I checked out my LFS selection of corals and they have quite a beautiful selection. The owner is very knowledgeable and knows his stuff. He actually has a masters degree in marine biology. The store is trustworthy and honest, but a business none the less. So I looked and am going to start with a zoa as my first. They had some frags for 20 larger ones for 30 and the largest colonies for 45. This isn't about price though. The 20 dollar frags were all open and beautiful but I want to buy a larger one to start just for the beauty but they had a lot of closed polyps. The store employee said they were running only the white kites for some reason and that caused the polyps to close (even though they weren't sure why and the owner wasn't available). Is it normal for these polyps to close due to the stress of a store. He did say that they could have closed because it is a tank with lots of them in there. It could have not liked one being close. But sorry for the ramble the ultimate question is it normal for them to close up and still be healthy? And I asked all the questions like they dip them when they get them in. Have all the fish in the tank to eat pests. They take care of their stock to my knowledge. But the closed polyps could be a sign otherwise? I'd like to know people's opinions and I can answer any questions to clarify things. Thank you so much.
Buying my first coral
- Thread starter Vbwjjeep
- Start date
Ron Reefman
Active member
There are lots of reasons for zoas to not be open, even in a very high quality, healthy, well maintained tank. But if you are buying them, especially a bigger purchase like a colony, I wouldn't even consider buying them unless they were open when I was looking at them.
I seriously doubt the white light theory the store employee gave you. That's strike one against your LFS. They are trying to sell you coral.
Now that colony may be just fine, but this is your first coral. You want to make sure you are buying smart. Would you buy a new car if the windows were tinted dark so you couldn't see inside and the doors were locked... but the owner wasn't there to let you in. I doubt it. Same goes here.
I seriously doubt the white light theory the store employee gave you. That's strike one against your LFS. They are trying to sell you coral.
Now that colony may be just fine, but this is your first coral. You want to make sure you are buying smart. Would you buy a new car if the windows were tinted dark so you couldn't see inside and the doors were locked... but the owner wasn't there to let you in. I doubt it. Same goes here.
ReefsandGeeks
New member
It could be likely that a snail or something crawled over the zoas before you looked at them. They will close up if disturbed like that, and will open back up within 5-10 minutes or so. I can always tell when a turbo snail or other larger invert crowed across one of my zoa colonies because there is a clear path of closed polyps.
There could also just be a problem with the colony, or less than ideal tank conditions. The tank conditions can usualy be seen in the rest of the coral in the tank, so if all the coral look bad, that's a bad sign. It could also be too close to a powerhead or in a high flow area, and the polyps may not like it.
The lighting shouldn't do much to them being open or not. The only time I've seen polyps close due to lighting is when I suddenly turn a light on, even then they are normally still open.
I'd suggest taking 10 minutes to look at the colony just to see how it is responding and if the polyps are opening or if they are shut tight.
There could also just be a problem with the colony, or less than ideal tank conditions. The tank conditions can usualy be seen in the rest of the coral in the tank, so if all the coral look bad, that's a bad sign. It could also be too close to a powerhead or in a high flow area, and the polyps may not like it.
The lighting shouldn't do much to them being open or not. The only time I've seen polyps close due to lighting is when I suddenly turn a light on, even then they are normally still open.
I'd suggest taking 10 minutes to look at the colony just to see how it is responding and if the polyps are opening or if they are shut tight.
All the other specimens in that same tank looked great just those zoas (of course the ones I want) were closed. They do have fish in there that graze on the bugs and algea so maybe I just missed one going by. All the frags looked great and even the smaller colonies around them looked great. Just the larger ones I wanted were closed. Is it possible they were just too close to the other colonies and their size determined they wanted more space. And this LFS is trustworthy but the guy did say that he didn't know why they were closed and made suggestions to why they may be. They never pressure me into buying things and were perfectly happen when I said I'd think about it.
This seems like a solid plan. They weren't pushy to try and sell them so I'll watch them for a week or so.
Similar threads
