question about zoos

[spongebob lover]

Hi Anthony .
Well i've been reading and reading and i just can't get why my zoos are only opening half way.
This is a picture i took quite sometime a go, they all look like that.
the skirts/hairs won't come out.
so far, i've tried doing fresh water dip with a 2 drops of lugol's iodine and still they won't open fully .
This has been going for more than 2 months, i'm runing 1 MH of 175/ 14 k .
i don't use any additives more than a ph buffer and i do water changes every weekend.
I seriously don't know what to do, so i'm hoping you or somebody could help me.
Thanks.
please ignore the arrow

 

[Anthony Calfo]

what have you been feeding them?

 

[spongebob lover]

nothing .
i was doing the phytoplankton but i stopped about a month ago. Even before i stopped they were like this

 

[Anthony Calfo]

bro... they don't eat phyto. Never did. And they likely have been starving for a while now. They may not starve in other tanks without feeding if said tanks have a heavy bioload. But if yours is light and/or they haven't been getting zooplankton... its part of your problem here with these types of Zoanthids.

 

[captbunzo]

Now that was a loaded question....

I have some of those as well...a couple that came on a yellow polyp rock. So, what sort of zooplankton are we talking? Sweetwaters Zooplankton? Brine Shrimp? Mysid Shrimp?

 

[spongebob lover]

well i've had them for over a year and a half and they always looked fine until a few months ago .
i stopped feeding phyto because you said that, in another thread .
i don't know if my tank has heavy load, i only have 3 fishes in a 37 gal tank, and corals: leather, mushrooms, lta, one lps, so i don't know if you consider that a heavy load.
Seriously, i really really worry about them because most of my rocks are covered with them
This is my other rock before , now instead some of them are closed and some semi open.

what would you recomend me to do? and yeah what type of food should i get for them?

 

[Anthony Calfo]

it depends on the zoanthis... but generally speaking, the smaller zoanthus types require higher light and more dissolved organics (heavy fish load) while the larger button polyps like Palythoa and Protopalythoa requie microcrustaceans large and small. Mysids, pacifica plankton, minced krill, Sweetwater Plankton and Cyclopeeze are all good starts.

 

[-=dieseldave=-]

I have some Zoas that are very close looking to yours, they only opened in the areas with less light (Not directly under my 250w MH). Increasing flow across them may help with the lacking skirts.

Of course this is only my observations of the ones in my tank.

Hope that helps doodette,
David

 

[spongebob lover]

Thank you very much Anthony and David
i'm gonna try looking for that type of food and i'll try moving them closer to my powerheads .

 

[Aquatic Guru]

i got over 13 different species of Zoo's. I feed them Brine Shrimp, mysis, i pushed about 9.6 watts per gallon, so i guess the light is good also...making my calcium level is good? Wait...do Zoo's feed on calcium or just SPS?

 

[cavyroo]

Have any of you all tried Cyclopeeze on your zoos? Mine love it...

 

[Detri]

Also Gabby, Are they close to any Mushrooms or Ricordia? If I remember correctly, They can spew white stuff. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it poisonous to other corals? Not deadly per say. But can prohibit them from growing nicely.

 

[spongebob lover]

thank you everyone,
i'm getting the cyclopeeze today and i'll try looking for the brine shrimp.
Ron, i moved the zoos away from the mushrooms since i wanted them closer to the light to see if that'd help.

 

[Curtswearing]

Also Gabby, Are they close to any Mushrooms or Ricordia? If I remember correctly, They can spew white stuff. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it poisonous to other corals? Not deadly per say. But can prohibit them from growing nicely.

Yeah, those little mushroom anemone's look nice and innocent don't they? :lol: Wait till you see the damage that their mesenterial filaments do to their neighbors and you will see they can be bullies.

 

[Curtswearing]

Gabby,

I would take some tweezers and try to remove some of that Caulerpa too. There has been some disagreement in recent years regarding zoanthus/palythoa/protopalythoa. It's hard to tell from your pic but it appears to be protopalythoa to me. If so, they definately enjoy periodic feedings of meaty foods (i.e. not plant-based foods like phytoplankton). Even though all of them are in the same family, they have different dietary needs (although none of them need phyto).

 

[spongebob lover]

lol Curt .
Nikki, MikeS and i were talking about it last night and i'm gonna make the husband help me pick all the caulerpa from the rocks, and after that i'm gonna try feeding them the cyclopeeze or the brine shrimp whatever i can get today, thank you dood.

 

[captbunzo]

AFAIK, Zoanthids do not require much in the way of Calcium....

 

[trekel]

is it not true that zoos need some dose of trace elements

 

[liveforphysics]

If you wana perform a test to see if its something in or not in your water, you could take a small chunk of zoo's that dont open and stick them in one of my reefs in a place that gets similar lighting to your own tank.

If they spring wide open, then I think we could have some clue that something might be tweaked in your water chem.

It would be about a 30min drive though, so hopefully you have somebody closer to your house who would be willing to help you test.

 

[spongebob lover]

Thank you doods for all the info and interest.
I've been feeding my zoos some cyclo peeze everytime i feed my sun coral now and i believe is working.
I see my zoos opening now and showing the little hairs/tentacles even their color are coming back.
i still pick caulerpa from the rocks, it seems like its a never ending job :doubt: .
I wish i could show you some pictures but my camera is broken .