Dying Zoa, Please Help!!

[doryarlin955]

A week and a half ago I bought a single unmounted zoa polyp (it had just settled in the corner of the lfs's tank) and mounted it with a tiny bit of gel superglue to a piece of rubble. It opened up really big and was really fat and healthy looking, and then a couple days ago it began to stop opening and looked like it was shrinking. Today it's flesh seems to be peeling off and there's little munid isopods scurrying all over it. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of it open, but it was blue with a yellow center. I have other zoas in my tank right next to this polyp and they're doing perfectly fine. It's in a nanocube DX with a mj600 mod and I haven't changed anything since getting it. I have an emerald crab, an astrea snail, a turbo snail, a few ceriths and a few nassarius. No fish or inverts otehr than the crab and snails, and there are no aggressive corals in the tank. The tank has been running for 5 months smoothly, the temp is roughly 78* right now. I can do param tests if you'd like. What do you think is going on?!?!?
Polyp closed, but when I first got it:

Polyp when it first looked "sick" (it's on the far right)

Polyp now:

 

[doryarlin955]

I though I should describe it in more detail:
The top of it looks like it's flesh was peeled away and underneath there's black patches. The skin is literally just peeling off and floating away in the current, and there's pods all over it. Could this be "contagious"? I really don't want it to spread, whatever it is.

 

[Ladipyg]

It is very hard to "super glue" zoas without causing more damage, especially a single polyp. If the glue goes anywhere but the very bottom of the foot, it damages the tissue and even putting it onto the bottom of the foot can be tricky. Most people use too much glue or squeeze the zoa while trying to mount it. Next time just take a small, clear plastic soda bottle...cut it so that there are a couple inches of straight edges...push it into the sand, drop rock rubble into the bottle...drop the zoa polyp in and it will settle into the rock rubble...give it a couple of weeks and the zoa with grab onto a rock all by itself. Then you can glue the rock the polyp attached itself to anywhere you want without damaging the polyp. good luck

 

[mikekman]

Looks like the zoa is dying and I don't think you can do too much now. I have had zoos that looked like that and they don't make it. Next time you could always place it on the sandbed with rubble rock pushed against it so that it can't move and it can encrust/attach itself to the rock.

 

[doryarlin955]

Oh oops. I guess I must've done that then, I thought I got it pretty good but I guess not. Would a rubber badn (not too tight) work to hold a single polyp down? It worked really well for me for a group of 3 polyps that were together...

 

[swannL11]

It is very hard to "super glue" zoas without causing more damage, especially a single polyp. If the glue goes anywhere but the very bottom of the foot, it damages the tissue and even putting it onto the bottom of the foot can be tricky. Most people use too much glue or squeeze the zoa while trying to mount it. Next time just take a small, clear plastic soda bottle...cut it so that there are a couple inches of straight edges...push it into the sand, drop rock rubble into the bottle...drop the zoa polyp in and it will settle into the rock rubble...give it a couple of weeks and the zoa with grab onto a rock all by itself. Then you can glue the rock the polyp attached itself to anywhere you want without damaging the polyp. good luck

Agree with Ladipyg: you are more likely to lose the singles with the use of too much superglue on the singles(that stuff gets hot) or squeeze'em to tight when attaching (its hard holding on to the singles). I use a rubberemaid rectangular shaped container with about an inch of course sand and very very small pieces of rubble. Cover it with window screen(attached with a rubberband). And to keep the container from floating I glued a rock to bottom.
I think using rubbeband on single...not such a good idea

 

[aquarius77]

I think a rubberband might work. I have had very good success pinning them down tward the base with a peice of rubble and then glueing the rubble rock down to a disk so it will hold the zoo there.

I think if you would have assisted the skin in comming off like with a turkey baster or a powerhead that you might have saved it. I belive that skin chokes them out once it starts to happen, i have seen it a few times in my tank and ill blast it off or gently rub with my finger tip to break the skin loose if it wont blast off without help.

 

[Ladipyg]

Rubberbanding on a single is pretty hard to do...not matter how hard you try, you'll end up getting the band around the stalk and cutting off flow within the polyp...go and get an acrylic or plastic fish breeder...it will have a slotted bottom...clip it on the side of your tank...put some rock rubble big enough not to fall through the slots in there...put the polyp in there and shortly it will be attached...I've used this method also...It just depends on how much space you have on the bottom of the tank.