Zoa health.

[Rufessor]

Hi All-

 

I have a BC29 up for over a month, used 25+ lbs of live rock from established tank to set up so its going well and seems stable, never detected a "cycle" per-se and Nitrate is always <20 or undetectable (looks identical to tap water on my strip). Fish inhabitants are limited to clown and fire fish, they are pigs and doing well. I seem to be collecting Zoas and got a frag that I love which was doing well (about 6 types are in tank) until a few days ago when its stopped opening, a few heads got long and skinny with a fat looking closed tip and fell off/died. I dipped it last night in a light iodine solution. It was a mixed frag (did not know this when I got it) and had a two plain looking bigger Zoas amongst the 5-6 bright fluorescent green ones (which of course are the ones dying). So after the iodine dip I fragged the two plain ones off, and replaced the three remaining nice ones (very long and skinny now with fat heads) into the tank about 6 inches down (Std BC29 lighting with EcoXotic 453 nm Strip for supplemental). So.

 

It is what it is, and everything else is doing really well and even growing (noted new heads of two other Zoa colonies) but is there anything to be done that I could reasonably do (CPR is out, toxic) to help these poor guys out?

 

I am assuming they were getting nuked by their bigger competitors, or were just plain sick when I got them and more or less have written them off....

 

Should I feed something (not sure what good this would do as they are pretty closed, not completely, I can see the colors but they are pretty much closed up). ANyhow, new to Zoas but love them and somewhat concerned as I was going to be getting 4 more very small frags of some more expensive variety's tomorrow. I think that's probably fine as its very isolated and no signs of disease (i.e. spots etc). ANyhow, just curious what people do to care for these- I am thinking I might want to put in a filter feeding supplement into the tank a few days a week... is this necessary? Opinions on this are all over the map, what about from someone who collects Zoas and frags, i.e. someone who is seeing active growth... what do you recommend...

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Fish get fed 1x daily, usually a frozen omnivore mystis shrimp mix, and then some pellets once and a while, going to diversify this but fish are newish and eat this so for first few weeks I just want them to eat and be happy. I feed pretty low amounts, so maybe I can just feed a bit more (I use like 1/5 or so of a single small frozen cube). Tanks has a few peppermint shrimp, emerald crab, 10 or so hermits, and snail crew will be added thursday (on its way from reef cleaners) as I am seeing just a tiny bit of algae coming up on glass which has been constant for a few weeks and barely grows, but I figure is enough to warrant a snail crew.

Oh, temp is right at 79-80, salinity is 1.024-1.025, cheato in refugium... all is otherwise very well.

[Trogdor447]

Light source?

[Dani3d]

Zoanthids are some of the hardest coral to keep. Mind you, some people here will say they are easy and grow like weeds, but that really depend on the variety and type. Some are really easy and some seem to just shrink and melt for no apparent reason. They don't like being disturbed and sometimes the large amphipods eat them. It was my case and I lost a very nice purple hornet 150$ worth in one night as it was mostly chewed up by a few amphipods.

 

They do not tolerate algae grow on their skin...nothing should grow on them as they will shrink and die.

 

It's very difficult to say why a certain zoanthid is not doing well. It is even hard to know what type of lighting they were in when they are collected wild. Oten we shock them with too strong light and we should start them with very low light and move on to stronger light slowly.

 

I have also noticed that when I switched to H2O many of zoanthids all went wako, stopped growing and were starting to shrink. I then returned to IO salt but this time with Reef Crystal and they are back on trac and growing fast, with nice large polyps.

[Rufessor]

Lighting is stock+ modified BC29 = 36 W PC Actinic (2x18W bulbs), 36 W PC 10K (2x18W)- all coralife, plus Ecoxotic 453 nm panorama LED mounted in hood. Zoa in question was highest up in tank. (about 4 inches or so down). It is now more like 8 inches down. That could be a problem... so I moved it when I fragged the other colony off, I kinda worried about placement when I put it that high, but the other guys were doing well along side them so I never really thought to move it until I fragged it into two species. Now both are much lower.

 

In the end this is not a big deal, would be great if they make it. But in reading everyone seems to agree that occasionally one will just go away.. too bad they cannot talk.

 

ANyone want to chime in on feeding a supplemental diet for filter feeding (tank is also covered in blue, purple, yellow, and clear sponges all of which are growing... so I kinda don't want to mess with early success but there are a lot of filter feeding organisms in there and I will be adding a frogspawn and hammer head in a month or so (probably 2-3 weeks in reality.. cannot hold myself back but I try )

[malawian]

ive had a similar problem...just having a little meltdown despite everything around it being happy as can be!

 

what are you going to do?

[Rufessor]

:D

 

Very pleased... my frag of 6 or so very cool Zoas (bright fluorescent greenish yellow tips with a reddish orange central disc and a purple mouth) which is now reduced to 3 and that was melting... seems to have liked what I did.

 

1) Removed sick looking melting colony

2) Iodine dip for about 1 minute in tank water (not in the TANK)

 

-Likely irrelevant but... 3) Fragged off competitor/larger Zoa that was part of colony

(I am now uncertain about what exactly these are, I am beginning to suspect they are just a bleached example of the others as on very close inspection its identical looking just bleached entirely of color- so I no longer believe they were competing)

 

4) Moved about 6 inches lower in tank

 

5)24+ hours later, two of the three polyps are open- albeit looking a bit less bright but starting to "sit down" and get less leggy which is a very encouraging sign.

 

Who the heck knows. I bet #4 was the key however #2 probably was not a bad thing.

 

Interesting... picky little bastards they are.

[Trogdor447]

:D

 

Very pleased... my frag of 6 or so very cool Zoas (bright fluorescent greenish yellow tips with a reddish orange central disc and a purple mouth) which is now reduced to 3 and that was melting... seems to have liked what I did.

 

1) Removed sick looking melting colony

2) Iodine dip for about 1 minute in tank water (not in the TANK)

 

-Likely irrelevant but... 3) Fragged off competitor/larger Zoa that was part of colony

(I am now uncertain about what exactly these are, I am beginning to suspect they are just a bleached example of the others as on very close inspection its identical looking just bleached entirely of color- so I no longer believe they were competing)

 

4) Moved about 6 inches lower in tank

 

5)24+ hours later, two of the three polyps are open- albeit looking a bit less bright but starting to "sit down" and get less leggy which is a very encouraging sign.

 

Who the heck knows. I bet #4 was the key however #2 probably was not a bad thing.

 

Interesting... picky little bastards they are.

 

 

LOL I love it, I hate my nems.. he is destroying my ability to scape my tank.. I basically threw the rock in there.. and said here mr gobes you got home and caves and lots of them.. and oh hey mr nem im glad you like the CENTER of the back wall and grew to half my tank in size. LOL

 

But i have found ways to cope and being able to adjust the zoa if they are not healthy is a major plus