We've all experienced this at one time or another. A frag or colony that has prospered for weeks, months and yes even years, yet suddenly it rapidly declines. Often it begins with a single polyp, a small cluster of polyps, or the entire colony that won't expand. Zoos that are of mat form ( very short polyps extending roughly less than 1/4" ) begin to cup and slowly dissolve. Zooanthids and Palythoas with longer tentacle will also retract, followed by stems ( stolons ), which appear pinched and collapsed. Often zoos will retract for short periods of time as a means of cleaning themselves externally, this is very normal. I have experienced this many times, but the colony always springs back to life in less than a week. As long as the polyp retains its natural appearance, its texture, with no odor, no visible signs of decline ( flaking off of tissue/rapid degradation, predation, bacterial infection or fungus, it will be fine. The key however is recognizing the difference between the two. Just because a colony is retracted, it doesn't necessarily warrant a dip. Close visual inspection in the tank as well as outside of the tank is the best action to take.
Lets say you have a 4" x 4" colony of pink zoos, in the center of the colony you have 6 polyps that are retracted. Should you dip? NO. That is a sure sign of an irritant, a snail, a crab, etc, but not necessarily a predator. I would be dipping constantly if that were the case in my tank. Inverts will crawl over a zoo and the retraction will appear the same as it would a nudi or a Sundial snail. If it were a nudi, several polyps if not the entire colony will retract. If I'm not sure, I slowly remove the colony to inspect it and dip just for piece of mind. However, it you have 6 polyps that are retracting and there's something on your polyps that is so small that you can't determine what it is, Yes, dip that puppy ASAP. Knowing which zoos that are prone BI is equally important. I found a stunning pink colony two weeks ago at a LFS. The colony/rock was the size of a football and loaded. The price was $ 115 and loaded with hot pink zoos with yellow eyes. I'm sure many of you are aware of this morph. Well, it's prone to BI and fungus. Knowing this, I told the store that I wanted to buy it but I would come back next week since it had just arrived a few days earlier. I knew from experience an awful lot about this morph. I expressed to the person helping me exactly what I've just stated about this morph. Well, I went back last weekend, yep you guessed it, there were 3 patches of BI a full 1 inch in diameter each on the colony. On the left, the far right and the very bottom of the face of the colony. The only hope to save it is to frag it, surgically remove all of the BI plus 3 surrounding rows of zoos, followed by a dip. I could have blown a $ 115 on a colony that I would have had to fight to save. Mind you, it was perfectly healthy just days before.
Getting back to the topic, so what causes this rapid onset of failure. Is it a deficiency, a parameter that's too high or too low, is it salinity, is it a lack of current. Could it be P.A.R values ? Or...................could it be stress related. Is there a common thread that all of use share who have lost a colony that was otherwise perfectly healthy. Ruling out those colonies which are placed next to more aggressive sting corals. We're talking about a single healthy colony sitting dead center of other healthy zoos. I would like to hear what my fellow reefers think about this. Does anyone have any supporting documentation or success with reversing this process? What are your speculations? How did it progress in your tank? Is it something we did?
I have a question, does anyone use a power head to blow off your zoos once a week? Sounds crazy ? Grab a Maxi jet 900 or 1200 and blow off your colonies and see what happens.
Lets discuss this and see what we all have/had in common when a zoo colony suddenly died for no apparent reason. Could the answer be right here?
Mucho
Lets say you have a 4" x 4" colony of pink zoos, in the center of the colony you have 6 polyps that are retracted. Should you dip? NO. That is a sure sign of an irritant, a snail, a crab, etc, but not necessarily a predator. I would be dipping constantly if that were the case in my tank. Inverts will crawl over a zoo and the retraction will appear the same as it would a nudi or a Sundial snail. If it were a nudi, several polyps if not the entire colony will retract. If I'm not sure, I slowly remove the colony to inspect it and dip just for piece of mind. However, it you have 6 polyps that are retracting and there's something on your polyps that is so small that you can't determine what it is, Yes, dip that puppy ASAP. Knowing which zoos that are prone BI is equally important. I found a stunning pink colony two weeks ago at a LFS. The colony/rock was the size of a football and loaded. The price was $ 115 and loaded with hot pink zoos with yellow eyes. I'm sure many of you are aware of this morph. Well, it's prone to BI and fungus. Knowing this, I told the store that I wanted to buy it but I would come back next week since it had just arrived a few days earlier. I knew from experience an awful lot about this morph. I expressed to the person helping me exactly what I've just stated about this morph. Well, I went back last weekend, yep you guessed it, there were 3 patches of BI a full 1 inch in diameter each on the colony. On the left, the far right and the very bottom of the face of the colony. The only hope to save it is to frag it, surgically remove all of the BI plus 3 surrounding rows of zoos, followed by a dip. I could have blown a $ 115 on a colony that I would have had to fight to save. Mind you, it was perfectly healthy just days before.
Getting back to the topic, so what causes this rapid onset of failure. Is it a deficiency, a parameter that's too high or too low, is it salinity, is it a lack of current. Could it be P.A.R values ? Or...................could it be stress related. Is there a common thread that all of use share who have lost a colony that was otherwise perfectly healthy. Ruling out those colonies which are placed next to more aggressive sting corals. We're talking about a single healthy colony sitting dead center of other healthy zoos. I would like to hear what my fellow reefers think about this. Does anyone have any supporting documentation or success with reversing this process? What are your speculations? How did it progress in your tank? Is it something we did?
I have a question, does anyone use a power head to blow off your zoos once a week? Sounds crazy ? Grab a Maxi jet 900 or 1200 and blow off your colonies and see what happens.
Lets discuss this and see what we all have/had in common when a zoo colony suddenly died for no apparent reason. Could the answer be right here?
Mucho
