Do zoas have a seasonal die off period?

rogersb · Aug 28, 2020

I've said this for years that there seems to be an annual fie off of certain types. Like the OP said, I have colonies of 500+ that will lose 100 then get back to producing. Not all seem to do it though. I have never had my PPE miss a beat but they do grow slow.

Reef_Obsessed · Aug 28, 2020

For some reason, I can’t keep yellow zoas alive. I have red zoas without issue, but I’ve tried yellow zoas 2 times and both times, they withered away to nothing.

FranklinDattein · Aug 31, 2020

I've been keeping zoas for over 20y, had my fair share of them disappearing for "no reason" and I've never seen anything to relate it to a season.
If it was a seasonal thing, we would see multiple colonies dies at similar times. Also, several tanks acros the world are rock stable and don't have any seasonal changes throughout the year.

Besides the most common reasons, like water chemistry, algae, coral warfare, fish bites, vermitid snails, flow and light, I think it could be related to the coral poisoning itself.
Keeping up with iodine certainly helps greatly.

Urban · Sep 3, 2020

I don't know for sure if seasonal die-off is a thing with the Zoas, but I have often wondered this myself. I have a very good friend who has quite the collection, and was told by him that he feels as if this is an occurrence for sure; I had actually called him due to the loss of some that I could not explain. For me, the biggest problem I have had with zoanthids are hydroids. Many of them are not easily visible, but for some reason they seem to have an affinity to zoanthids. With hydroids, they can come and go depending on feeding (I usually do broadcast feedings quite heavily). With the heavier feedings they thrive like no other, but the Zoas suffer. With the lighter feedings, the hydroids seem to die back, and the Zoas will re-open. Could it be possible that feeding variation and frequency is the primary difference, making it seem seasonal? I know this one may be a bit out there, but just some food for thought... Hydroids have cost me a few zoanthids.

- Dustin