Care of African blue zoanthids...

[SIR PATRICK]

Hate to bump this thread, but I have to know-

Those of you with good/bad results-

What is your alk at? Could be key with maintaining these guys....

 

[SIR PATRICK]

Hate to bump this thread, but I have to know-

Those of you with good/bad results-

What is your alk at? Could be key with maintaining these guys....

 

[RicksReefs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15080967#post15080967 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scottallert
you say you have collected zoas as do i, and i got a pm saying i have been reported to enviromental protection agency

don't sweat it. there is nothing wrong with collecting your own zoas as long as you stay within the collection limits. you probably got the PM from a PETA puke without a clue.
besides, it's not the EPA you need to worry about, it's the FWC and USF&W.

 

[lubyone1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15095913#post15095913 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SIR PATRICK
Hate to bump this thread, but I have to know-

Those of you with good/bad results-

What is your alk at? Could be key with maintaining these guys....

Mine have been growing great....lots of new heads forming in just a few weeks. I've got them in low light and moderate/strong flow. However, I/m beginning to think that these do in fact come from shallow waters because the colors of mine are changing from blue to purple in low light.

I keep my ALK right around 7-8.

Brian

 

[handfed]

My alk in all 3 tanks also stays between 7 - 8
Colors are much better in the LED tank and T5
the ones in the MH tank are looking dull in color.

 

[fishkid6692]

i have had mine for 3 weeks. i paid 25 for 5 heads and they didn't do a very good fragging job so i ended up with all single polyps in the bag. i glue 2 on the frag disc and the rest i put in the rocks. the ones in the rocks floated away but the one on the disc have baby heads already and are doing good. i have high lighting, high flow, and my temp is at 72-73.

 

[sdcfish]

Everyone,

First of all, I appologize for not jumping in on this thread earlier as I just was informed about it. I normally read the boards on the "Other" website, but will keep a closer eye.

Yes...I am the author of the notification that was posted by Fishhome25 describing where these blue steel super zoo's were coming from on the reef.

My supplier specifically tells me that they are coming from 5 feet deep and shallower. Sometimes, they are "hybernating" on the reef when the tide is very low. Obviously, this means very high light, high flow, and warmer water, as well as higher salinity.

I see there is a mixed bag of success, and it worries me, or saddens me that everyone is not being more successful.

What we have seen here is mostly success. Our tanks are set up with moderate lighting...400 watts of MH 20K hung about 20" above the aquarium 8'x4' sections. We have seen them open and stay open for weeks here....and have seen very little white slime build up.

I have asked our biologist to look at them closely under the scope to seek out and destroy any predators to my report they were "clean" of predetors...so I am not happy to hear that one hobbyist dipped them with Tech D and saw 50 pyramid snails? I just paged my biologist to double check with him on his research, but the lucky guy has already gone home for the day....but I will surely be following up with him tomorrow

I am the type of person that when one person yells "The sky is falling", I usually keep on walking. But when I hear it again from a second person, I look up and take is seriously.

I have been pushing hard to educate our customers and have noted the care needed on our weekly newsletter 4 weeks in a row to make sure our customers were reading it. I also asked the sales reps to tell their customers. Some did, and I have to assume some didn't.

I hope this message helps those who are wondering and struggling My goal is always to provide the best product possible, and keep some sweet daddy items sparking interest to our customers on an ongoing basis. For those of you who may know me, I am always open to ideas and feedback...so please feel free to let me know what we can do to improve.

Best regards,

Eric

 

[650-IS350]

Eric,

It's good to see a wholesaler come in here and talk about issues and give info that they have that some of us reefers don't.

Charles-

 

[sdcfish]

Right on Gangsta Charles I am kinda g-unit myself!

 

[Aquatic Hamster]

Thanks Eric. I've had a large colony that I have started to notice not looking so good after having them a month. I will try to go even higher in the light to see if this helps. Two small frags I made from the colony appear to be doing well, not so suprisingly these two frags were high in the tank. Information is wonderful.

 

[jefathome]

Hmm...

My original ones melted away. They were in med flow, Med light. I'm tempted to try again, but put them in my frag tank where the rack is only 3in from the water surface (under a 250w Radium) and the back part is very close to a Tunze nanostream. May try them there.

 

[sdcfish]

care of blue steels

care of blue steels

Doing a bit more research this morning and working with our biologist on staff this morning, I have done a bit of digging around and have found the following:

We took a sample of a healthy looking African Blue Steel Polyp and put a few polyps under the microscope. Then we took a few polyps that were closed, and also looked at them under the microscope.

On the majority of the polyps that we thought were "healthy" we found no signs of any invasive life. All seemed normal.

On the polyp that was closed, we found ciliate protozoa swimming around our viewing area.

In discussing the habits of these protozoa, we know that they can become very aggressive on decaying matter, and multiply very quickly when not treated or kept in low flowing water areas. They can spread very quickly, and are very aggressive towards neighboring tissue.

We quickly made a formaline dip of 1ml per liter of sea water, and used a dropper to add a few drops onto our slide under the microscope and saw that the protozoans were immediately disolved within seconds.

We are now doing two seperate tests. We are dipping two seperate colonies and replacing one back into our holding "under observation", and the other colony will be dipped and packed as if we were shipping it out.

We will observe both pieces and look at them under the scope again tomorrow to see.

My biologist does not feel we need to dip the healthy colonies, but I am asking if we should be more proactive and just dip them all, or dip each piece prior to shipping.

We will further discuss and I will be happy to report what we are doing.

 

[jefathome]

Look forward to seeing more results.

As for the Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice... Well Shame on me I guess. I got a small frag from my LFS for $10 so I'm gonna try again.

Will a Lugol's/Freshwater dip kill the protozoa?

 

[jefathome]

Look forward to seeing more results.

As for the Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice... Well Shame on me I guess. I got a small frag from my LFS for $10 so I'm gonna try again.

Will a Lugol's/Freshwater dip kill the protozoa?

 

[sdcfish]

I am also thinking that the shipping stress is hard on these guys. Put them in a bag with no water flow, and it allows the protozoans to really multiply.

Maybe a moist pack would be best instead of submersing them? Testing that now.

Not sure on the Lugol's/Freshwater....will experiment and let you know.

 

[sdcfish]

Freshwater will kill the coral. You can use Blue Life USA's Logul's and use 2 ml per liter of sea water, for 5 minutes and will work as well.....shaking the colony in the water will brush off necrotic tissue.

The reason I suggest Blue Life's Lugols is because the formula's per manufacture can vary.

Hope this helps.

Eric

 

[jefathome]

Hmm...
I've been using 30 drops/g of the Bluelife Lugols in RODI fresh as a dip for quite a while as a means of ensuring that I don't get any pyramids or Zoa Nudi's and unless the polyp is sick already, I haven't lost any Zoa's. It takes about 3 days for the polyp to open again, but it is murder on any of the inverts that are hitch-hiking along.

I'll have to try it in saltwater next time.

 

[impur]

I dip my zoas in RO and Furan2 for 20min at a time. Never lost one i could contribute to the dip.



I traded for some of these zoas again a few weeks back. They are melting now. Add me to the list of shame on me :lol:

 

[BeanMachine]

I have watched my LFS store's frags of these "Blue Steels". I'm there at least once a week. Week by week, the frags are fewer and fewer.

I finally asked whether or not they were sold, or melted, and he admitted that most melted.

He's got a few plugs left with 4 or 5 polyps for $10 a piece.

In the name of science, I will pick up two frags and see how it goes.

I'll place one plug in high flow / high light and the other in high flow / med light.

My Alk is about 8 if anyone is wondering.

I'll report back with progress, or lack there of, in a few weeks.

Bean

 

[Bluespot22]

I had a colony of about 30 polyps that melted down to 3.