Problem with new zoas

[theop]

I have a couple of questions about some new zoas I picked up from a LFS. I bought 3 colonies that came out of 2 different tanks. The zoas looked fine in the store and were fully opened. I bought them 5 days ago.

Here are the problems:

1. Two of the colonies didn't look so great by the time I got them in my tank. One whole colony and several areas of the other looked "fuzzy" and milky. Many have gone onto die in the last couple of days and I have removed the dead areas. Some of these individual polyps didn't die, but "pinched" off of the dying base and now are free-floating. Some of these are opened and the polyp itself looks fine.

I am not sure what went wrong, as I don't think they got too hot or too cold. They were bagged for only 2 hours. Maybe the water parameters were significantly different between our tanks. My tank parameters are in check with pH 8.2, alk 3ppm, 1.025 S.G., nitrates about 2, temp 80 F. I didn't test the water from the LFS.

2. I found 2 sundial snails on the largest rock. I pulled these off.

So here are my questions:
1. Is there anything else I should do now to the colonies that didn't die but still haven't opened up yet?

2. What should I do with the free-floating heads? Will they attach to a rock on their own or are they goners?

3. Will I start having more sundial snails (via eggs, etc) even though I pulled of the only 2 on the rock?

Thanks for any advice that you can offer...

 

[Chupakabra-King]

Take the free floaters and try and corral them onto some LR rubble or crushed coral . When they attach to that , simply glue them to a bigger rock . It works for me .

You can also put some netting over them on a rock you want them to attach to and wait until they attach . I have also made a "bag" out of netting and put the zoas in there and waited for them to attach to that , then I glued the netting to a rock . Those are just a couple ways to get them to attach , I am sure there is more . . .

 

[msman825]

I would dip them also You can use a rubber band to hold the free floaters to rocks also

 

[theop]

Thanks for the help.

Does anyone know if using sugerglue gel would be ok to stick them to a rock (or snail ) as i would some other type of frag?

 

[fishgirlheather]

I used superglue on zoanthids once and was successful, but I usually just rubber band them to a plug for a few days and they attach.

 

[theop]

Well, I superglued tonight, so I'll see how it goes. I took the 7 that were opening up and looked ok and glued them to a piece of base rock. They are sticking pretty well.

I couldn't really rubber band because these were single polyps that had broken off. If I had several connected polyps then I could see how rubber banding could work.