Why do they do this???

[eww]

We have a small "whammin' watermelon" zoanthid group that just refuses to open fully. Not sure why they are doing this. They are mid-tank under about 12" of water and getting direct but not intense flow. We have many other types that are wide open and happy, some only inches away from these. We have never seen any bugs on them or any of the fish bothering them. They have been like this for 1-2 months (since we put them in the tank). Anything obvious we should be checking for? Our water params are temp 76.5, PH 8.02, SG 1.026, Mg 1250, Alk 10.5 dkh, Ca 420 and has been rather stable in these ranges for month's now. A few small fluctuations in Alk & PH but not many. Our PH was more like 7.6 - 7.8 for a while and the Alk was lower at 7-9 dkh. These have been corrected to where they are now over the last couple of week. The zoa's looked the same then though so those params don't seem to be the issue. Here is a picture of what they look like day in and out...

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[user 26995]

It could be a baterial infection. Or something else inside it that is not easily seen. You can try dipping them again in Coral RX or Melafix.

 

[Peppie]

How dare that little Whammin watermelon zoa mach your TOTM with your near perfect water parm?!?!?
I think you should yank that beautiful little sucker out of there and sentence him to a life in


PEPPIE'S 90gal AIO

Sorry I dont have an intelligent answer for your problem zoa.
I had a small frag of about 3 or 4 heads on it that just closed up and went away in the past couple of week. All the others in the tank are doing great.

 

[user 26995]

How dare that little Whammin watermelon zoa mach your TOTM with your near perfect water parm?!?!?
I think you should yank that beautiful little sucker out of there and sentence him to a life in


PEPPIE'S 90gal AIO

QUOTE]


I dont think they deserve the death penalty....

 

[Peppie]

How dare that little Whammin watermelon zoa mach your TOTM with your near perfect water parm?!?!?
I think you should yank that beautiful little sucker out of there and sentence him to a life in


PEPPIE'S 90gal AIO

QUOTE]


I dont think they deserve the death penalty....

OUCH!!!!
You could have sugar coated it a lttle. LOL

 

[Peppie]

How dare

 

[Peppie]

How dare

OOPPPPS

 

[NC2WA]

Lorrie,

whoa..go for the jugular...

Eric,

has the zoa EVER opened fully??

there is a Zoa forum that might get more replies, do you want me to move it there???

 

[user 26995]

OUCH!!!!
You could have sugar coated it a lttle. LOL

I thought I did with the
I forgot the jk'g part.

Just like any coral, they get sick and there isnt anything you can do about it. Its funny, I had two frags of the same zoa in different places in the same tank. They both at the same time melted away.
It might be your lighting...haha...really though. It might be too much light or not enough for that specific zoa. Try moving it a little lower in the tank and in a med - high flow. But not direct.

 

[estanoche]

yeah - i say keep trying to move them around - if they were closed up, I'd point to an infection, but these guys are trying to stay open at least!!! Maybe they just need to find their "just right" spot..

although, if they do close up the rest of the way - a hydrogen peroxide dip works well - I've used it on my zoas many many times (been battling a mystery bacterial infection throughout all my zoas for the past year) and it usually kicks them into shape pretty quickly...

 

[eww]

OK Dave and Lorrie... to your corners please... :fencing:

Dave... didn't we just have to call you out on your tank envy issue just the other day on another thread??? Do you need another slap on the hand? :fish:

Yes Lorrie... You have to be right... It's the lights.... Wanna trade??? JK... duh :der:

Kirk... No these have never really opened all the way since they have been moved into this tank from the frag tank.

We will try the Coral Rx dip in the morning. Do you think there would be any benefit to dipping in Lugol's as well before returning them to the tank? We will also move them to a slightly different area and see if it helps or not.

 

[eww]

a hydrogen peroxide dip works well - I've used it on my zoas many many times (been battling a mystery bacterial infection throughout all my zoas for the past year) and it usually kicks them into shape pretty quickly...

Thanks Joanne. What is the formula you use for this type of dip?

 

[estanoche]

RODI + 10% hydrogen peroxide - make sure your dip is temp matched (forgot that step once, not a good idea dropping zoas into cold RO water, hahaha)

let it fizzzzz for a while - 20 minutes is good length of time to dip...

brush them off good with a toothbrush and then put them in the tank - this will make they close up hard - for at least a couple days, but then they will come around and open up...

---- also, irritate them well so they are closed up before you put them in the dip - if they are open they don't really like swallowing the peroxide for some reason - hahahaha

 

[eww]

Thanks. We will put that on the list for if the first dip and move don't work.

 

[estanoche]

Thanks. We will put that on the list for if the first dip and move don't work.

good plan also, give them a week in the new spot/after next dip to heal and settle in ... sometimes it takes them a while to come around

 

[NC2WA]

joanne

does the hydrogen peroxide dip only work on zoas OR can u use it on LPS corals like brains, torches, hammers, etc..?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Before I did anything extreme, would move them to a new area where they might be happier (perhaps even near the top[ back of the tank), and feed them

 

[eww]

Before I did anything extreme, would move them to a new area where they might be happier (perhaps even near the top[ back of the tank), and feed them

What do you "feed" your zoas Mike? We have some of the stuff that Cherry Corals sells here somewhere. I think it's called Fauna Marin. I will have to look for it.

 

[eww]

We did the Coral Rx dip this morning and moved them. We dipped a few others that have been struggling as well (RPE and HPE). The RPE's are mounted to a 2" x 3" or so rock. In the water after dipping the RPE's were a couple dozen of these tiny snails among other pods. They are a little bigger than a grain of sand and smaller. Anyone have an id? I will start looking at the data base but I thought I would post it here in case someone knows these as an immediate threat or not.

 

[NC2WA]

well, that shell is of a turbo snail..orangeish color is normally a chestnut turbo snail..

Saltwater Aquarium Snails for Marine Reef Aquariums: Chestnut Turbo Snail