Shipped zoas looking in trouble

[Reef_Me]

Hey guys
So i just recently ordered some candy apple zoanthids from reef2go and they are not looking good at all. They were sent using 2 day shipping. When i opened the box the first thing i realized is that they didnt send it with a heat pack. Anyway enough complaining. So i did quite a long acclimation and the zoos opened within the first hour of being in my tank. unfortunately though these zoos do not look like the candy apple. It looks like they lost all of their zooxanthelle(sp). the oral disk is completely white and the rest of the head is a purple color. i see a little tint of green on a few polyps but ill post a pic for everyone to see. Has anyone else had an experience like this and if so, are these corals goners or salvageable??

Thanks so much
David

 

[joekidwell]

What kind of lights do you have? I've had several zoas shipped from CA just using priority and didn't see any noticeable color loss. If you're not using 20k odds are they wont look like they did in the vendor pics.

 

[Reef_Me]

Im using t5ho's. 2x10k 24watt and 2x420 actinic. the only strange part is that there are a few that are perfectly colored and many that are dark purple around the oral disc and the oral disc looks completely bleached. ive never seen zoanthids bleach before haha im really curious as to what happened

 

[A. Grandis]

I can't see your picture.
Take a picture and email to the sender. They will probably replace the zoa.
Normally they are goners, but there is a chance to recover, yes.

Grandis.

 

[organism]

Just a suggestion, acclimating corals does much more harm than good since they've been sitting in a bag that's slowly filling with die-off in transport and acclimation adds oxygen to the water creating a massive cycle that can kill/bleach/infect etc. Corals don't need acclimation, the divers don't do it, and neither do the wholesalers or retailers. Just float the bag for temp and then drop them in.

My guess is they bleached out from two day shipping, pretty surprised people ship corals that way since the survival rates can be really low...

 

[Reef_Me]

wow thats really good to know. is it the same with all coral? i knew zoos were fairly hardy but i was pretty skeptical when 2day shipping was an option. ill try to post the pic again it keeps giving me an error message

 

[reefwars]

wow thats really good to know. is it the same with all coral? i knew zoos were fairly hardy but i was pretty skeptical when 2day shipping was an option. ill try to post the pic again it keeps giving me an error message

there is nothing wrong with 2 day shipping , if the corals are packed properly then they go go much much longer.

i know of packages and have had packages get lost for up to a week and still come alive and well....its all about the packaging.


dont just toss corals into your dispplay , dip everything first and qt them.....especially zoos as they are a dirty coral and hide alot of pests.its alot easier to take care of the pests while you have them outside your display tank.

 

[Reef_Me]

unfortunately i dont have qt tank at the moment :/ but i did do a dip in lugols to get any pests off. im not sure if im doing it right though. every zoa frag that i have dipped didnt have any pests on it which i find kind of strange.. is there a link for specific procedures on doing a dip? or can i just let them sit for ~10min, shake them a bit and put them in?

 

[Reef_Me]

btw here is the picture of them..

 

[akma]

Yea those dont anythi like candy apple reds. Was the frag a wysiwyg?

 

[Reef_Me]

they werent wysiwyg. It was a special on reef2go... shoulda known haha.They really dont look like what they should but if you look in the top right of the pic there are a couple polyps that seem to be candy apples. could it possibly be a different kind of zoa??

 

[organism]

Possibly candy apple reds on there along with the other ones, it's kinda hard to tell, but what would really help them acclimate and open up is to make sure they're getting good flow. When I get new zoanthids I put them in an area that gets a lot of water movement until they're completely opened up with no issues, otherwise in low flow they can get infections and melt away.

 

[Reef_Me]

i have them sitting about 10 inches from my strongest powerhead which is a maxijet 400 in my 30 gallon. is that considered high enough flow? that picture was also from the first day i got them, they have opened a tiny bit more since then (been in my tank 3 days) so do you think that these arent sick zoas but just 2 different kinds??
If so... does anyone have an id for these hahaha ive never seen anything like em

 

[Pallobi]

Reefs2go totally suck...

 

[Mr.6LineWrasse]

^
Agreed.

 

[Pool_shark]

I've ordered pods and CUCs from reefs2go multiple times. All has been fine every time, but once they added a freebie frag of Zs and they were basically doa. Reefs2go is very good for pods, and I will continue to use them for that, but my Zs will be bought elsewhere.

 

[kevin32]

You're right... they dont look anything like Candy apple red.