Why won't my Zoas Open?

[blackcows]

I have purchased several colonies and several Zoas frags for my tank. Almost all have opened and are doing quite well and all are basically in the same place in my tank. On Wednesday I purchased a rock from the LFS that had come out of one of their maintanance tanks and the Zoas were not open but it caught my eye because you could see bright yellow and red. The store owner said that the Zoas were very colorful and was honest with me and told me that had been in his tank for 3 days and hadn't opened but I thought I would give them a try anyway. I have had them two days and they haven't opened yet. When should I get woried and when should I try a different spot in the tank?

Here are some pictures:

http://www.blackcows.com/tank1.JPG

http://www.blackcows.com/tank2.JPG

http://www.blackcows.com/tank3.JPG

Mike

 

[sneeyatch]

try spotlighting the colony at night. either something is bothering them or trying to eat them - it's either that or the colony was treated badly.

usually if the colony's been in bad shape, they'll look pretty pale, but they'll color back up over some time.

i would check zoaid.com for their predators and irritators galleries as well.

other than that, i would leave them alone and give them a couple of days. they should perk up for ya.

 

[ficklefins]

Mike,

Some of those polyps are pretty much dead. The ones that look like they just exploded are probably not going to make it. Hopefully the plump closed zoas will open up. Be patient with them and try to leave them alone, hopefully that will encorage them to open up.

The comments by sneeyatch are also important.

Good luck!

 

[Zoalander]

I was in the same situation as you, the lfs gave me a frag of some zoos that had been closed for a while. I fresh water dipped them and then put them in a shaded spot in the tank. Within 3 days thay all opened but had lost all the color.

 

[rsteagall]

Whats your flow situation?

 

[blackcows]

I think that I should have a lot of flow. I don't recall the specific pump I am using from the fuge but I had to add a valve because the return wasn't keeping up. I use a SQWID so I have water returning into both sides of the tank. I am going to get some Iodine today from the LFS and try the dip.

Mike

 

[Reef Junkie]

Argh, you didn't dip those?
I just left an LFS the other day that had some nice colonies of zoas in their main display tank. they were all covered in Nudibranchs. I had to tell the fish kid there that if they want to save those colonies they need to be dipped, he didn't care.
The Nudis were crawling all over the polyps.

Just dip the colony and see what happens. If any nudi's fall off, then there's your answer.

Also, you will find you Bristle worms and hermits may start eating the dead polyps. That is fine, let them. Otherwise the rotting flesh could cause the colony to recede more if left there.

Please post more pics if you see a change. Good or bad.

 

[tygger]

Have they opened up yet?

 

[vyger]

I have had an ongoing problem with the 4 colonies of Zoo's in my tank opening also and can't figure it out. everything else in the tank, candy cane, GSP, Xenias are doing fine. I have tried moving the Zoo's and they will open for a a day and then close up . Is it possible that they are more sensitive to something that would not affect the other corals. I had them for quite some time and they did fine but my 18 gal tank crashed when a plate coral touched a hammer and the tank went downhill fast. I took everthing out and put the corals in 2 10 gal tanks with a 50 % water change. They are now in a 10 gal with a 70 W MH, 2 powerheads and a Remora skimmer.They looked fine for a while and now they won't open ... I've tried raising the light and lowering the light to no avail. I've tried putting them in a high flow area and a low flow area....Nothing seems to help. . I do a 1 gal water change a week with R/O . Salininity is 35 PPM..PH 8.1
Anyone have any ideas what the heck is going on with these corals

 

[blackcows]

I ended up losing mine. I dipped them but that didn't seem to help.

Mike

 

[ReefLife1680]

I think as a general rule of thumb ... you should ALWAYS FW dip prior to putting in main tank. If now ... who knows what you are exposing your tank to ...

 

[vyger]

My zoo's are starting to look alot better and they are opening up . I've been vaccuming some of the sand out of thetank with every water change. So it must have been crap in the sand that was affecting them even tho my tests showed nothing....

 

[cougaran]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6881624#post6881624 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefLife1680
I think as a general rule of thumb ... you should ALWAYS FW dip prior to putting in main tank. If now ... who knows what you are exposing your tank to ...

Do you only do that with zoos or with everything? How long do you FW dip for? On the fish side of things, i would dip 10 min w/formalin , which has worked very well for me..I know that doesn't work for corals, but i've heard other using an iodine dip..

 

[RevHtree]

Can we get a refresher on how to do a FW dip of zoas?

 

[Senn]

Personally after my experince with LFS Zoa's I prefer to do a Lugols/H2O2 dip for about 5-10 mins. and I do it on any and all the LPS/Softies/Zoos I get .
I do believe a FW dip is about 5 minutes in RO/DI water and hold it upside down, swish back and forth. Don't quote me on it tho.