Zoas some open, some not?

[bamf25]

Some of my zoas that have been in the tank for a few months are very open and are starting to spread. I very nice 30= pink zoa colony I added about 2 months ago is partially open, but rarely see it fully open. The final zoas I put in about 1 months ago has one large zoa that is always wide open, but the smaller one I actually bought the colony for rarely open up. All my parameters are perfect, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate almost undetectable, phosphate is 0.08, temp 78, and salinity 1.025. All teh zoas are located just higher than the half way point of the tank, with medium flow.

Any idea why they are not all opening?

 

[fishmanfabiano]

i know this sounds crazy but each polyp may like different conditions then the polyp next to it, i have the same issue with my star polyps, half would stay open and half would be closed, i tried moving all over the tank, and in some parts 1 half would open fully and in some parts the other half would open fully, i ended up cutting the coral in half and putting each coral where it prefered to be. try moving the piece around the tank switch it to a lower flow or a higher flow and see what happens. if you end up having to frag it like i did, be sure to be careful as zooanthids contain a neurotoxin that can be deadly. i always wear latex gloves and make as least cuts as possible when fragging. follow up the cutting with a 10 minute iodine dip to clean off the fresh cut tissue and pop it back into the tank. before trying anything i failed to ask.....have you tried julian sprungs revive? its an all natural coral cleanser, i did any new coming corals into this solution with tank water before adding into the tank. sometimes youll get little hitchhikers that are eating the coral when it was fragged from the reef, do you see any little snails with a white and black checkerboard pattern? these are sundial snails and they feed on zoos. that may be the issue as well. hope this helped -matt

 

[jwoyshnar]

I struggled with zoos for 2 years. What I found is if you are not feeding them then they like a dirty tank. I now have my zoos in my red sea max with no skimmer and now they are all coming back

 

[bamf25]

That is what I suspected. Since starting gfo and carbon they have been less open. I dip all my corals befor they go in my tank in revive. My older zoas are all very happy though, just the most recent ones that are not opening well. They could also be stressed since I just glued them in their perminant places like 1 week ago.

 

[reefer859]

i think zoas do like dirty water since I added carbon they dont open as much

 

[windyridge]

Me too, I noticed since I added GFO and carbon they aren't the same and don't grow as fast. Oddly enough tho' xenias that love dirty water are growing better in my low phosphate, nitrate environment. Go figure.

 

[jayporksandwich]

mine don't open up as much until nitrates are 20 ppm

 

[sde1500]

mine don't open up as much until nitrates are 20 ppm

Any reason in particular you're necroing multiple threads?