Do zoos need phyto???

[baloutang]

I know it sounds like a strange question, but I use to dose phyto in my tank and have stopped for about 3 weeks. My zoos appear to be melting and are pinched. I've had some paramater swings, but the tank has been stable now for over a week. I don't know if zoos just take longer to show the stress than typical corals.

In any event, I'm just curious if they do need phyto (I always assumed phyto is for the pods in the tank not the zoanthelle on the zoos).

 

[baloutang]

Also, I'm running a nutrient low tank so I'm not sure if this has had any affect on the zoos. They have been thriving for the past 6 months and all of sudden they are not happy. At night I can see pods crawling all over them (not a good sign).

 

[650-IS350]

put them high up on the tank walls on frag racks to keep them away from munchers till they get healthy.

 

[baloutang]

Thanks delsol650.
They are pretty high up in the tank near good flow attached to the rock work. The only 2 shifts in the tank were, I removed a lot of my softies and added a few more SPS (2 days ago). I stopped dosing phyto 3 weeks ago. Don't know if that's what is affecting them.
I'll try to move them to a frag rack. Only a few of the polyps aren't happy, most are open. I'll try to get a pic posted when MH come on.

 

[GMaquarium]

Zoas do need phyto. I use a lot of it in my prop tanks and they grow like crazy

 

[baloutang]

Here's a pic of them before and today.

Before

After

So, I guess they are starving because of no phyto?

 

[flyyyguy]

I run a low nutrient tank as well.......and at least once a week, usually more, I do target feed all of the polyps. If I dont some shrink and they all are healthier and happier with the feedings

It doesnt necessarily have to be phyto specifically IMO......but they do need some food. I feed them Rods mixed with SW.....coral frenzy..,.oyster eggs sometimes....whatever, just some kind of nutrition

In my 225 with countless zoa frags and colonies i can thoroughly feed them all in less than 5 minutes by simply shutting off all flow and target feeding all of them with this simple little tool I made. Its a 75 ml syringe with 2 feet or so of stiff tubing glued to it so I can easily reach everywhere. I mix whatever food I happen to be using that week in with a cup or two of tankwater and just dust them all real quick.

crappy pic...but you get the idea...

to be honest.......I wouldnt say that the reason you have some unhappy polyps there is surely becasue you stopped dosing phyto a few weeks ago. A few of them look kinda irritated and it would take more than a few weeks to notice any signifigant changes as a result of not dosing the tank

 

[baloutang]

Thanks Flyyguy...yeah, I do target feed the zoas, but with cyclopeeze.
I'm kind of perplexed as I'm running a mixed tank. I have a few zoos, mushrooms and frogspawns. The majority of my tank is SPS, but now I'm wondering if running it nutrient low is causing the problems with the zoos. Although I don't know if I'm really that nutrient low because most my SPS are turning brown, despite lack of nuisuance algae or anything registering on the test kit for PO4 or NO3. I do use RO/DI water with filters changed out regularly with weekly 10% water changes.
I have a separate colony in my frag tank which is a bit more "dirty" (no SPS in there as they brown out), and those zoos are very happy and fat.

 

[Reefman79]

I use phyco pure/ coral vits...

 

[Hormigaquatica]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12358077#post12358077 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GMaquarium
Zoas do need phyto. I use a lot of it in my prop tanks and they grow like crazy

Phytoplankton is too small for Zoanthids to grab onto. They seem to be designed for trapping somewhat larger debris than that. Your zoas may be eating something that floats through that tank, but its Very unlikely that they are taking the phyto up directly.

Besides, why would some starve, while others flourished in the same area? It should also take a Much longer time period than just 3 weeks for a zoanthid to 'starve to death'. If I remember right, they get somewhere in the ballpark of 90% of their nutritional needs from their zooxanthellae; there is no way they would close up after just 3 weeks without a food that they were probably never using in the first place.

I would venture a bet that someone in your tank just took a few pot shots at those zoas and damaged them, especially since the rest of the colony looks fine. As long as everyone leaves them alone, they should recover after a while (if nothing else, the healthy polyps will overgrow any bare spots left by dead ones).

 

[goldmaniac]

I've had just a couple fish in my tank for a while, and zoas were living but not thriving/expanding. 2 weeks ago I bought a bunch of little fish, and I've been feeding them 3-4 times a night to keep them all happy, and the zoas are opening up more and some have started to sprout.

I'm tending to think that fish in a zoa tank 1) gets me to add more food into the water column and 2) create more fish poop. I think these two factors might be significant.

\just my experience.