deepwater zoa help

[Aquaria]

so i got this japanese deepwater zoa in my tank and was doing good for months but it had a hole in the skeleton looked like a head was there bofore fragging i htink and about 1 month ago a shell started growing out of that hole now it looks like some kind of clam or mussle i thought barnacle but no tell tell signs seen. now my zoa is doing bad less polyps think some may have come off or just closed up looks like its not happy at all could the mussle casue this should i remove it cuz i tried last night during WC and it felt like i may have broken the skeleton on the inside of the frag so i left it (it was really attached to the skeleton)....what do i do?? break it up and put the pieces of the zoa frag back on the plug( ill end up with 3-4, 2-5 head peices)or do i leave it. again zoa is doing badly

46g bowfront
sal 1.025
calc 460
alk 180
mag 1300
phos 0ish less then 0.25
nitrate 5
amm nitrite 0
ph 8.3
t5ho 2 10ks and 2 actinic+
about 14" from light

[landshark]

Make sure you have no sundial snails in the vicinity. They love zoas. Make sure you have adequate water flow to take away debris. I blow them off occassionally with a turkey baster. Have you added any fish or critters that can be crawling on them and annoying them? They don't like being disturbed on a regular basis. Sometimes our favorite zoas just melt away without any apparent reason. Pathogens, bacteria, Chemical warfare, etc.

[hockey nut]

Deep water zoas are somewhat more finiky than your average zoa. Something at night might be bugging them ( i.e. peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, sundial snail, zoa eating nudi's, unicid worms etc etc. ). Some deep water zoas like very little light and some like more light. Also alot of zoas melt after being fragged. I have lost several of my favorite zoa colonies after fragging them. Also when you frag corals they try to rebuild/repair themselves so they use up more nutrients. So there may be a drop in nutrient levels for a couple days or that particular corals imune system is very weak.

Try adding a drop of iodine once in a while as it seems to help with my zoas and mushrooms etc.

Some fish will aquire a taste for zoas later on too. Just when you think they are safe they eat your favorite coral. :biggrin:

Hope you find out what's wrong.

Cheers

[Aquaria]

well i noticed today a few black snails that look almost like pyrimidii or w/e but black they were on the zoa. also i noticed hair algae (mabey thats what the black snails are eating)starting to grow on the frag area and am moving to a more highflow area. this clam thing growing out of the frag is bugging me to its bgetting bigger might break it all up glue what i can back to the frag see if it pulls though any reason not to?

[landshark]

In my experience it is generally not wise to frag zoas that are in a state of distress, unless you see a visible bacteria,etc. and you are trying to save the colony. Any time you frag, you create stress on the coral to various degrees. Zoas are hearty corals, but with any coral it is a crapshoot as to your success. That being said, I have fragged many colonies with very limited losses. Polyps that grow individually in the rock are a lower risk. Polyps that grow in a common mat and have to be cut away and/or scraped off the rock are a much higher risk.