Purple People Eater not opening

[rcmike]

Hey guys, I got a PPE from Fishdoc at the frag swap and for the first couple of days it opened up and looked good. The last few days it has been closed so tight it just looks like a purple blob. I am not very good with zoas to start with so I am a little worried. I have it on the bottom of my 110 under 400W MH bulbs. It is in an area of moderate water flow I would say. I haven't seen anything picking at it. Any ideas? I have a few other zoas in the tank that are doing fine up higher but I have never really gotten into them so I really don't know much about thier care.

Edit: I just looked at pictures of zoapox and mine has spots on it that look similar. I'll try and take a picture later. Has anyone here ever had them? I am pretty sure they weren't there to begin with.

 

[gflat65]

I've had the pox, but only in small doses. Every time I've had it, there was a temp swing or I hadn't done a WC in a long time. Getting the temp in check and a few WC's got it in line for me. Temp seemed to be the main factor... Any issues there?

 

[coralphreak]

PPE have white stripes/spots on them when they are closed up anyways. Are you sure its zoapox? Ive also never heard if affecting the zoanthus gigantus species before. Not to say it cant, just never heard of it meself.

 

[c_stowers]

I've had them before and they are a mjor PIA. I've lost nearly half my zoa population each time (twice) that I've had them. Mine seemed to occur when I changed the photoperiod on my lights.

 

[EvilMel]

Whenever mine would start acting up I would always freshwater dip them with RO water that was the same temp as my water. It seemed to clear things up right away!

 

[Fanof49ASU]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11717293#post11717293 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralphreak
PPE have white stripes/spots on them when they are closed up anyways. Are you sure its zoapox?

True. I have several new polyps that have white dots around the edges (when closed).

 

[rcmike]

You may be on to something with the temp Gary. I recently raised it to 82 from 79 this week. I found I can keep it more stable with the aquacontroller at 82 since the halides heat up the water so much. The sps seem to like it thought, they have had more polyp extension and seem to be a little brighter.

The spots could be normal. I guess I am just a little paranoid since I have never had great luck with zoas.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I got a frag of PPE from fishdoc11, too, and mine has opened up after a few days of sitting tightly closed. No sign of zoa pox here.

Do you have any angelfish, rabbit fish or tang in your tank?

For a long time I was wondering why my PHE zoa kept closing up after looking beautiful for a few months. The culprit was my fish, either Pygmy angel or my yellow fox face. They developed a taste for very expensive zoas (especially blue and purple kinds) when they grew up. I never saw the fish actually picking at the zoas. However, shortly before I lost PPE and Tub's blue frags right after I got them into my tank, I saw the two fish swimming by my frag tray. After I ousted my two marauding fish, my PHE suddenly started opening and I have not lost any more blues and purple zoa frags since.

Tomoko

 

[rcmike]

I checked it an it was just some sand stuck to it. I blew it off and it looks fine now besides being closed.

Oh, BTW, I am definately not blaming Chris. I know his frags are top notch.

Right now I have two clownfish, a royal gramma, two scooter blennies, and a 6 line wrass in that tank.

 

[ct_vol]

I have had zoapox before, but have never had nor heard of them affecting PE type zoanthids...

I have also had PPE's stay closed for weeks and then open up like they never had any problems... I wouldn't worry about them not openning, but if the "purple blob" looks to be dwindling in size then its definately time to freak...

Just make sure your parameters are good, and you should be fine...

Over dipping can stress a coral needlessly and sometimes to their detriment...

 

[rcmike]

Yeah, it is probably fine. It probably opened up and took a look around and realized it wasn't in that awsome tank anymore and got depressed so it closed up.

 

[ssdalton]

I got a PPE from fishdoc at the swap too- mine has been closed up since Monday and it has been opening every morning before that.

Shaun

 

[rcmike]

Okay, I was out of town for a few days and when I came back it has definately shrunk quite a bit. Instead of being round it is more crescent shaped now. What should I do now?

 

[cee]

Mine do that at times, usually only for short periods though. I find they don't like the really high light levels, so perhaps your 400W are causing them problems? I'm definately no expert on these, just throwing that possibility out there. Can you put something like a strawberry containter over them to make sure they aren't being pestered by your 6-line or something? Just to eliminate that possibility.

Dave

 

[chadfarmer]

i would shade them

 

[cee]

Great minds think alike LOL

 

[fishdoc11]

Sorry to hear you are having problems with it Michael. Zoas have always been hard for me to figure out. Shading and less flow might help.....sometimes more flow helps. They were used to 250 watt halides on the bottom of a 120 (24") with around 80X's turnover.
FWIW I have kept them seperate from all my other zoanthids for over a year now in my SPS tank. I have problems from time to time in the other tank with various kinds but I haven't had any problems with those for the several years I've had them.
Hopefully yours is still just getting comfortable......they can close up for a few days at a time.
good luck, Chris

 

[Fanof49ASU]

I agree.....zoas are very tough to figure out. Here's a rundown of what I got at the swap and how they're doing now.

PPE----great
Nuclear Green----great
Rainbows----great
Unknown paly (3 types)----great
Unknown zoa (2)----great
Kiwi Star----great
Purple Death----great

Unknown paly---started out great and has been closed for the past few days. It's starting to get that 'dirty fuzz look' on the stem which ain't good.

Unknown zoas----never opened.

Candy Apple Reds---one never opened....the other looked great for a while, then faded quickly.


Lunar Eclipse(2)---One did great for a week, then melted. The other (I'm pretty sure) became detached.....I'm still looking for it.

Xmen---Did good for a couple of days, then melted.

****I've been told that Lunar Eclipses and Xmen were the same....but I found someone selling them both, so I got them both to see the difference.

FWIW...I'm having much better survival than I did from the Chattanooga swap, yet I did everything the same.

 

[rcmike]

I did move it to a more shaded area. Hopefully it will come back. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[JWJTide21]

So I just wanted to share a good story about the PPE from fishdoc...Here is a pic I just took of mine since the frag swap and its doing great!!! Sorry for the blurry pics

also a nuclear green i picked up that is doing well

I feel very fortunate .... I bought over 30 pieces and knock on wood all the pieces are doing great!!! I had to travel home 2 hours in that cold weather but I had them all in a styrofoam cooler with heatpacks traveling in my backseat!!!