Zoa Heads Falling Off

[emkovar]

So 2 days ago I found one of the heads off my fire and ice zoa at the bottom of my tank on the sand. The zoa has generally been open and looking happy, even the head on the ground was partially open.

 

I have a Fluval Spec 5 and here are my current parameters:

 

T: 78

SG: 1.026

pH 8.4

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate ~2ppm

 

The only major thing that has changed is I got a new light - but everything seems to have adjusted well.

 

All the other zoas seem pretty happy (there are 10 other zoa/paly frags in the tank)

 

It looks like the pods have been eating the bases of this zoa. Is it diseased? I have furan-2 do i need to dip this? If I do, Ill need to dip the whole rock - Will it hurt the other zoas on it? What about the inverts in the rock (im pretty sure there is a brittle star hanging out in there somewhere)?

 

ANY suggestions would be great!

 

Here is a picture from the 30th:

 

 

And then one from today:

 

 

And one from today with the polyps closed:

 

[brandon429]

I would not see a reason to dip so far. this looks like normal zo recession revolving around nutrients not a disease, imo.

 

 

(insert jim carrey meme here, our pets heads are fallin' off!)

 

it was the whole polyp turning loose imo

 

colonial zoanthids are supposed to be tightly knit, touching polyps, all connected with basal material. see how in sections above two are connected, but isolated from the others? that w eventually lead to every polyp being a free stander, and when they release it looks like the tops came off.

 

These guys like N and P and that appears to be very low here?

 

clearly you have enough light and feed at times, as they've grown off the plug and thats a mass expansion phase they were just in, but things are receding.

 

how long has your n and p been this low and do you have full tank shot. by seeing other creatures in here we can discern how these guys feed

[brandon429]

do you see any zo pox i may be missing, i dont see any in pics but i see a few spots to ask abou

 

[emkovar]

Not a great FTS, but here it is.

 

 

a total of 10 zoa/paly frags, 2 acan frags. An emerald crab, and several snails in the cuc. Good sized colony of bristle worms, stomatella snails and ~3 brittle stars.

 

I was going to start supplementing with vitamin C (as per this article http://www.athiel.com/lib2/pguide/vitami1.html)and was looking for something to feed the zoas. I do feed the Acans ~ once a week. They get fed a combination of New Era LPS Coral and mysis shrimp. The last time I fed shrimp I tried to target feed a couple of the zoa/paly colonies - only one would "eat".

[emkovar]

So I just ordered some reef-roids and some marine snow online. Ill feed again tomorrow and see if I target feed these guys if it will help as well.

 

I also ordered a Hannah Phosphate checker and the Salifert Nitrate test kit. So hopefully I can get a more accurate read on where those levels are actually at.

[brandon429]

your tank looks nice! i like the purple coloration, its clean of brown waste deposits, and the other zoas look nice too. These rascals may take weeks to register the feeding changes so dont feel bad if more come off, it may be like a bell curve rsponse time

 

although this looks to be the only colony w issues the others look ok and are awaiting growing

off the plugs. You could keep those same low N and P levels no prob even if you are feeding well, the key is exporting uneaten feed before it turns into waste items in solution.

 

There's also these other factors as well that may indicate nothing wrong other than variances as positioned within the tank:

 

light intensity areas. even though these guys like high light when adapted, ive seen some zo tanks where frags directly under led cups weren't as healthy as ones off to the side

 

-simple variances among frags bought, some healthy and some differ, takes time to adjust. just brainstorming further overall i think tank is good to go.

[emkovar]

No more heads have fallen off today, we'll see what tomorrow brings - there is one that im questioning.

 

So I fed mysis when I got up this afternoon (I work nights). About 1/3 of the colonies grabbed on to pieces of mysis and the other 2/3 didn't seem to react (including the fire and ice colony). The Narssarius snail, the brittle stars and the bristle worms all had a field day.... As soon as my shipment of other foods come in ill feed again and see if I get a better reaction from the other colonies.

 

I was going to do a water change later tonight - but maybe ill wait until tomorrow and let the cuc do its thing.

 

 

The pink zippers

 

 

Captain Americas

 

Valentine Massacres

 

And lastly the Acans

 

[brandon429]

yes that looks good,and, what counts is the regularity held for 6=8 weeks zos slow to register a good or a bad

 

they either slowly recede, grow tall and individual non connected very slowly, or stay low compact hydrodynamic profile squat fat connected with side buds emerging, slowly (flow influences this strongly and light intensity)

 

but you cant go wrong w zos as long as no physical predation, in a well fed well water change/exported environment, decent flow and they do well in my tank very low flow. to the point i cannot kill them from overgrowing sps. feed is my #1 attribute above all, to compensate for low quality everything else in my reef.

my reef is fed more than prob any tank here and its only one gallon. I input the amnt of cyclopeeze and rods frozen food that would feed a ten gallon tank until its dotted out nearly. wait an hour, change the water 3x over sometimes depending on how heavy a blast feed. tank is reset to clean, no waste, and the corals are literally bulging out the sides. change water again 2 days later for their waste. corals overtake everything cannot stop them only by clipping out.

 

 

those individual mysis although large for the zoanthid gut tract still have small inclusions/proteins/fluids that get cast off and uptaken by the polyps, so even adding any food to your tank is good even if a bit oversized for zos.

clearly they get the feeding response trigger off them

 

The reef CPR techinque of triple your workload, sustain it for 8 weeks, feed more and change more than you ever have including every day if you can muster the effort, is exactly carbon copy 100% like a mr olympian training for finals on a 6000 calorie a day massive workout diet.

 

 

 

nano reef cpr

b

[emkovar]

So I got my J&L Shipment today.

 

Phosphates are 0.1ppm

Nitrates are a 0

 

I fed again today - Reef roids and Marine snow.

 

I havent done a water changed since i fed the mysis. The CUC polished off any of the shrimp that were left on the sand bed - even the emerald ventured out in daylight and was eating shrimp.

 

The plan is to do a water changed tomorrow morning when I'm home from work.