Is there something wrong with these zoas

[Amnemonemomne]

This particular group of zoas have been looking shriveled on the bottom and aren't opening, is there something wrong? All the other zoas are perfectly fine but its just this group. It could be b/c my crabs been walking on top of them but I doubt it 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Try blowing them with a Turkey baster. They might have had some detritus land on them and it’s bugging them. 

[ardentpyro]

Are they in a shadowed area?  They look like they are stretching for light

[mcarroll]

How old is this colony?

 

How old is the tank?

 

How long has the colony been in this spot?

 

Have these polyps always looked like this, or when did it start?

 

Any changes lately?

 

Can you post your most recent water test numbers?  (nitrate and phosphate especially)

[Amnemonemomne]

On 1/10/2023 at 3:15 PM, ardentpyro said:

Are they in a shadowed area?  They look like they are stretching for light

None of them are shaded they all are in the light

[Amnemonemomne]

On 1/11/2023 at 2:05 PM, mcarroll said:

How old is this colony?

 

How old is the tank?

 

How long has the colony been in this spot?

 

Have these polyps always looked like this, or when did it start?

 

Any changes lately?

 

Can you post your most recent water test numbers?  (nitrate and phosphate especially)

Not sure since I bought the entire colony from my lfs, my tanks about 7 months old. the colony has been there since I bought it. The colony was no always like this, they started looking like this a few weeks ago. No changes of the tank

[mcarroll]

2 minutes ago, Amnemonemomne said:

Not sure since I bought the entire colony from my lfs, my tanks about 7 months old. the colony has been there since I bought it. The colony was no always like this, they started looking like this a few weeks ago. No changes of the tank

If the tank is only 7 months old, then everything is probably still changing all the time in the tank.

 

If you spend 10-15 minutes watching them (should feel like a LONG TIME to sit there watching) try to notice if there are any critters moving about....like zoa-eating nudibranchs.

 

What is the thing I circled in white?

 

Also, if you can test your water for phosphate and nitrate, the results could be interesting.  👍

[Amnemonemomne]

21 hours ago, mcarroll said:

If the tank is only 7 months old, then everything is probably still changing all the time in the tank.

 

If you spend 10-15 minutes watching them (should feel like a LONG TIME to sit there watching) try to notice if there are any critters moving about....like zoa-eating nudibranchs.

 

What is the thing I circled in white?

 

Also, if you can test your water for phosphate and nitrate, the results could be interesting.  👍

That's just another zoa but shriveled up. Anyways the group of shriveled up zoas all melted but the zoas around are doing fine. While looking at the tank all I saw were copepods jumping around.

[Amnemonemomne]

I cant get a photo of them since my phones camera isnt the best but I can at least try to describe them: the biggest ones are smaller then a grain of rice, they have a grayish translucent body with tiny tiny hairs around their body. I see them eating leftover algae that I scraped over

They look like plankton from spongebob but tiny and translucent

[Tired]

Those are probably munnid isopods- "Plankton from Spongebob" sounds about right. Harmless algae-eaters. The hairs are their little leggies. These are the aquatic cousins of pillbugs/roly-polies/whatever you call them, the terrestrial isopods. 

[mcarroll]

9 hours ago, Amnemonemomne said:

I cant get a photo of them since my phones camera isnt the best but I can at least try to describe them: the biggest ones are smaller then a grain of rice, they have a grayish translucent body with tiny tiny hairs around their body. I see them eating leftover algae that I scraped over

They look like plankton from spongebob but tiny and translucent

Unfortunately that's the rough description of LOTS of small critters (probably many 10's of thousands of species).  LOL.  A photo would really help...maybe even a bad photo if that's all you can get.  🙂 

 

Howerver, the most common thing in a reef tank that fits that description is an amphipod.  Here is one out of water...the body curve is kind of a telltale sign for them:

 

 

BTW, if it's too small to photograph, then it might be a copepod....which usually just look like this:

 

To compare...

On 10/6/2007 at 2:53 PM, Helfrichs Chick said:

These are the most common species. Pictures in this order, Amphipods, Copepods, Isopods.

[Amnemonemomne]

Oh it looks like the yellow looking photo

[Tired]

Yep, that's a munnid. 

[Amnemonemomne]

The reason why ive yet to test my water is because I have expired test kits should I still use them? 

[Tired]

Probably not. Inaccurate results are worse than no results. Get yourself some non-expired, non-API test kits for phosphate and nitrate, and you'll probably find out that your problem is one or both of those being low. 

[Amnemonemomne]

Ok so in the future when I find out which one is low, how do I bring it back up?

[Tired]

First off, do fewer and/or smaller water changes. If you don't need to replenish minerals or remove nutrients, there's no need for a water change. 

 

Feeding any LPS and other wants-to-be-fed corals in the tank more often can increase nutrients, but the most straightforward way to increase them is to straight-up dose them from bottles. Reducing water changes is generally enough to keep them up, as long as you're feeding everything enough. Fish should eat well at least once a day, and LPS benefit from (but don't require) a feeding every week-ish.