norfolkgarden
New member
So i have about a years worth of experience now with assorted zoa's and palys.
I *think* I'm right about this. Please give me your thoughts. Thanks!
As a general rule, it seems the larger paly's seem to be the strongest and most resilient and the tiniest of the zoas seem to be the most vulnerable to completely disappearing.
Also the more colorful the zoa, the sooner it will be missing.
PPE's are in their own dubious sensitive class.
.
.
.
We have a "mixed reef" full of everything from softies to zoas, LPS, some of the "easier" SPS and questionable fish choices and possibly questionable critters. So far (fingers crossed) it's mostly working great.
I've read up on every borderline choice I've made before purchase. Probably spent 80 to 100 hours easily reading and surfing forums.
Some bordeline choices are;
The 3 dottybacks in a 75 gal (*LOTS* of hiding places and blind faces to the rocks where they can't see each other from their favorite holes.) 6 months running. They mostly ignore each other, even when in full view. Maybe 2 or 3 half hearted chases a day, for about a foot of travel, before they find something else that catches their attention. Lots of rockwork to disappear in and out of. I added them all at the same time.
They are in the tank because they all stay small and they are some of the most beautiful, colorful, hardy fish - no matter what your tank size or budget.)
The Flame, Cherub and Coral Beauty small angelfish in a mixed reef tank. (The cherub is a future edit. Caught it plenty of times nipping at the kenya trees and shorter tentacle GSP. Never witnessed it munching a zoa or paly or anything else besides those 2 soft corals.
Never witnessed the Flame or Coral Beauty doing anything questionable.
Added the Cherub first, then the Coral Beauty 4 weeks later, then a slightly larger Flame angel 2 months later.)
The total number of fish in the 75 gal tank. (all are still under 3 or 4 inches, with most being 1" to 2" in current size.
The two 1.5" blue hippo tangs will have to exit in a year or so. Hoping I can tolerate the Cherub angel until I need to export these guys. Anticipating a major rock removal at some point, even with all the great Anthony Calfo suggestions on the "How to catch a fish" thread.
I've read about Blue tangs munching zoa's, but never noticed the tangs going after anything besides the Julian Sprung purple seaweed, various caulerpa's and red grasillas, and occasionally an experimental munch on the cheato. Even though they've been watching the Cherub being bad for several months.)
.
.
.
We have only lost a few types of zoas in the past year. But they were some of the coolest.
About 8 months ago we lost a 3" rock's worth of 1/8" flourescent 'Orange Crush' miniature zoas. They disappeared over the course of a busy work week. They diasappeared a few at a time, in their entirety, over the course of a week. It took a few days to notice for sure, and the rock had been in the tank on the sand bed for about 2 weeks before the problem started.
No zoa/paly losses since then, up until about a month ago.
Most of the frags were just setting on the rocks or the sand bed until I finally figured out where to permanently mount them, based on future coral interactions. Most of the rocks are touching each other. Eventually it will happen.
Less than 30% of our corals are currently mounted with superglue gel, 2 part epoxy, or a combination of both.
About a month ago I started getting serious about mounting some of the zoas with super glue gel. Went through about 3 of the tiny tubes when it was done.
Work got crazy the next day and the usual 10 to 15 gallon water change didn't happen.
So I've dumped 3 tubes of glue in the tank, and missed a regular water change besides. :headwally:
Letting the maintenance slide for a few weeks was a *really* bad idea. Our tank is chock full of stuff and weekly 20% water changes along with keeping up with the PO4 extractors is critical to it's survival.
Several of the 15 to 20 polyp frags of PPE's and Red PPE's slowly (a week?) developed white coverings on the entire head of a few polyps on each frag. The head was shrunk in compared to the polyps next to it.
Also a few heads of the Orange Line Clove polyps had a similar problem.
I'm guessing a fungus.
Triage Removal of the whole PPE frags seemd the best choice. The smaller Clove Polyps were in a very hard to get to spot and were left alone. The 2 affected Clove polyps are now gone entirely. The dozen others still look good.
3 20% water changes over 3 days seems to have every thing in general perking back up. Most params were "good" and the PO4 was only .5 before the 3 water changes.
I'm *guessing* it was byproducts from the 3 tubes of glue and 2 weeks worth of skipped water changes that tipped the scales?
Reading the forums, the beautiful PPE's seem to be some of the less resilient zoa's out there.
The green centered PPE's still look great. 2 other frags of PPE's and Red PPE's have a whitish halo around the head with a slightly retracted head. They have looked like this for 4 to 5 weeks, but still no further changes in the time we have been tossing the other infected frags.
All of the zoa's and paly's retract a little during "swim by's" from the fish.
Often it's the 6 blue green chromis or the 2" yellow tang that come the closest to the polyps. The zoa's/paly's open up in a minute or two and life goes on.
The remaining PPE's are in a very exposed spot. Never could decide if it was something bothering the PPE's beyond the fish swimming past them.
As a side note, going back to the zoas, I had a 3 polyp frag of 1/8" flourescent pink zoa's that was fine throughout all of this. It was sitting wedged up in the rocks for a month. Mounted it in the rocks a few inches off the sand bed, and it was gone in 4 days. A clean frag pebble is all there is to show for it. Same as the Orange Crushes about 8 months ago.
Some things that have *not* been affected are the Tubbs Blue zoas (now about 20 after 9 months), the orange Bam Bams, the Darth Mauls, the large palys,the pale pink zoas still up on the rock work, the month old few small plugs of "test" acro's through out the tank. The Frogspawn, Hammers, Favia and Monti frags are all fine.
One expensive Acan frag looks shrunken and sad. Tried it in several different light and flow levels for the past month. The other 4 mounted acan frags look good. Plump and feeding.
Any ideas on what could be enjoying our tinies colorful zoa's would be greatly appreciated. I don't think it's the Cherub or any of the other angels. They had even better access when the frag was up in the rockwork for a month.
Thanks, Matt
I *think* I'm right about this. Please give me your thoughts. Thanks!
As a general rule, it seems the larger paly's seem to be the strongest and most resilient and the tiniest of the zoas seem to be the most vulnerable to completely disappearing.
Also the more colorful the zoa, the sooner it will be missing.
PPE's are in their own dubious sensitive class.
.
.
.
We have a "mixed reef" full of everything from softies to zoas, LPS, some of the "easier" SPS and questionable fish choices and possibly questionable critters. So far (fingers crossed) it's mostly working great.
I've read up on every borderline choice I've made before purchase. Probably spent 80 to 100 hours easily reading and surfing forums.
Some bordeline choices are;
The 3 dottybacks in a 75 gal (*LOTS* of hiding places and blind faces to the rocks where they can't see each other from their favorite holes.) 6 months running. They mostly ignore each other, even when in full view. Maybe 2 or 3 half hearted chases a day, for about a foot of travel, before they find something else that catches their attention. Lots of rockwork to disappear in and out of. I added them all at the same time.
They are in the tank because they all stay small and they are some of the most beautiful, colorful, hardy fish - no matter what your tank size or budget.)
The Flame, Cherub and Coral Beauty small angelfish in a mixed reef tank. (The cherub is a future edit. Caught it plenty of times nipping at the kenya trees and shorter tentacle GSP. Never witnessed it munching a zoa or paly or anything else besides those 2 soft corals.
Never witnessed the Flame or Coral Beauty doing anything questionable.
Added the Cherub first, then the Coral Beauty 4 weeks later, then a slightly larger Flame angel 2 months later.)
The total number of fish in the 75 gal tank. (all are still under 3 or 4 inches, with most being 1" to 2" in current size.
The two 1.5" blue hippo tangs will have to exit in a year or so. Hoping I can tolerate the Cherub angel until I need to export these guys. Anticipating a major rock removal at some point, even with all the great Anthony Calfo suggestions on the "How to catch a fish" thread.
I've read about Blue tangs munching zoa's, but never noticed the tangs going after anything besides the Julian Sprung purple seaweed, various caulerpa's and red grasillas, and occasionally an experimental munch on the cheato. Even though they've been watching the Cherub being bad for several months.)
.
.
.
We have only lost a few types of zoas in the past year. But they were some of the coolest.
About 8 months ago we lost a 3" rock's worth of 1/8" flourescent 'Orange Crush' miniature zoas. They disappeared over the course of a busy work week. They diasappeared a few at a time, in their entirety, over the course of a week. It took a few days to notice for sure, and the rock had been in the tank on the sand bed for about 2 weeks before the problem started.
No zoa/paly losses since then, up until about a month ago.
Most of the frags were just setting on the rocks or the sand bed until I finally figured out where to permanently mount them, based on future coral interactions. Most of the rocks are touching each other. Eventually it will happen.
Less than 30% of our corals are currently mounted with superglue gel, 2 part epoxy, or a combination of both.
About a month ago I started getting serious about mounting some of the zoas with super glue gel. Went through about 3 of the tiny tubes when it was done.
Work got crazy the next day and the usual 10 to 15 gallon water change didn't happen.
So I've dumped 3 tubes of glue in the tank, and missed a regular water change besides. :headwally:
Letting the maintenance slide for a few weeks was a *really* bad idea. Our tank is chock full of stuff and weekly 20% water changes along with keeping up with the PO4 extractors is critical to it's survival.
Several of the 15 to 20 polyp frags of PPE's and Red PPE's slowly (a week?) developed white coverings on the entire head of a few polyps on each frag. The head was shrunk in compared to the polyps next to it.
Also a few heads of the Orange Line Clove polyps had a similar problem.
I'm guessing a fungus.
Triage Removal of the whole PPE frags seemd the best choice. The smaller Clove Polyps were in a very hard to get to spot and were left alone. The 2 affected Clove polyps are now gone entirely. The dozen others still look good.
3 20% water changes over 3 days seems to have every thing in general perking back up. Most params were "good" and the PO4 was only .5 before the 3 water changes.
I'm *guessing* it was byproducts from the 3 tubes of glue and 2 weeks worth of skipped water changes that tipped the scales?
Reading the forums, the beautiful PPE's seem to be some of the less resilient zoa's out there.
The green centered PPE's still look great. 2 other frags of PPE's and Red PPE's have a whitish halo around the head with a slightly retracted head. They have looked like this for 4 to 5 weeks, but still no further changes in the time we have been tossing the other infected frags.
All of the zoa's and paly's retract a little during "swim by's" from the fish.
Often it's the 6 blue green chromis or the 2" yellow tang that come the closest to the polyps. The zoa's/paly's open up in a minute or two and life goes on.
The remaining PPE's are in a very exposed spot. Never could decide if it was something bothering the PPE's beyond the fish swimming past them.
As a side note, going back to the zoas, I had a 3 polyp frag of 1/8" flourescent pink zoa's that was fine throughout all of this. It was sitting wedged up in the rocks for a month. Mounted it in the rocks a few inches off the sand bed, and it was gone in 4 days. A clean frag pebble is all there is to show for it. Same as the Orange Crushes about 8 months ago.
Some things that have *not* been affected are the Tubbs Blue zoas (now about 20 after 9 months), the orange Bam Bams, the Darth Mauls, the large palys,the pale pink zoas still up on the rock work, the month old few small plugs of "test" acro's through out the tank. The Frogspawn, Hammers, Favia and Monti frags are all fine.
One expensive Acan frag looks shrunken and sad. Tried it in several different light and flow levels for the past month. The other 4 mounted acan frags look good. Plump and feeding.
Any ideas on what could be enjoying our tinies colorful zoa's would be greatly appreciated. I don't think it's the Cherub or any of the other angels. They had even better access when the frag was up in the rockwork for a month.
Thanks, Matt
