Bringing Zoas Back From the Cold

[Falconeer]

Hi all, I just received a shipment of zoa frags from a member here. Now, for some reason that they wouldn't tell me other than "it's been delayed", FedEx delayed the package a day and held it in Indianapolis.

The frags were packed with a 40 hour heat pack, but when I took the box inside this morning, there was definately no more heat coming from it and the water in the zoa's bags was significantly colder than it should have been.

With my experience and my eye for judging a dead zoa, they simply look really closed up to me. I would expect that from the stress of being put through the shipping process.

I am currently bringing the temperatures of the bags back up to where my tank is (I know, slowly. I assure you I am doing this slowly), but I wanted to ask here. What do you think my chances of these corals being 100% ok is?

If it helps, there looked to be a little bit of "dust" or dirt in each bag that was just sort of floating around. I don't know what it came from, but I didn't personally think much of it, but I thought i'd add it here.

 

[BigandUgly]

I think if you slowly raise the temp, slowly acclimate them to your water and slow acclimate them to your lighting you are going to be in good shape.

 

[somdinwong]

funny thing someone just did the same thing to me and i am hoping for the best. not on this site though

 

[benihana]

How are they looking?

 

[mfinn]

There is a good chance they will be fine depending on how cold they got.
I've had zoanthids come in at under 60 degrees and survive. They were just pretty angry for a couple days.

 

[Falconeer]

How are they looking?

They're still closed up.

Basically, they just look like really closed up zoas. I was mainly asking here to see if anyone else had experience with them getting too cold.

So, I'm hoping they start to open up within the next two days or so.

I'll definately keep you posted.

 

[jvalentine]

hope it works out for you

 

[Falconeer]

There is a good chance they will be fine depending on how cold they got.
I've had zoanthids come in at under 60 degrees and survive. They were just pretty angry for a couple days.

That's basically what is happening here. From the feel of it, I don't believe they were below 60*. By angry do you mean they stayed closed?

I'm thinking 3ish days would be a long recovery period, so that's my outside goal for having these guys open up.

I would have posted this in my last post, but the edit option was no longer available.

 

[chris88]

i have had a lost shipment form the airport go missing for 3 days. they finally called me and i said there is no chance anything is alive, suprisingly half the order survived. the shirmps, sps, torch, and brain all died, however the fish (chromis & clowns) survied and the colonies of zoas survived. The water was hounestly 40-50 degrees F. I live up north and this was the winter. everything recovered well and are still in my tank today.

 

[bekindtoyurbuds]

Zoa's are one of the best corals around for shipping, they are very hardy. I would give them a week, at least (if not two weeks) in the tank, before all is considered lost. As long as you still have a defined polyp, even when closed, they are still alive. I would just do the normal drip aclimation until they are up to the same temp and salinity. Holding them in the bag (with no flow, or new water) for a super long aclimation process could do more harm them good.

Your chances of them surviving are probably about 90+%, assuming that the tank they came from was healthy... not to mention the shipping method (styrofoam lined box/heat pack to minumize the fluctuation of the temp)

 

[Falconeer]

Zoa's are one of the best corals around for shipping, they are very hardy. I would give them a week, at least (if not two weeks) in the tank, before all is considered lost. As long as you still have a defined polyp, even when closed, they are still alive. I would just do the normal drip aclimation until they are up to the same temp and salinity. Holding them in the bag (with no flow, or new water) for a super long aclimation process could do more harm them good.

Your chances of them surviving are probably about 90+%, assuming that the tank they came from was healthy... not to mention the shipping method (styrofoam lined box/heat pack to minumize the fluctuation of the temp)

Ok, that's definately encouraging. They were very well packaged, but despite knowing that zoas were hardy, I just didn't know to what extent they could stress out and still recover

 

[mfinn]

By angry, I meant closed up.
Sometimes getting more flow around them helps. Not hard flow, but wide flow.

 

[Falconeer]

Well, I did my best but they're dead. Today I noticed that the polyps started to disintegrate, and some of them looked like they were unraveling.

 

[ZOAKEEPER]

Sometimes, shipping gets even the best of us. Sounds as though you did your best and tried. A little disheartening but springs around the corner (long curve) and for those of us in the northern regions we'll start a frenzy of shipping again. Keep on reefin!! :dance:

 

[bangaicardinal]

I had the same thing happen to me up in Canada, Fedex screwed up as per usual and my frags arrived 24 hours late. The water was on average 59.4 degrees when I received them. I slowly acclimatized them to the water in my tank and then put them on all on the sand (15 plugs). Looks like the mushroom isn't going to make it but a few of the zoas have opened. I encountered the same thing as Falconeer with some of the tupperwares having debris in them, others not. I think the debris is from them hitting the into the sides of their vessels and being damaged, or perhaps from stress? Not sure entirely but not all of mine had debris in them. I will post again and let you know if they survive. I'm sure more people will encounter this