Keeping Zoas???

[ocean diver]

Hello

I love zoas but my luck with them has no been so good. I get them and they do great as they spread and multiply then after a month or so they stop opening then just waste away to nothing.......What is the problem? all ideas may help, Thanks

[warriorcookie]

I had the same issue once with a pink colony. Tried different flow and different light but couldn't save them. All my other zoas have been fine...

Not any help I know, just along for the ride.

[albert_dao]

Ah, old zoa syndrome. Lots of people have had good luck with vitamin C alongside an pest dip.

[ocean diver]

thanks, any other thoughts on this problem?

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by ocean diver

Hello

I love zoas but my luck with them has no been so good. I get them and they do great as they spread and multiply then after a month or so they stop opening then just waste away to nothing.......What is the problem? all ideas may help, Thanks

could be many factors from pests to foods , theres not a whole lot of info to go on.

did you dip your zoos?
what fish do you have?
what do you feed?


tank specs?


basically zoos under the right conditions are hardy as hell, when somethings not to their liking they can melt in hours or months.gl

[ocean diver]

I didnt dip the zoas, I have a yellow tang, powder blue tang, RS sailfin tang, mandarin, midas blenny and my tank is a 110gal and back then when I had zoas I had T5's for lights, now I have LED's. I also use a euro reef skimmer and a 30 gal sump. I feed the fish a mixture of foods from flake to brine and clam/squid plus the algae sheets for the tangs. I have lots of other corals in the tank all seem to do well.......but not the zoas!!!!!

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by ocean diver

I didnt dip the zoas, I have a yellow tang, powder blue tang, RS sailfin tang, mandarin, midas blenny and my tank is a 110gal and back then when I had zoas I had T5's for lights, now I have LED's. I also use a euro reef skimmer and a 30 gal sump. I feed the fish a mixture of foods from flake to brine and clam/squid plus the algae sheets for the tangs. I have lots of other corals in the tank all seem to do well.......but not the zoas!!!!!

could be pssible you have an unknown pest, be it crab or something else.

[ocean diver]

OK so what do you like for dipping? and how can I fix any problem now?

[dacookster]

I've always had ups and downs, but this past year I had zoa eating nudis. The worst part was the nudis disguised themselves as the zoa colonies they feasted on so I could barely ever see them. I warmed up some ro water and dipped and shook all my zoa rocks for about 2 mins and once the zoas recovered from the dip, their growth rate doubled. It was kinda cool cause you could see all the poor nudis at the bottom of the bucket. Some were a cm in length and were coloured exactly like a watermelon zoa. I have noticed better growth with adding Kent phyto and zooplanktons.

[daniella3d]

Welcome to the club, we've got T-shirts!

This is very typical of some zoanthids, especially the smaller ones like the zoanthus sociatus. They seem to have a buffer where they can thrive and then when this is gone they waste away.

Some never do this, especially the larger paly that accept food. I never ever had a problem with the rainbow, pink and gold (immortal) and armaggedon for exemples. They eat, they do great. I never had one of those melted away, even when I had copper poisoning.

Vitamine C does help the smaller sociatus, but it is still difficult to keep them long term. The one millon $ question is why they do this? nobody knows. They could be lacking nutrient, plankton, not sure. Once they decide to waste away, there is rarely any return.

Dipping them in 3% peroxyde at 1/3 peroxyde and 2/3 tank water for 2 minutes often help.

Good luck, they are sensitive to any shift in the water parameters, and very sensitive to any heavy metal. I once dosed a bit of iron and magnaneese as recommanded on the bottle, and immediatly lost 3 colonies.