LPS thrive, zoas wither

[chrisstankevitz]

Hello,

I've had a 24 gallon tank for 4.5 years. The tank is beautiful and houses the best blastos and frogspawn I have ever seen. LPS corals thrive in my tank. I change about 25% of the water in my tank every week. I alternate between LFS water and UCSB filtered ocean water. I have no pest algae, worms, or other nasty things in my tank (as far as I can see).

Zoas slowly wither and die in my tank. Why? When I first put them in, they are beautiful, then probably a week later they don't open as much, then they don't open at all. Tried different amounts of light and flow. Tried target feeding. I see zoas thriving in dirty tanks, I wonder if my tank is too clean?

Any ideas on what I can do to help them?

Salt's at 1.024
Temp's at 80
MH 14k lighting

Thank you,

Chris

 

[noahm]

Chemical warfare maybe? Low nutrients usually aren't an issue unless you are carbon dosing or running ULNS. Maybe try salt change...? Sorry. Probably not much help. Is there any chance something is irritating them? Some zoas are fickle IME, but generally you get more to thrive than not. I have some disease that makes its way around my tank once in a while, but most of the zoas recover after a while. Not sure if it could be something similar.

 

[mmopinc]

You might consider running some carbon in case there are any toxins in the water. Another thing that a buddy of mine does is he dips his zoas in iodine. I think he dilutes it but it works as an antiseptic and when he puts them back in his tank they open up real well.

 

[csueeman]

Things like frogspawn will also put out sweeper tentacles that could be stinging your zoa's... Many times these will come out at night.

 

[chrisstankevitz]

I put the zoas in a lugols dip and some little critters came running out. I cannot identify them, but they were "long" (not square or round) and had many legs and some antenna. The zoas seem happier now, but I'm sure the critters will come back (they must be in the tank). Maybe a small wrasse will eat the critters.

Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[cody6766]

The critters sound like pods. They're generally benign or beneficial to your tank, but there are a few bad ones out there.

 

[weaselslucks]

I am having the same problem in my 250.Ever since an introduction of some purple zoas all of my once thriving colonies are either gone completly or not far off.Even my first ever colony of gorillas that survied every mistake you could think of in my early years and 3 tank changes diedI have heard of adding vitamin c and colonies comeing back but once the doseing stops the zoas start to die again.The rest of my lps softies and sps are fine. My hope is that whatever i have will die off as my zoas die and then i can leave my tank zoa free for a while and try again in a year

 

[chrisstankevitz]

The critters sound like pods.

Yes, they do look like pods. Would 3-4 pods be hanging out on a zoa frag stump w/4 polyps on it? The pods are otherwise not seen in my tank.

If the critters were indeed benign pods, I still have no explanation for why the zoas opened up after the dip (vs. semi-closed before the dip).

Thank you,

Chris

 

[ZoaGuy]

It might have nothing to due with the pods, but instead something you couldn't see like a bacterial infection or a very small parasite. It is definitely possible the the problem might return. Keep a close eye on them.

Is this affecting all zoas, or just certain types?

 

[chrisstankevitz]

Update: I saw what looked like some kind of pods inside the zoas's mouths! I added a sixline wrasse and the problem has gone away.

Thanks for your help everyone,

Chris

 

[Breakin newz]

Check your alk, I had problems with not being able to keep zoa's at one point untill I raised my alk around 9-10.... Try it my palys are huge and most of them grow like weeds ever since I raised my alk..