Zoas Not Opening

[Coalminer]

I bought a zoa frag about a week ago. When I brought the zoas home, I clipped the bag to the side of the tank for about an hour, and they opened back up while still in the bag. I then did a freshwater R/O dip for about 30 seconds to remove any parasites.

I placed the frag pretty low in my 30 gal 19" inch cube, but in direct light. The first day, almost all of the 35-40 polyps were open. Over the past few days, though, fewer and fewer polyps have opened every day. Now none are open.

My light is a Current Orbit Pro 18", which i think should be more than enough for softies. I don't think that a lack of light is an issue. My father-in-law suggested putting them in a shaded spot, so that's where I have them now. Nothing is open still. The new spot is also lower-flow.

Any other thoughts on what might be causing them to not open? I took a close look when I picked them up to move them into the shade, and I couldn't see anything on them other than some sand and couple of strands of algae. But I see the same thing on my other zoa frags.

 

[Roccus]

I had zoa's in a 20 G. with the same lighting( 18" orbits).... with similar results... I put them in my reef( powered by 3 48"orbit pro) and they took off... I've got a frog spawn, a bubble and rose tip 'nem under that light in the 20 G and all are happy and thriving... go figure..

 

[mvallee]

I had those Current orbits for a while as well, really liked them especially the cloud cover options but I also do not think you could drive enough par/pur from them to hurt any coral.

 

[frank180reef]

Try more flow

 

[phg1960]

+1 to more flow.

When I first started a reef, zoas would close up after a few days to a week then never open again. Followed the advice on flow and now have too many.

 

[Coalminer]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll leave them alone until tomorrow, and then switch to a higher flow spot.


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[frank180reef]

Good luck

 

[jamesdong009]

They could just be acclimating themselves to the new tank conditions. I wouldn't move them too much as that would add more stress. Leave them in a spot for a few days and if they don't seem happy or the color is off, then move until you find their sweet spot

 

[JohnK]

Take a real good look at this link and see if anything looks familiar? In particular look for zoa eating nudi's, they are pretty common and can be hard to spot.

http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=384

 

[Frag Freaks]

They could just be acclimating themselves to the new tank conditions. I wouldn't move them too much as that would add more stress. Leave them in a spot for a few days and if they don't seem happy or the color is off, then move until you find their sweet spot

I would second this, it is good advice.

 

[Coalminer]

So after I moved them to a spot with more flow per phg and frank's advice, I employed the "leave them alone" method and they seem to be doing a lot better. Almost half of the polyps are either partially or fully open.

 

[Coalminer]

An update on my zoas. So the dragons eyes were doing better, but now they are doing this thing where they are open in the morning, and then close up. Also, the blue ones in the back are closing up too. The odd thing is that they appear to be spreading and growing new polyps at the same time.



Is this just something zoas do?

 

[Coalminer]

Any thoughts? Even just a, "Yeah, mine have done that before"?

 

[Owen386]

Some Zoas are like some women. Never know what they wanna do. Leave then wherever you decide to put them for a couple weeks before trying a different place. If you feel they are not getting what they need and also not opening. Then you can try a different spot.

I personally have had zoos thrive, melt and never come back and also melt and come back

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[Coalminer]

Some Zoas are like some women. Never know what they wanna do. Leave then wherever you decide to put them for a couple weeks before trying a different place. If you feel they are not getting what they need and also not opening. Then you can try a different spot.

I personally have had zoos thrive, melt and never come back and also melt and come back

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Ha ha. Point taken. Just can't understand why they would acclimate and then relapse. I'll just simmer down over here and keep studying for the bar exam.