excreting brown strings of ooh:. Well, sadly, they've never recovered. Over the last few months they've continued to shrivel and look worse.

I'm posting this in the ID section because I noticed this yellow-brown mass growing on the colony of Devil's Armor, and I have no idea what it is. There are also now holes penetrating the mat of the colony. Any ideas?

 

I don't know if this helps, but the yellow-brown mass is soft. I had expected it to be hard.

I took the palys out and put them in QT yesterday...

 

Can you pull the mass off? It kind of looks like a sponge.

I'm sorry I can't be much more of a help, but I have not had luck with devil's armor either. I have probably tried 3 or 4 frags of it, and it just wastes away over time, until it disappears. I strongly suspect that lighting has to do a lot with it. They tend to do better with lower lighting. Do you have them at the top of your tank?

 

I didn't try to pull it off. The palys were getting all pissed, and I get kind of paranoid about palytoxins. :death: It's just so weird, because they were doing great, and then out of nowhere started deteriorating like this. They were mid-level in my tank, but now they are in a 10 gallon QT under plain florescent lighting.

 

That sounds exactly what happens to mine. They grow, spread fast, then start to disappear.

 

I might get brave later and try to scrub the yellow-brown stuff with my nail. I might do an iodine dip, too.

 

You can use tweezers to scrape it off too. I wouldn't worry about the palys -- you can always buy some nitrile or latex gloves at the drug store before you start your work!

 

Good idea!

 

Wait a minute, how did you see pics of my big guns?! :lol:

 

Haha! :rofl:

 

I would not like to meet her in a dark alley! :yikesu::shock:

 

my orange zoas or palys whatever have grown around my ball anemones. and on top of that when they both are fully extended they dont effect each other. as far as a sponge id say scrape that with a toothbrush and they should be fine.

 

you might try taking some of your pallys and put them on another rock,that way hopfully you dont loose the whole colony