Stratosphere zoa

nwkermit · Apr 16, 2018

I have tried growing this zoa in the past, I ordered from a hobbyist in Cali but it came in small and never really open up. That was $400 down the drain but the other stuff I got from her grows amazing. I believe between it was small and the plane trip from Cali to Florida really stress it out and so I decided if I ever buy stratosphere again, it will have to be local so it won’t have to endure the stress of shipping.

This year in RAP Orlando, I was only looking for 2 things, CSB and stratosphere, there was 2 CSB at show but they dealer wanted insane prices of $1500 and $2000 for relatively small one; and stratosphere was nowhere to be found. Talked to Rudy of GB coral and he told me a lot of them have melted and he have people asking him to find them for $500pp. I was help a friend point me toward someone that had a frag in Sarasota. The owner work along side an online vendor and they invested money on 1 polyp but over 1 year they have double it to grand total of 2 polyp. But according to the owner, it have been happy and stable, and it would only be an hour drive , so I went for it and got the 2 polyps for a decent price.

nwkermit · Apr 16, 2018

The polyps on the trip back was wide open so I was happy, it never closed and that is a good sign. I got back home, did a water change in my tank, put in carbon, and make sure my skimmer is working perfect and drip acclimated the stratosphere....always done it with fish but never done it with zoa. I use magnifying glasses look over everything, dip just the rock but not the zoa to get rid of any hitchhikers. The water was clean so I put it in my tank. I was told to keep it in low flow low light by one hobbyist and another low light high flow. I decided low light is the way to go and medium foe sounds good. After it hit the tank, I check over next 2 hours and they were fine.

nwkermit · Apr 16, 2018

But this morning I woke up and one of them was closed...I was a little nervous, why is one open and one closed? Is it not liking my tank? Is it going to melt? I left the light on and check back in 5 mins....

and it opened back up. This is going to be a roller coaster ride. I will keep everyone up to date on how those beauty do over time.

nwkermit · Apr 16, 2018

Oh yes, they are sitting on top of a mushroom box....lol.

timrocks311 · Apr 16, 2018

good luck. I hope they do well for you. It does seem like every other one has melted. It's a shame for the price tag.

Eastlake · Apr 16, 2018

a forum member that goes by the handle "wish" has had luck with them. You could pick his brain in regard to keeping them, I have and it was very interesting.

nwkermit · Apr 16, 2018

Thanks Eastlake. I will try to look up wish.

Capitol Reef Corals · Apr 16, 2018

Very cool story, thanks for sharing! I hope they do well and grow fast in your tank! By the way, what does CSB stand for? I'm just started to recently get into Zoas.

nwkermit · Apr 16, 2018

CSB is a collector anemone. Colorado sunburst it’s super bright and expensive.

nwkermit · Apr 22, 2018

One week after coming home...look a little bigger?

Eastlake · Apr 23, 2018

A touch bigger perhaps. At any rate they look good to me!

BBoley24 · Apr 24, 2018

Very good .

declanisadog · Apr 24, 2018

Good luck! I'm not much of a zoa guy, but from what I've heard, these can be heartbreakers.

BBoley24 · Apr 24, 2018

Props to you going to the length that you have.

lumsifu · Apr 25, 2018

Wow! This zoa has been on top of my wish list for quite some time. Good luck!

nwkermit · May 25, 2018

So the stratosphere wasn’t happy, so I looked for any reason. I found an aiptasia hiding next to the stratosphere. So I picked on the rock to pull it away. But when I pull on the rock, the rock fall apart and I was worry it might damage the stratosphere. And some how the aiptasia stayed. I ended up having to glue over the aiptasia and have to leave for a trip for a week.

nwkermit · May 25, 2018

With the stratosphere history of melting so easily, I was worry it will die after I mess with the rock and have to put glue all around it. Unfortunately, I had to go on the trip...

nwkermit · May 25, 2018

After a week, I came back and walked into the house, it was crazy hot and usually I keep it at 74 degree. When I check the temp it was 83 degree. Somehow my AC went off and I have no idea how long that had happened. Last time my ac stopped, I lost half of my tank. I was so disappointed that happen, I walk over to the tank and to my surprise...the tank seem okay.