My favorite Zoos Closing up

[don-n-sa]

Lets all take a break from the bylaws / moderating stuff and help me out!!


Why would just one colony of Zoos close up? They just happen to be my favorite.

the last two pics are the closed ones, I posted some others just to show that they are ok

[don-n-sa]

Ok here are the closed ones

[jaded]

I've recently had a patch of yellow polyps close up in just as mysterious a way. The patch was only about half the entire colony. The closed patch stayed closed for over a month (enough for a film of bacteria to completely cover them) while the rest were open and healthy. About a week ago they all opened back up and are looking good. The color has changed and they are noticably smaller but everything seems fine.

Perhaps this is natural, I really dont know but all is well now

[DeletedAccount]

I am having that problem with a patch, too.

[jaded]

I dont know if its releated to the zoo issue, but my suggestion for you donny is to wait and see. It all worked itself out for me

I'm VERY interested in what other, more experienced aquarists have to say... I'm sure the parameters, temp, ph... will be questioned as well as if there have been recent changed like major rockwork or relocation of the zoos

[CD]

I wonder about this myself sometimes, and generally experiment with placement when I notice a zoa colony that doesn't look happy. Since we put the 6060 Stream in our tank, I've noticed that two smallish patches of zoas that are in a rather turbulent area of the tank didn't look very "pleased" with their location. I was able to move one colony (which is fine now), but the other is attached to the rock structure in a way that it would be impossible to move without rearranging the entire rockscape. The zoas still in this turbulent area haven't closed up all the way, but the fleshy mat underneath looks...hmmm...thinner and kind of stretched? I'll be able to better place these zoas when we rearrange everything into the 210G, but for now they are doing "OK". Zoas in general seem to like a fairly decent amout of flow - I know it keeps detritus from building up in the larger colonies, however, just not "turbulent" flow.

Also, since we do have fairly powerful lighting (400W 10ks) it seems to me that most of our zoas do not appreciate being at the top of our rockscape. There is only one (I've seen it called a "sun polyp") that actually seems to benefit from being towards the top of the rockscape, but the others will close up as a defense to the high light intensity.

Just my observations.... :)

Wendy

[Jenn]

This happened to my favorite pink bubble gum ones as well. All of the others seem to be just fine...weird.

[don-n-sa]

Thanks Josh!

Its seems weird that it is just this colony

[don-n-sa]

yes

[MikeP]

I had been having some slow attrition on a few of my colonies since I moved them all into the 215 gallon. 2 things I found: 1) My scribbled rabbitfish has been eating them and 2) Many late nights watching tank with a redlight I caught a Heliacus / Sundial snail which are obligate predators on zoo colonies! They are fairly small but distinctive - I'd check very very closely after lights out for those.

Alternately I have seen a few colonies recently from stores that have had the tiny zooanthid eating nudibranchs. They are a few mm long and whitish in color - try getting your colonies to retract and check the base / mat of the colony for pests. A fw or iodine dip is supposed to get rid of these guys.

[DeletedAccount]

Thanks Mike & Josh. I found the nudi's y'all were talking about on my colony. Would never have known to look for them!

[don-n-sa]

Hey Misti...I started the thread :P

[DeletedAccount]

Don- You are, of course, wonderful, too!

[don-n-sa]

:blush