utter chaos not opening?

[xxoczukxx]

Hi all Ive had these utter chaos for about ~6 months now? they were always open and seemed happy and id squirt them with the water from defrosting mysis shrimp once or twice a week but in the past month they just randomly closed up and havent opened again. I also had a chalice bleach at the same time so i assumed it was because i moved my light and adjust the intensity? (barely, i keep my light at 100% so theres not much to change) but they still havent opened up.

i gave them a FW dip in distilled which shaking to knock anything off but nothing noticeable (besides a bristle star) came off.

testing ammonia, nitrite, nitrate gave me 0 0 and 5 respectively, while my salinity was a bit high at 1.027/1.028 so i brought it down a bit.

i have not yet tested the alk and Ca, but i plan to tonight as its been probably a week or two since they havent opened and im getting worried. all of my other corals besides these (and the hollywood stunner chalice, which was right next to my melting pot which is doing amazing so im not sure why that one bleached) are doing great.

Visually they seem ok, no growths nothing they are just closed.

Does anyone have any ideas on what i can do/what could be wrong?

 

[Tahoe61]

Perhaps they closed secondary to the elevated SG and water chemistry issues. Perhaps they are staying closed because of the dip in FW distilled. I tried that once with zoanthids long ago to remove flatworms and the zoanthids responded very poorly to the FW dip so I never used FW again as a dip.

 

[xxoczukxx]

Perhaps they closed secondary to the elevated SG and water chemistry issues. Perhaps they are staying closed because of the dip in FW distilled. I tried that once with zoanthids long ago to remove flatworms and the zoanthids responded very poorly to the FW dip so I never used FW again as a dip.

i usually fw dip all my zoas anyway when i get them in in addition to a bayer dip. ill give it more time as i only dipped em two days ago

 

[dylanst.onge]

You can try dipping in furan 2 I use it on all my zoas that are not opening and usually within an hour or 2 after the dip they are all opened up

 

[xxoczukxx]

You can try dipping in furan 2 I use it on all my zoas that are not opening and usually within an hour or 2 after the dip they are all opened up

what places usually sell it?

 

[VinhtageZoas]

what places usually sell it?

Petco and most aquatic stores sell them. Its a bacterial treatment for fish but work on corals as well. This method has helped and saved quite a few of my pieces in the past

 

[xxoczukxx]

Petco and most aquatic stores sell them. Its a bacterial treatment for fish but work on corals as well. This method has helped and saved quite a few of my pieces in the past

dangit i forgot to go today. here is currently what the zoas look like....
kinda blurry i know but the color on the inside is fading and this is as far as theyve opened in a few weeks....

 

[VinhtageZoas]

dangit i forgot to go today. here is currently what the zoas look like....
kinda blurry i know but the color on the inside is fading and this is as far as theyve opened in a few weeks....

What do you have in the tank? Any fish? Any pests? I’ve had palys look like that because something had been nipping at them

 

[xxoczukxx]

What do you have in the tank? Any fish? Any pests? I’ve had palys look like that because something had been nipping at them

a single clown, emerald crab who i assume cannot get to them as theyre on a suspended egg crate ledge, and various snails for CUC

 

[xxoczukxx]

What do you have in the tank? Any fish? Any pests? I’ve had palys look like that because something had been nipping at them

ah you also said pests. i have tiny white brittle stars, honestly probably a bristle worm somewhere, collonista snails, and a stomatella snail.

 

[xxoczukxx]

an update, theyre still pale and half closed all the time. any one got any info on what might cause this? theyre the only zoa in the tank doing this btw

 

[goatcorals]

Low probability but you’ve eliminated the obvious stuff... I’d have guessed nudies but the freshwater dip would have shown you them. I guess you could still have them and not know it, but I think your other zoas would close up. I’d still recommend close and frequent lookout. 8 days they should have opened from the freshwater dip I’d think, but I’ve had zoas take longer from a freshwater dip. Utters are decent at adapting to light in my experience, but the chalice may be a sign. Do you know about how much par they are in? Too much light a possibility.

Chemical warefare from other corals? Any leathers/gonipora? Do you run Carbon?
Are you sure your salinity is correct (tester calibrated)?

Could be the other tank parameters but seems like other stuff would be affected. Challiace may be the canary. Did you get the other elements checked? Phosphate?

Dino’s can cause this, any sign of those? Perhaps if you blow them with a turkey batter... does anything come off?

Setting aside those items, I might try a higher flow area. Perhaps an area with a little less light?

 

[xxoczukxx]

Low probability but you’ve eliminated the obvious stuff... I’d have guessed nudies but the freshwater dip would have shown you them. I guess you could still have them and not know it, but I think your other zoas would close up. I’d still recommend close and frequent lookout. 8 days they should have opened from the freshwater dip I’d think, but I’ve had zoas take longer from a freshwater dip. Utters are decent at adapting to light in my experience, but the chalice may be a sign. Do you know about how much par they are in? Too much light a possibility.

Chemical warefare from other corals? Any leathers/gonipora? Do you run Carbon?
Are you sure your salinity is correct (tester calibrated)?

Could be the other tank parameters but seems like other stuff would be affected. Challiace may be the canary. Did you get the other elements checked? Phosphate?

Dino’s can cause this, any sign of those? Perhaps if you blow them with a turkey batter... does anything come off?

Setting aside those items, I might try a higher flow area. Perhaps an area with a little less light?

How much light, no. theyre probably 4" from water surface which is like 6" from a kessil a80 running at 100% intensity and 80% blue. i will move them down but everything else seems ok. i think i had an alk swing which killed my chalice but im not sure.

the corals it was next to were a tiny birds nest frag and an acan probably 5 egg crate squares away. i have a goni now but not when this started. the ledge it was on was in direct like sight of my mp10 so it was kinda directly blowing it but it never seemed to mind.

salinity is correct, got a new refracto and tested it with calibration fluid. came to 1.025 for salinity. Phos i need a new test kit so i have not checked. planning on ordering a hanna tester soon for it.


no dinos. when i fw dip i shake vigorously and blast with a pipette to clear any thing on it. only stuff that came off was a brittle star.



i think im going to place it lower in the tank and see how it fares. hopefully it helps. maybe its going pale due to too high light?

 

[goatcorals]

Down into a bit lower light is all I’ve got left too as far as ideas, though I admit it should probably do ok where you’ve got it.

Zoa/Paly can be harder than sps sometimes. Evasive.

Virus or bacteria infection maybe but I don’t know what you’d do about that. Maybe the Furan treatment?

Always the expensive ones too it seems.

 

[xxoczukxx]

Down into a bit lower light is all I’ve got left too as far as ideas, though I admit it should probably do ok where you’ve got it.

Zoa/Paly can be harder than sps sometimes. Evasive.

Virus or bacteria infection maybe but I don’t know what you’d do about that. Maybe the Furan treatment?

Always the expensive ones too it seems.

yea its unfortunate utters were my favorite and i got this bunch of 5 at a GREAT price..

i checked my local petco and they didnt have furan2 so im gonna have to find it somewhere else next time i hit the lfs