Zoas' Skirts Shrunk... Why?

[Bongo Shrimp]

Ok so when ever I get some new zoas, like tubbs blues, deep water japanese zoas, or the latest- rastas, at the store and for the first day or so, have nice, long, squiggly skirts. Then after a few days, the skirts turned really short and stubby.

I got a frag of rastas yesterday. The skirts as I said were long and squiggly. This morning they were all closed up because one of my sexy shrimp was picking at them. I also noticed that over night, something cleaned all the algae off the frag plug around the zoas. Anyhow, once the sexy was done, they opened up, and, as I expected, they had short stubby skirts now and don't look as good.

Here is an example-

Japanese deep water zoas:
First day in the tank:

Now:

Is this a water issue or what?

Will add more examples soon...

 

[Scott-CapeCoral]

I'm not giving you a definite reason, but just letting you know what I've noticed with my zoas. Seems the ones that fall into a low lit area, shrink their skirts. The ones that stay in high lit areas, never have short skirts. Just a possibility.

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

I guess my lights are not too strong but I just put the rastas that I got yesterday up as high as I can put them and it happened to them. I have 4 normal output T5s on the tank. I'm switching to all LED soon but I thought T5s should be enough for zoas?

And my LFS was keeping the japanese zoas in a stock 14g biocube at the store. I then put them in, and they are still in my 29g biocube with the T5s on it. The T5s should still be brighter than the stock PCs.

 

[dalston]

Usually, skirt length is a indicator of flow, mine seem to get longer skirts in higher flow areas, it's usually doesn't happen overnight though.

With yours, I would take a stab at it being something munching on the skirts for it to be happening that fast. How much was the sexy picking at them? they have been known to munch on polyps if not fed well enough...Also look out for large amphipods...

 

[Scott-CapeCoral]

dalston, flow makes since too. My low lit areas are also low flow. Could be that aswell. Thanks

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

I had some green people eater palys in the same tank whose skirts were being eaten but they were completely mutilated and the skirt was completely gone. What kinds of amphipods? I mean, I know i have some that are called scuds that scoot around but I never see them on the zoas.

The sexy sure picked at them a lot. This morning and throughout the day a little. I don't think they are being eaten only because the skirts look uniform and colorful, just short and stubby instead of long. Can they recover? I don't think they will anytime soon since I have had the japanese zoas like this for a good 4 or 5 months.

I will be freeing up some space in a high flow area soon. I'll move them over there as soon as I can to see what happens. It's a small tank though so there are really not too many low flow areas.

Do they look ok other than the skirts?

 

[Scott-CapeCoral]

They look great, even with short skirts.

 

[dalston]

I would agree, they don't look bad at all...just maybe need more indirect flow.

The amphipods are just the regular pod (pictured below). IME, when they get larger they like to feed on zoanthid skirts, mine have always targeted zoanthus gigantus (People eater type polyp). Saying that, it would be noticeable that they were being eaten if it was pods, they wouldn't be so uniformed and the polyp itself would look stressed. Start with increasing the flow and see what happens.

 

[SIR PATRICK]

^good call dalston didnt think of that one.

I have to agree. Those polyps skirts in the pic have very uniform lenght. Doesnt look to be eaten on to me.

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Here is what an unknown entity did to my green people eaters:

I had to flat out remove them and put them in my other tank.

BUT don't get off subject with that.

Could it be my really low pH that's doing it?

I have been fighting the pH for who knows how long and I'm going to start fighting it more vigerously now because I think that may be a problem too. pH of 7.6-7.8, I know, it's bad and I'm ashamed, but it is hard to get it u[ and keep it up.

 

[SIR PATRICK]

^ I dont see any polyps w/ skirts missing in the above pic- I see some stressed polyps, that are stressed to the point of pinching.

Your guess at PH is a very good guess. Alk swings can be very stressfull to zoa/palys, and can cause then to look like the above pic- stressd, not open, and pinching. It is a leading cause of polyp melts, when looking like the above pic.

No need to be ashamed- we all go through the tuff stuff. Looks like yours, at this time, is alk/PH, seeing you brought up the PH issue.

Still think the short skirts on original pic is the polyp aclimating/morphing to its new tank conditions (most likely flow or lighting)

 

[dalston]

I couldn't agree more with Patrick, some great advise there!

 

[650-IS350]

pH, Alk, Temp , lighting and flow critcal for polyp longevity, good growth and color.

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

The ones circled in red have NO skirt anymore. They have been like that for about a week and a half. The one in yellow still had some skirt left and you can see it if you look closely. This has not happened to any other zoas in my reef.

 

[nivram]

The ones circled in red have NO skirt anymore. They have been like that for about a week and a half. The one in yellow still had some skirt left and you can see it if you look closely. This has not happened to any other zoas in my reef.

Bongo, i've had zoa frags do the same thing. They would close up completely and/or the tipps or heads who appear pinched. My Kedds REds did this and have come back better than ever without any intervention on my part.

As I mentioned on another site. I've experienced the exact opposite with my Blue Hornets going from the stubby skirts to long skinny ones.