1st Zoa ... Questions

[nmprisons]

I just bought my first zoa from a lfs. It has a bright orange skirt and mouth with light green centers. There are dozens of polyps on a pice of branching live rock.

The problem: There are polys all the way around the rock and so I can't rigure out which way is up and which way is down. It has been in my tank for about 2 hours and all the polyps facing the light have opened, but the others (sides and bottom) have remained closed. Will those polyps slowly die? Is there anything I can do to keep them alive? Should I just pluck them off the rock so that they don't pollute my tank when they die?

Thanks.

 

[jason9jay]

Was the piece straight up in the store so that light was coming down on it. Like a cone with coral around the edges?

 

[stevemc]

They should turn to face the light. Maybe you could stand it on end so all are exposed to light. If you can prop it up in a way that they can get light, things will be good. I see you have compact florescent which is known as normal output=NO, which is not real powerful, but sufficient for most zoas. Maybe have them high up in the center of the tank. Good luck with them! They can be addicting-trying to get prettier ones all the time. Steve.

 

[msman825]

stand it straight up or like you said, just remove them and start you some new frags

 

[nmprisons]

the piece only recently arrived in the store. they had it at like a 45 degree angle with the side that had the least number of polyps facing down. i mimiced that in my tank. it has opened nicely, but there are still some polyps in the shade.

i will move it up a bit in my tank if you guys suggest. right now the top is 7.5" from the surface and the bottom is 11" from the surface. is this really too low?

thanks.

 

[BLKTANG]

frag-um,& send me what u dont want.lol

 

[nmprisons]

also, i don't think it is really possible to have it sit perpendicular to the base of the tank as there are polyps all the way around both "ends"

will it be back for my tank if some of the polyps die while in the tank?