zoa problem

[OKC_Casey]

so about 2 months ago i bought a zoa colony, about 2x3inches in size. It did great for a couple days then, it went downhill. About 50% of it would not open or if it did open it was only exposing the mouth. Its gone through some die off of about 75%.

Ive tried varying water flow, light levels, photo periods, 3 fresh water dips to search for predators. And all i seem to get out of it, my pod population is flourishing.

Do pods eat zoas, when in large numbers?

Each fresh water dip at least, 75-100 pods came off, and no traceable common predators. I also did a test with bare liverock of equal size, in a fresh water dip to see what the pod population was on it, and it was about half of the zoa colony.

 

[flyyyguy]

there are certainly some parasitic amphipods that DO pick at and damage healthy polyps. But if your frag has been in rough shape and dying the entire time you had it I wouldnt jump to the conclusion that you had them. Most likely the ones you see are just celaning up scraps.

blindly dipping polyps in freshwater or iodine or medication of any kind is not a good practice, as unless you know what you are trying to treat, you are just further stressing already unhealthy polyps. Same thing with messing with the light all over the place. It takes weeks or months to notice an effect of lighting changes. Changing it multiple times in a short period of time not only allows you to learn nothing about whether the cahnge(s) you made were beneficial or not, it again, further stresses the coral

Its hard to say what the problem could be. All you can do at this point is keep it in good flow and mediumish or a little less light and leave it alone. It may come out of it it may not. Good luck