help with zoos

[gjuarez]

I have noticed that my zoos havent opened at all for two days. Is this something that I should worry about? I have ricordeas, a colt, torch corals and frogspawn and everything is doing great. This is a ten gallon tank with 65watts of 50/50 power compacts. Everthing is doing great so I doubt lighting has anything to do with it.

Tank Parameters:
Calcium - 500
alkalinity - 10 dkh
nitrates - 0
nitirites and amonia - 0

What could be causing this?

[ansonluna]

i had some that were open when i first put them in the tank. they closed for like a month and just opened up again. i would worry. just be paitient. do a search, there have been a couple of threads about this. you can get a more scientific answer.... :D

[Reef69]

Any corals touching or near the zoos?..any bad snails?..

[gjuarez]

cool, thanks anson. SO youre saying that yours closed for an entire month and they pulled through?

[ansonluna]

yeah they just closed. i thought they were dead and gonna pull 'em. then out of no where a thread started about it. so i waited and sure enough, back a beautiful.

[thedude]

You might want to inspect the rock very closely to look for sundial snails or zoo eating nudibranchs. It sounds to me, like something or someone is bothering them.

Lugol's dip or Seachem dip are both good places to start.

John

[gjuarez]

there is no corals touching the zoos and they are far apart from any other corals. There is no bad snails either. I have to check for those snails and nudibranchs. I will dip them asap. I do have flatworms but I doubt they are the problem.

[jaded]

I have this happen very often in my tank. No preditors eating them, no snails or nudis... just closed zoos and other polyps. I've been forced to assume its something natural

[thedude]

I'd do a dip just to be safe. There is no harm in trying to something known to work. There is actually a zoo fungus that exists as well so keep us updated as to how they're doing. If they start turning blackish and sloughing off, your only option may be to frag the healthy ones away and hope for the best. Also what kind of lighting do you have them under? They may just be trying to adjust to the light, and screen door on top of your tank would help that.

[gjuarez]

they are under 65watts powar compacts in a ten gallon tank, they have been doing fine for the past two months. THis just happened suddenly.

[CD]

Yep...we have quite a few zoas in our tank, and I've noticed they sometimes close up on occasion for no apparent reason. John's advise is sound (thedude), and and excellent suggestion though...some of the hitch hiking critters can be VERY small and hard to see. A good dip with lugols' or seachem would take care of any possibilities, and considering all your params look good and all your other corals are fine, that would be a great first step. Keep us posted. ;)

W. :)

[gjuarez]

thanks for all of your input guys, I will certainly do that and I hope my zoos recover. HEy Joshua, do you have anything to say about this?

[CD]

Yeah...where's Josh? He's the zoa KING. qjuarez - have you ever seen pics of his zoa tanks? Awesome...I mean TOTALLY awesome. I know he's posted some pics of specific zoas on MAAST, but to see them all together in his tanks is incredible. The choices of colors and placement...WOW. :o :D

W. :)

[CD]

Josh - what if you have a sponge trying to take over a zoa rock? I've got one colony where the sponge is taking over, but I didn't really know what to do with it. Have you ever had that happen? What would you do?

W. :)

[gjuarez]

Np way, taht is exactly what is happening with mine. It is a white sponge and it has stopped my zoa growth. Is this a bad thing Joshua, what can I do?

Wendy, I have seen Joshua's tank with the zoos. I loved it. THat tank was what made me fall in love with zoos. I have got a passion for zoos just like I have for sps.

[thedude]

Don't most sponges die when exposed to air? My advice would be to pull the zoa rock for awhile then scrape what you can of the sponge off if possible in a seperate bowl followed by the fw/lugol's dip.

[gjuarez]

I have exposed mine to air from when i moved my zoos from 29 gallon tank to my 10 gallon nano. Nothing happened to it, but I will do a dip tomorrow once I have time to do so.

[CD]

I have exposed mine to air


Me too, and it had absolutely no effect whatsoever. Sounds like it's the same type of sponge too...kind of a clearish-white, but definitely a sponge.

John - I've tried scraping off as much of the sponge as I could without ripping zoas off the rock in the process, but it comes back. I didn't try a combo of dipping and scraping though...I'll give that a shot and see what happens. ;)

W. :)

[thedude]

Kalk paste usually also takes care of what ails you.

[gjuarez]

wendy mine is white too, do you think that could be it. I have tried to rip it off but it is impossible

[CD]

wendy mine is white too, do you think that could be it. I have tried to rip it off but it is impossible

Definitely - the zoa rock we have has lost over half the polyps due to this darn sponge. Thankfully, it wasn't a super colorful rock and was inexpensive, but I still wanted to save them if I could. Toughest sponge I've ever seen...LOL :roll

W. :)

[gjuarez]

I am going to try to take it all off today. I love my zoos and those are my favorite. I will let you know on the progress

[gjuarez]

Thanks Joshua for your input. I will do it immediately.

[Thunderkat]

I had zoos on one rock that did not open up and the rest would open. I inspected the rocks several times over and didn't see anything. I came by one night at midnight and turned on the lights and right on top of the zoos was a large sun dial snail! How could I miss it in all my inspections? I took the rest of the zoos out of the tank and left the ones it was on in the tank and after a few weeks the sundial ate all the zoos in the tank.

I still have plenty of zoos in my main tank but my temporary tanks have been cleaned of zoos.

Keep checking your zoos and try looking at them at night.

[CD]

Sponges can have some crazy toxins in them, so it's not surprising that nearby zoas might be effected.


I didn't really realize that until you said this Joshua! I've never done a lot of extensive research on sponges, as we've never "intentionally" bought any, but it IS pretty amazing what kind of toxins they can have...even toxins that will cause rashes (and the like) on people's hands that touch them. I guess I've been pretty lucky up to now, as I have touched a few sponges by mistake - I've GOT to be more careful!

OH - BTW - I've got something else growing on another zoa rock...it's kind of soft, and a dark purple-ish black color. The zoas that are on the rock don't seem to be affected, but they are not spreading any either. Looks like some type of encrusting coral, but it *could* be another type of sponge (I guess?). Has anyone had anything that looks like that in their tank?



Thanks Joshua for your input. I will do it immediately


So how are the zoas doing? Were you able to pry that sponge off the rock?

W.