Care of African blue zoanthids...

[kaylo]

Got them yesterday for free for helping out at my LFS. I dipped them last night when I got home. I found about 50 pyramid snails in the bucket after dipping.

Here is a pic this morning.

I just fed the tank so some of them are a little closed from the fish frenzy. I checked them out in the store for about a week and they looked stable there.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping they thrive in my tank.

 

[Skipper]

What dip did you use?

 

[tranto1]

they look like "blue steel" too me... is it the same thing?

 

[kaylo]

I used Kent Marine, Tech - D

You know, in all honesty they could be either. I looked up pics of african blues and blue steels, put them side by side and they look exactly the same to me. For all I know they are the same exact thing to begin with. New name = new hype. /shrug

I do know that they are very nice looking though. =D

 

[TRANSMATT]

Hey I thought I would throw my hat in the ring and give you the info I found out at my local LFS.

Low and behold a shop I usually stay away from due to outragous priceing and inconsistant quality. Just tried a new transshipper from Vietnam for zoanthids.

Turns out that they just recieved 2 boxes of these little guys about a 3-4 days ago form Vietnam!

Most of the colonies look like they were on lg chunks (6"x6") of black slate almost. Others were on typical live rock chunks.

They were $150 for the lg and 17.00 for a frag of about 20 polyps

I bought 4 frags 1 for me and just gave 3 away after reading this in hopes that out of 4 diffrent tanks and varing conditons 1 might live.

I hate it when you find something cool and they are gone before somebody can keep them alive!

 

[jefathome]

I picked up a 10 head frag on Friday. I split it into a bunch of 2 head frags that I put in different locations to see which works best.

Will update as I get results.

have you guys noticed some brown stuff around the base of the Zoa's? The LFS guy thinks that this might be the cause of them melting away.

 

[Aquatic Hamster]

No brown stuff here. Although the colony did have a few sickly polyps that have either opened up now or died off. About 2 weeks and colors are looking good. I did take a second small frag of 2 polyps and place it in a place with higher light and lower flow. So far the both are doing fine.

 

[90greefman]

My african blues have been in my tank for 3 days now and they are wide open and lovin it. Hopefully that will last. I have them on a rock in the bottom of the tank sitting on the sandbed. Good lighting, good water flow and nothing around them.

 

[AeroD79]

mines melted after 3 weeks. VC and other stuff that usually zoos love...didnt work.

 

[Johnny C]

It's such a shame that these "deepwater" variations are so tempermental, because they're SO amazing in color!

 

[Toddrtrex]

Not sure if that is what I got the other day --- I am bad about paying attention to names -- if I like the looks I will get them.

Anyways, it has only been 2 days, but so far so good.

Here is what they look like ---- taken with a flash,

And a close up.

 

[RicksReefs]

I don't know about africans, but all the blues around here (and yes, this morph is found in florida) are found in about 15 feet or less of water. alien eyes/ steels/whatever grow in about 5 feet.

does anybody have any collection info on just how deep these 'deepwater' zoas are? I've yet to find many zoas at depths greater than 35 feet.

 

[oddballs]

I agree with ricks reef most of the collection sites that I have been told about are usually in pretty shallow water and tidepools.

 

[gflat65]

My small frags are popping out polyps already. One that started with two polyps now has at least 5 (counting babies). They aren't shaded any more, but on the bottom of a 40B under (4)-39W tek T5.

 

[impur]

Just got a frag of these as well. A friend of mine got a colony of about 75 polyps for very cheap, much less than any price i've seen for these. I traded him a reef lobster thats been in my rock cooking tub for 8 months for about 15 polyps. I cut them into 2 frags and so far so good. All are open and look great.

I previously had some of these which were caribbean zoas but looked identical. That frag lasted 3 weeks before melting into goo. Crossing my fingers this time around.

 

[650-IS350]

haven't seen you on here much, Impur.

 

[impur]

I've been lurking more than posting for awhile

 

[650-IS350]

I figured.

 

[Sr5_Reef]

I didn't get to read the whole thread so sorry if im saying what everyone has already said, but i have seen an LFS get up to 20 HUGE colonies and have everyone melt, algae over, get zoa pox. The ones from the wild are not used to our low nutrient tanks. We keep protein skimmers etc etc, these are collected in Africa, Supposedly dirtier water.

IN MY EXPERIENCE i have been able to keep them thriving in VERY high lighting and in GOOD flow. I have mine on a frag rack 18" from a 250 watt Radium. about 6" under the water level. In direct flow from my return and it has been doing great. i see new babys as well.
only problem is, its a 3 polyp frag! hahaha

 

[RicksReefs]

I think a big part of the problem with these kinds of Zoas (including floridas), is that it's not so much the 'dirtiness' of the water is what they prefer, but more a case of their adaptabilty To grow in dirty water. This brings epiphytes, sponges, and other assorted hitchhikers onto the rock/mat that Don't survive shipping or without high floc (dirty) water. the necrosy sets off infection/pox/etc. in the Zoas.

When I first arrived in florida and would collect a few Zoas, I'd lose 75% of them. it wasn't until I started using a dull o-ring pick to remove all other life (especially sponges) I could on the 'dirty' ones and dipping them in TechD, that my survivability went up to 98%-100%.