Care of African blue zoanthids...

I am being told, from a reputable store, that these did very poor for them in the tanks with less intence lighting and flow.

They had these in a few different tanks for a while, and have found they are doing well in high flow and very intence lighting. Top of their tank under HQI MH lights. All other locations and lesser lighting had very bad consequences.

I also have them looking into what part of the world they are coming from.

My guess is indo, veitnam, or florida, considering thats where they normaly deal with. (especialy when it comes to zoanthids)

After talking to the owner (who I have been freinds with for over 15 years), I am a bit skeptical on them being deepwater, or from africa. I will find out soon. Getting info from the same store, but 2 seperate locations, and dealing with the head honcho of the 5 stores and one store manager.

Looking forward to more info. I should get it before this weekend.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15047367#post15047367 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishome25
you guys might not believe it, but they are indeed from africa. but from very shallow water.
Click to expand...

Correct. West Africa to be exact. However...same ocean as ours....I have some Zoas from the Keys that I got about 2 months ago and they look somewhat similar. They started out rather drab, turned green and now they are improving in color weekly. I will snap some pictures now and post in a bit.
 
Here you go. I am amazed myself what they are turning into.
These are from very shallow waters off the Keys (app 3'). As you can see from the empty frag plugs, I lost a lot. But whatever is left seems to be thriving now. They are under T 5's in a shallow frag tank about 12" from the lights. In comparison, the last picture is from the same tank, about 8" from the lights and they do not seem to be doing so good. Flow is nothing to speak off, a couple of Maxijets...They did not look anything like this when I got them!

BZ2.jpg


BZ1.jpg


BZ3.jpg
 
ok heres the skinny about any of the zoas that are truely blue..

they do great and then just plain melt
no warning they just poof and gone....

grrrr.... really pist me off too
 
hmmm, so your saying I should stop growing the blue zoas I've been growing for 8+ years 'cause they'll melt?

good to know... :p
 
fishome25 was right.

These zoas are comming out of africa. Ghana to be exact.

The diver/collector says they are at the tops of the reefs in very shallow water, often exposed to the air at low tide.

Leads me to beleive they need High/turbulent flow, and very high/intence light.

Was also told that in some of our tanks with the unusualy high alk (compared to NSW) they might not do as well/be very happy with negative affects, being wild colected. Somthing to think about at least.

Hope this info helps someone.
 
Sounds like some may be found in the keys also. Sounds like those are coming out of different conditions though, as speckled grouper has found out.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14930119#post14930119 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OceanLover2
OMG! They've had these beauties at Extreme Corals and they are $300 a pop! I'm glad I didn't fork over the money even though I think they are the prettiest zoas I've ever seen.

Why are they SO EXPENSIVE?!?! Are they getting them from the part of Africa that has pirates?

As time passes keep posting on what works and what doesn't work.
Click to expand...

I paid 300$ :eek2:
 
I am on my second frag attempt. The first I paid $30 for.... and they dies within a week. Never even opened. Apparently all that were sold died off, except for an employee of the LFS... his lived. I am on my second now... I bought one polyp... has a tiny second polyp... but now the large one is no longer opening been a week. I was in the store here that I bought them in... and almost every frag is melting away. I definately lost money and many other people are.... perhaps these are best in the ocean. Try convince the LFS's. Its money in their pocket if ours live or die. Hopefully their own losses will convince them to not buy them for a THIRD time. I know they are making a killing by selling them at $10/polyp. Too bad for the consumer that they only die at home.

I wont buy them again.
 
yup

yup

the second ones looked so much better than the first bunch they got... all open and wicked.... but there frag tank is a mess now. No refunds coming I am sure. Lucky to those whose LFS recognize this. BUilds more loyalty.

There seems to be alot of ideas where they come from... my LFS, and a friend there who orders, said that his supplier said yes Africa... and deep water. Seems to be some conflicting info. What to do what to do. My second ones are not dead yet... but what the hell should I do with them.....?????????
 
I have had mine for a month now high light and high flow. I'll call them stable for now, no major growth, no melting. They are tidal zoas according to my lfs and actually spend some time out of the water.
 
I'm going on a couple weeks now with relatively fast polyp growth. Should also be noted that I've had 0 melt so far. Lower light and moderate to high flow.
 
I have one polyp for about 3 weeks now. I had it in a lower light medium flow location and it had been staying stable. A little bit of the skirt started to go missign but I thought it might be a fish or crab. I moved it up to a med-high light location with medium flow and it is looking horrible. Moving it back down again.
 
you say you have collected zoas as do i, and i got a pm saying i have been reported to enviromental protection agency,
there are some nice zoas off florida waters, i have gotten baby blues, and gold rims.
 
I bought two wild caught rocks of those African Blues (approximately 150 Polyps) . I tried them in multiple locations with different lighting and flow. Three weeks later I had 5 surviving Polyps. Three on a frag disk and 2 on one of the original rocks. Yikes! Its been another month now and those at least are beginning to produce babies. Perhaps these and their offspring will be more hardy. The survivor that seems to be multiplying is on a plug on a rack that is attached to the front of my tank. (lots of current and pretty good light).
 
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