New Zoo's in bad shape

[Maveri9720]

Hey all, I just bought some Zoo's and they are looking bad.

I floated the bags for an hour to acclimate the temps, then I did a FW dip with Lugol's and Salifert's FW exit, as per the instructions in the "Zoo Dip" thread.

Then they went straight into my quarantine tank. That was on Thursday.

The tank has 2 x 55w PCs with 2 x 55w Actinics on it. I've had other zoo's in there before and used the dip and they opened the next day. I have no clue what's going on with these.

Here are some pics: (sorry, was having trouble getting the pics uploaded)

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2219943540059625852misMKs


The maroonish/brown ones that are open are from a frag swap I attended and are still there to show that there isn't anything wrong with the tank or the lights, b/c that one is doing just fine.

Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks.

 

[thecichlidpleco]

I got the same problem, so I will be watching the thread

 

[geoxman]

your PM box is full

 

[Maveri9720]

Cleared PM Box. Wish they would tell you when it gets full. I had no idea.

 

[zolovinglover]

for starters, those particular zos are done for. For your next batch, keep these things in mind:

1. Smell a zoa colony before you buy it, if you smell anything, stay away from them.
2. Caribbean zoanthids (mostly large polyped blues) will never do well in home tanks.
3. Keep your zos in high flow when you bring them home and make sure your alkalinity is at least 8+. Dipping and acclimating won't make a lick of a difference.
4. Dead polyps should be cut off as soon as possible.
5. Solomon zoanthids (the tiny bright colored ones do even worse than their caribbean counterparts. They need very, very high lighting and immense amount of food. The Solomons consist of very shallow water atolls fed by mangrove swamps which supply more food than you ould ever simulate in a reef tank.
6. If they still die you simply got a colony whose zooanthellae are already indecline probably due to shipping stress.
7. The safest way to go is with aquacultured zoanthids, preferrably those that were grown in your area.