Florida zoos having problems

[na1paj]

I was wondering if anybody else experience this:

It only happen to zoas from FL for me. After a certain period of time (a month ~ 6 months) my FL zoas would turn black at the base and stem and would slowly die away. It would happen to part of the colony to the whole colony. I have about 20+ variety of zoas but all the other ones are very healthy.

The florida zoas were very very healthy, reproducing very fast and growing very big, and all of a sudden turn blackish... it happened to one of my frags that grew on 2 ends of a rock. one end would be reproducing while the other die away...

Tank parameters fine, no electricity leak. 2 different systems, 1 under 14k MH lights, and the other is a nano with PC. I've had the tank established for years, and I do regular water changes. This happens in both systems, and the same colony fragged into both tanks would strangly die off at the same time...

everything in it (sps, rics, shrooms, zoas, pods, you name it) are all thriving, but florida zoas are my only problem. I even pick them up to check for nudi, eggs, snails, spiders, but I find nothing but pods

Perhaps lack of certain nutrients they need?
Any thoughts?

 

[raider77]

I think I have had the same problem as you. Do you have pics of the zoanthids you say are from florida? I'm not to sure where the ones I had are from just heard they were from Florida.

 

[ct_vol]

Do they die off and then grow back??? I have some zoas that if I don't frag them they become overcrowded and die back... But I don't lose the whole colony... I'm not sure what causes this phenomenon either, as I can let other colonies grow rampant...

I've also had zoos turn black and die off in my main display ( 14k mh's/VHO actinics) and they'll do AWESOME in my 75g (8 bulb t5's with a broader color spectrum, 6700k, 10,000k, 420nm, 460nm)...

raider77~ On a side note... Very jealous of your avatar... Too Sweet!!!!!!

 

[Ding2daDong]

I have the same problem right now. I bought some florida neon green zoanthids and half of the colony turned black and shrived up. The word on the street is that you have to give them HIGH flow. Put them in front of a powerhead and see what happens. A bunch of mine have since opened.

-Matthew

 

[RevHtree]

They also need high light as well! Most of the Carribean zoanthids are collected when the tide is out and are left in only inches of water and sometimes no water at all. Being that close to the surface demands high lighting in the home aquarium.

 

[msman825]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9455895#post9455895 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RevHtree
They also need high light as well! Most of the Carribean zoanthids are collected when the tide is out and are left in only inches of water and sometimes no water at all. Being that close to the surface demands high lighting in the home aquarium.

and flow

 

[na1paj]

I have a 14k MH light over them and they are in the middle, top and bottom of the tank. I have 2 powerheads in the 40 gal (for the sps) so the flow is very high.
They would do very well for a while reproducing and everything, and then all of a sudden turn black.
I'm actually suspecting that the ones on the top have too much lights. when those on the top started turning black, I'd move them to the bottom, then they would stop turning black.
no unfortunatly, they don't grow back, some of them die 1/2 way, some the whole colony.

here's a pic of some of them that's starting to turn black. I've had those for a couple of months, and they've reproduced about 50% more polyps since then. The green ones on the corner are now closed, but on the same rock, the green eye ones are still thriving... ~_~

Coral warfare??

 

[raider77]

I have lost 2 frags of the zoas you have pictured on top. They do fine for months then just melt away. I have tried them high in the tank under 150 watt hqi's and then tried to shade them under a little ledge.

 

[berns]

can i suggest something to look at, i also had a blue caribbean morph (alien eye) that after purchasing i realised things not ok, the base matting turned brown then polyps were slowly following/dieing, so i took a scalpal to some dead and half dead polyps and found at least 1x but mostly 2x tiny needle thin pink/white worms in every single polyp, i also then cut open a few healthy looking polyps on the colony and again found the worms.

these worms are really thin and swim in a flowing ribbon type way, to open polyps i cut off each polyp and place in a very small (3"x3") shallow white plastic container with only a mouthful of water (enough to cover polyp) then carefully run the scalpal down the polyp stem to open it up, as you carefully remove internal cells the worms swim out, you need to look close up and a white container helps see them easyier.

it might be worth a look as this same thing was the downfall of 2x these colonies i and a friend purchased at same time, i can only presume a predator worm had layed either eggs or live babies in polyp stems to feed on them prior to purchase, the fact that every single polyp i opened had either 1 or 2 worms tells me the adult layer made a thorough job lol

 

[na1paj]

I did that.. cut open a couple polyps.. . nothing...

 

[impur]

Do the declining polyps look anything like this? Turn brown/black and just disintigrate?

 

[anomie]

I had a couple frags of rpe's that looked like the picture you posted impur. I did some dips and lost a frag, but the other frag seems to have a few polyps that might make a recovery. What is that condition called? What causes it?

 

[deep6er]

I had a few frags of this zoa type aswell. I sold one to a local reefer and within a week hers turned black and died too. The others I have are all doing fine. I did tell her to try to match my tank conditions but no luck hers all died. I have mine about 10" away from 250w mh and lots of flow and they are all good.... so far

 

[chrisstie]

I recognize those alien eyes as being for sale at sealifeflorida.com and the guy who runs it mentions that they are a deep water species and how the color looks in your tank may not be like the color once collected.

I was wondering if thats right then what are the temperatures you guys run at? I wonder if they do better in cooler or warmer temps depending on where they are from if they are a wild species

 

[puddldude]

Chrisstie hit the nail on the head. In my larger tank 76 degrees they do fine and in my smaller nano 80-82 degrees they have never done well. I do have quite a bit of light on my larger tank and that does not seem to effect them.
I have a lot more problems with Solomon zoanthids than I do with the Caribbean ones.
What is the temp of your tank?

 

[schprock]

 

[na1paj]

yes impur it looks like that.
here's a pic of one of my frags that's experiencing the problem.

on the left it's the yellow/green one, before it's affected, it was as thick as the one on the right
The one on the right was the blue one, and it's starting to close up

I run one of my tanks at 78~80deg, and the other one 76~78 deg. if temp. is the problem, would they do very well for a month ~ 6 months? they've been reproducing a lot too.

I dipped them in freshwater last night to see if i can find any preditors after reading on Mucho Reef's thread. I didn't find any. I've also been looking when the lights are out (with a flash light) but nothing.

impur, do you know what causes yours to look like that?

I really really appreciate everyone's help!!!!

 

[na1paj]

I saw your other post impur, for Furan-2, I'll try that and see *_*

 

[impur]

Yah, here is a link to the thread on club - zoa.com. There are lots of pictures and it outlines what i tried, what works, what doesn't IME.

I began the fight using erythromiacin. I thought i was seeing some positive results, but i think it only slowed the infection. After a week of no dips it picked right back up.

http://www.club - zoa .com/forums/showthread.php?t=1958


edit: for some reason RC doesn't let me link to club - zoa.com so just copy the link and delete the spaces in the url.