why are my zoas melting?

[ItzJustinN]

everything else in my tank is looking great (sps, lps, and even other zoa colonies) just a few frags i have dont seem like they are doing all that great. i have one colony suffer while the colony litterrally an inch away is thriving. the same colony is suffering but a frag of that colony is not showing any signs of distress. ive even dipped some of them in lugols to no effect. one frag melted days later, and another frag is looking to do the same (i dipped 3 weeks ago.) i do see some white spots on the distressed zoas but they are on all my zoas which are all growing with no visual die off. i dont see anything like nudibraches or anything like that on the zoas either.

 

[h.erectus]

i have the same problem with the sunny d's. every time i buy them they just melt in my tank... i've tried them in multiple different locations.

 

[A. Grandis]

Check at night for predators.
Make sure there is no fish nipping on them. Some fishes will choose to nip on certain colonies. They don't kill them fast, but stress them out until that happens. And they don't nip all the time. I had an Angel that nipped only when I wasn't watching, until I hid
myself and caught him!!

If there is no infections nor predation try to target feed them small amounts of coral food.

Not every "melting" is related to pathogens. Nutrient starvation will do that also. Target feeding will help them to come back, slowly... It will take weeks, but that's the solution, if that's the case! Nutrients in the water are probably not a problem because you've got other colonies doing well, so particle food should be offered IMO.

Do not overfeed! That's not going to help!! Feed only what they can eat, small amounts per polyp. Feed the other ones too...
Turn off the pumps and make sure the fishes won't bang on them for the food. Feed the fish first.
I would recommend something like Reef Roids or Coral Frenzy to start with. No liquid foods.
Make sure you've got a good skimmer running and do your partial water changes as part of your maintenance.
I'm assuming that you are supplying all the other needs for the polyps, like light, water params, appropriate water flow, maintenance on time and everything else needed.

Please post some pictures of them, if you would.
Good luck!

Grandis.

 

[ItzJustinN]

no signs of predation that i can tell.. the only thing i can think of is that i know they are harboring pods and my mandarin picks at them but could be so much to distress this many zoas and in different places?

 

[A. Grandis]

Yes, and some amphipods could eat zoas too. There are different species.
We call that irritation, when the polyps close because of organisms or things around their polyps.
Certain algae, sponges, amphipods, copepods, hydroids, corals, fishes, crabs, worms, cyanobacteria, even another zoanthids and other organisms could provoke irritation.
Sweeper tentacles from other cnidarians could do that too, called often "chemical war".

Grandis.

 

[ItzJustinN]

think i found the culprit. this morning i woke up to find what looked like the biggest amphipod i have ever seen munching on one of my zoa frags. upon closer inspection (after the pod fled and hid) i noticed the zoa flesh on this frag was irritated.

so now my question is what is the best course of action? i do have a mandarin dragonet already in my tank which im pretty sure eats just about any type of pod that moves. this particular amphipod is way to big for the mandarin though. so what to do to about this particular pod and future ones as well?

 

[ltlevil]

Where did the pod go? What I mean is if the polyps are on a small enough rock to remove from the tank and that's where the pod hid, that may be an option. I've done something similar with some bristle worms that were getting a little to big IMO. I basically put enough fresh water or whatever dip in a container to cover the rock but not submerge the polyps. Might at least flush out what it is.

 

[ItzJustinN]

unfortunately the pod ran off and hid under my base rock. this was a huge pod about the size of a dime or penny and not able to hide in the frags that are suffering, but he sure was doing something wierd to it and scurried off real fast when i hit him with the lights.

 

[Spirofucci]

I have had the same problem. For the first few months of my tank, my zoas grew and were so purdy. I almost never saw a closed polyp. I have about 14 different ones on a small sculptured rock. Then they started to close up all the time. After alot of research I tried a bunch of things at once.....well.... within about a month.

I had low Alk in the low sevens so I raised it to between 8 -9.

I did FW RODI dips for 5 minutes.

Got a 6line wrasse to eat any pods that might be bothering them.

Then I dipped them in Coral Rx for ten minutes a week apart.

Now they are much improved but not yet back to the way you see them in all those cool pictures.

I can't tell you which remedy worked but they are looking much better.

Having said that some folks just can't grow certain corals in their tanks. BTW, I have a bunch of palys and they are doing just fine. Go figure.

 

[rjdv420]

sow ! my percula is the niping predator!

 

[ibtigr33]

I agree, I think it's a predator. I had the same problem with tub blues until one night I noticed a small starfish on my frag. I got rid of the starfish and my tub blues were fine.

 

[ZOA_ADDICTION]

Scooter

Scooter

Not saying it works for everyone, but I had. The same issue with pods irritating Zoas and my mandarin was not aggressive enough. I bought a scotter bleeny and this little guy is like dog the bounty hunter in my Zoa garden. Between him and my yellow corris wrasse it's been year since I have had a Zoa stay closed. Just wanted to give you another option because I tried everything but that corris and scooter did the trick.