Are pods killing zoas?

[Vitaly S]

I have a zoa frag that was doing good and had new polyps until about 3ish weeks ago.

At first some of polyps were closing for short time, but then more and more of them stayed closed for longer periods of time. Now they been closed for a while if not permanently...

I think my water parameters are within norm, so the only other thing that I can think of is pods. I have a lot of them it, on rocks sand, and glass when light is shut off.
This is the video of my zoa frag, as you can see there are a lot of them.

Do you think these pods are making my zoas close or even die? What would be solution? I am thinking mandarin, but everywhere I read tank has to be over a year old before I can get it...

I keep water at 1.026 salinity and temp around 78F, tank is about 6 month old, below are parameters over last 4 weeks.

Jul 27 Aug 3 Aug 11 Aug 17
Phosphate 0.08 0.02 0.04 0.08
Nitrate 0.0 0.0 0.25 2.0
Alk 9.6 8.54 8.4 8.4
Ca 450 455 460 450
MG 1280 1500 1480 1440

Water change were done on July 27th, and 3rd of August. I decided to take longer between water changes to let Nitrates go up. Also got 4 more fish on Wednesday, hope this will make Nitrates go up.

 

[SALTY 75]

Well i have never been able to keep zoas alive beginner coral lol yeah right
I have some sps that do great in my tank but cant grow zoas and my water isnt too clean. I dont think the pods would hurt them unless they were already dieing but i am not super familier with zoas so sry

 

[Subsea]

Kudos to healthy amphipod population. I don’t think pods are the problem. Low nitrate is most likely the issue.

 

[Juniorh2r]

Your lights and maybe a fish is pecking at it?

 

[SALTY 75]

Kudos to healthy amphipod population. I don’t think pods are the problem. Low nitrate is most likely the issue.

I agree i dont think it is the pods and i have kept zoas with nitrate and they still wont grow so idk

 

[Juniorh2r]

I have quite a few mine tend to close up after I do a water change give it some time they will open up

 

[Vitaly S]

I have not changed anything in terms of lights. Same schedule since the beginning. Zoas doubled in number of polyps over course of first 2 months, only during last 3 weeks they closed up. So do not think it was lights...

I added new fish just this week, 2 clowns that were in the tank since beginning, like to hang out in opposite corner, and rarely venture forth. So probably not them either.

 

[Terry Mattson]

I had trouble for many months. Have over 100 ZOA's on three colonies. All my LPS are doing great . . . Then my LFS suggested iodine may be low since I tried everything out there under the sun. Added 4 drops of Lugol's Solution Marine from Brightwell Aquatics and the next day when my HD 26s started to come light the tank, ALL 100% of the ZOAs opened and fully extending . . . like a miracle! SO I now have an Iodine test kit and intend to keep levels between .03 and .05 PPM. Hope this helps. At least measure the Iodine trace and rule it out or in. Do not over dose. Also, I have lots of PODs and a Marian fish to eat them. SO PODs should be an issue.

 

[sfin52]

I would do a dip may have a nudis in the tank. They will do that to zoas

 

[Terry Mattson]

Also, look closely at the ZOA's to see if you have tiny but pretty ZOA eating nudibranch. 5 months ago had that issue. Pilled a few off. And that helped. Dipped them and that took care of the remaining . . . they opened after that until the new issue started to drive me crazy.

 

[Terry Mattson]

I meant PODs will NOT be the issue.

 

[Vitaly S]

I had trouble for many months. Have over 100 ZOA's on three colonies. All my LPS are doing great . . . Then my LFS suggested iodine may be low since I tried everything out there under the sun. Added 4 drops of Lugol's Solution Marine from Brightwell Aquatics and the next day when my HD 26s started to come light the tank, ALL 100% of the ZOAs opened and fully extending . . . like a miracle! SO I now have an Iodine test kit and intend to keep levels between .03 and .05 PPM. Hope this helps. At least measure the Iodine trace and rule it out or in. Do not over dose. Also, I have lots of PODs and a Marian fish to eat them. SO PODs should be an issue.

@Terry Mattson do you mean PODs should not be an issue? I'll get Iodine test kit, however I have cleaner shrimp that molted multiple times. I believe they need good level of Iodine in order to molt. I will get test kit regardless, worth checking it out. Or maybe will do ICP test to get full breakdown of my parameters...

 

[Vitaly S]

Are nudibranch sea slug type thing? Still new to hobby so not aware of all terms.

I've looked through and have not seen any slugs. But did find few of these on glass, are these bad?

 

[Terry Mattson]

Yes, pods are Not the issue. Sorry. Look up zoa eating nuinbranch to get a picture... for reference. They are small but can be seen. They are great looking but are pets.

 

[Terry Mattson]

Pest. All thumbs on this phone