Help With Zoa

[htfn]

My few zoa closed for 5,6 days both day time and night time. Are they going to die? If they are, how can I save them? Please help. Thanks

[reefwars]

not necessarily they can stay closed for very long periods of time and still live to grow and multiply, finding the reason they are closing could be a bit of a headache as well as it could be alot of different things to fish picking at them to poor water clarity. how long have you had them and did anything change or happen that would give some sort of idea what would be making them mad??

[htfn]

I've got them about two weeks, and they were fine. I still don't know what is going on. The other zoa are opening normal. I didn't do anything except water change.

[reefwars]

I've got them about two weeks, and they were fine. I still don't know what is going on. The other zoa are opening normal. I didn't do anything except water change.


welcome to the wonderfull world of zoanthids, one colony melts while its neighbors grows like crazy. a little tip if your gonna keep zoanthids is expect loss no matter what you do, each and every one reacts different to an aquarium and what does good in mine might die in yours and vice versa. yuou can try to move the frag somewhere else to see if its lights or flow bothering it, could be a fish nipping at it, amonia,could be sand,bristle worms,algae the list is literally endless. they are not a beginner coral regardless of what people say so spend small amounts on frags and trial and error untill you know which ones grow and do for you and which ones eventually melt away:)

[htfn]

I came back home from work and I spotted one zoa started to melt. I moved the other side of my tank. Hopfuly it works. Thanks

[martinmcnally]

I found with a few colonies that when they do this take out a turkey baster and blast them to clean everything away. That sometimes works. Then look for the little worms that can sometimes popup around them. They look like little tubes and I see them come out at night and sting the zoas. Break those off if they are close by. Good idea to take a look at them during the night and see what is going on. Too much light is definitely another killer and it wont kill them right away might take a week or more before they start to close up.

[Buzz]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=zoanthid+eating+nudibranch

[Blom]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=zoanthid+eating+nudibranch

Thats too good. I am now going to answer all my friends on facbooks questions with that lmgtfy site

[daniella3d]

It can be so many things, not necesary zoa eating nudibranch. But they might still come back. I had some that were closed for a month and they are now beautiful and multiplying.

In my aquarium, dosing vitamin C is starting to make a difference, but I still have to experiment more with it as I only been dosing for a week and half.

I had some problem zoanthids that recovered when putting them in more flow and more light. If the polyps are very tight together and with very short body, then they probably were in lots of light. If they are further apart and have longer body, then they were probably in less strong light. Try to give them the same light they are used to.

In nature, some zoanthids are exposed to extreme conditions, they get exposed to air while in low tide, extreme heat due to the sun, extreme fluctuation with PH due to freshwater in the rain falls etc...and they can recover even from large bleaching event. Yet in our aquarium they can melt for no apparent reason, with no parasite present.

I have noticed that in my frags, there is always tons of little bristle worm and when I dip them in peroxyde there is usually something like 12 to 15 worms in just one frags. Problem is that those small worms dig their way underneat the mat of the zoanthids and I think they are causing a stress or maybe worse, eating that away.? Now when a frags is having problem, the first thing I do is to dip in 1/4 peroxyde and 3/4 tank water, and remove all these pods and bristles that are hiding there, then I put that frag on my rack and in good flow. It usually come back.

Some are going through cycles of shrinking and being big and beautiful, not sure what's going on there. They do love stability in parameter and any swing in PH, KH and temperature can trigger a melting event. Try to keep your parameters as stable as possible. Also a good food to make them multiply (verified twice in my tank) is Kent Chromaplex. When I feed this in my tank my zoanthids multiply much faster. I tried this in my nano and in my main tank and both had the same results. I was going to also try zoa power if I can find that.

This is not related to your problem but if you like zoanthids it is a very interesting article to read: http://www.garf.org/FRUGALREEFER/fruzoa/zoaring.html

[Money pit]

Daniella what strength of peroxide do you use? Is it the 5% that you can get from the drug store?

[daniella3d]

The one that we get from the drug store here is 3% I beleive and that's what I use.

I leave the frag in there for a minute or 2 and I can see all sort of things coming out of my frags. It is amazing how well those bristle worms can hide. Also I use 1/4 peroxyde but some people goes as strong as 1/2 peroxyde. I have done it with that much but I do not beleive it is necessary, as long as you see some fizz in there, it will work.


Daniella what strength of peroxide do you use? Is it the 5% that you can get from the drug store?

[htfn]

Thanks for your informations. I try to dip my frag. so far I lost 8 polyps out of 10. need to save last two. Thanks again

[daniella3d]

Good luck with them. Hope they will make it.

Zoanthus sociatus especially can be difficult (small polyps).

On the other end my palythoas are practically undestructible. a few days ago I theared a few pink and gold polyps as they were anchored to a rock that I had to move and they survived and the polyps are all open today and completely healed. The head survived despite most of the body being missing! I used a razor blade to cut the bottom part off. Can't kill those things.


Thanks for your informations. I try to dip my frag. so far I lost 8 polyps out of 10. need to save last two. Thanks again

[htfn]

OK, I dipped in peroxide. Hope they survive.