are you sick of random zoa melting?

[romsoccer12]

got 2 zoas for the first time, one did great and has doubled polyps in a matter of weeks and the other melted in 5 days after opening real nice the first day than slowly melting... why does this happen! i FW both so no pests and the one that melted was in a shady spot just to start

 

[romsoccer12]

anyone?

 

[fastandsneaky]

zoas have the tendency to just melt, but you freshwater dipping them probably didn't help at all but instead stressed them more. Use Furan2 dip 3 days in a row or use Revive or even Iodine (not as effective against zoapox)l

 

[romsoccer12]

why does a FW dip stress them so much?

 

[Guygettnby]

i have to agree here. i have seen alot of post lately about FW dipping zoas... when i dip i use revive or lugols myself. this is just like somebody FW dipping a fish. i do not agree with it and if anything i think it causes more stress on the animal then anything else.

zoas are sometimes very stressed when you get them in the first place, so why stress them out even more? why take the chance of making that percentage of survival even lower?

 

[saltyballs8]

The arguement for fw dipping is that you will eliminate pests that wouldn't be effected by iodine, like zoa-eating nudis. It will certainly stress the zoas a bit, but healthy zoas should recover very quickly.

 

[fastandsneaky]

there are a lot of problems that can arise from freshwater dips such a difference in pH and water temp. So you have to buffer the freshwater and make sure the temp is about the same. And that is the least that needs to be done. And some things such as zoapox wont be cured from fw. I have only seen furan2 and revive work on it.

 

[fastandsneaky]

The arguement for fw dipping is that you will eliminate pests that wouldn't be effected by iodine, like zoa-eating nudis. It will certainly stress the zoas a bit, but healthy zoas should recover very quickly.

I agree that it will kill certain pests, but most people do not know the steps that have to be taken to do a proper freshwater dip. Hence, more othen than not, you end up stressing out the coral, and you lose it anyways

 

[returnofsid]

I've found that dipping in Iodine and then Melafix will rid the Zoanthids of any pests, and is much less stressful than a FW dip.

Then again, some Zoanthids just melt, no matter what we do. Unfortunately, it's more often than not, expensive ones.

 

[Guygettnby]

but the point here is why stress them any more then they need to be? the survival rate for zoanthids is tricky anyhow. even worse after they have been shipped. so the less stress you put them thru the better your chances of them living are.

this is also were a quarentine tank comes into play. something everybody should have if they have the chance.

 

[romsoccer12]

i have a QT but how would that prevent them from melting anyway? and what is the least stressful but most affective dip?

 

[darb85]

go stick your head in a tank full of argon for a minute.

samething as freshwater dipping a saltwater creature

 

[Guygettnby]

i have a QT but how would that prevent them from melting anyway? and what is the least stressful but most affective dip?

there have been many dips listed in this thread. my favorite is revive. a QT would of course help prevent anything from spreading after you dip your corals. gives you a chance to keep a close eye on the coral and make sure if the dip in fact killed everything. but i have never ran into a problem with revive killing everything and not harming a coral. i infact use revive after i frag, i dip the freshly cut corals in the revive.

 

[shikhyung]

Does any brand name Iodine, or lugos work?
and at what dose level? Thanks.

 

[romsoccer12]

does revive need to have pH/temp same as the water?

 

[fastandsneaky]

does revive need to have pH/temp same as the water?

You use the water from the tank so the pH and temp should be the same.

 

[minirex4777]

when YOU JUST GOT THE ZOOS DID YOU BUY THEM LOCAL OR DID THEY GET SHIPPED BECAUSE NOT ENOUGH OXYGEN WILL KILL THEM BY MELTING AS WELL OR AT LEAST THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME.

 

[Guygettnby]

does revive need to have pH/temp same as the water?

like fastandsneaky said, i as well use the water from my tank. i do believe on the bottle it says to use some fresh saltwater but i wanted the water to be the same as the corals came out of. so there is no need to change anything with it. just add revive and dip your corals.

 

[Remicade]

Does any brand name Iodine, or lugos work?
and at what dose level? Thanks.

i use brightwell aquatics. my sps and zoa's have not looked better. i switched from Kent.

 

[romsoccer12]

i bought them from a LFS, only like an hour to get in the tank, i think it was the freshwater dip, i didnt match the pH