What’s going on with my Zoa’s

[Dan7575]

Can anyone help with this. I have bought a couple of zoa’s that I really liked, the first was a single stalk and was doing great for a week then started closing up until it stopped opening then died and disappeared. I then got a frag of 6 stalks and exactly the same is happening to them. I have got 2 sets of dull ones that I don’t like too much and they are thriving and all my other corals are thriving (except the torch). Water parameters are good.

 

[Bfragale]

Could be many things, but if your water parameters are “good” then I will assume its not that. (But most likely could be- if your concerned post your water parameters)

What fish do you have? Could it be a fish or nipping them? Or a coral too close that’s bothering them?

What lights are you running? Could be too much or too little light.

Could still be water parameters: temp salinity alk cal mag Ph phosphate nitrate Ammonia nitrite. You say they are good, but what is good?

 

[Dan7575]

They are close to a goni but not close enough to touch. I just read a similar post that says to give it a revive dip so I’ve tried that so see what happens over the next few days. My lights are the standard aqua one mini reef kit lights so don’t expect that they are particularly powerful. I only have two clowns and a tang at the moment and I’ve never seen them go near it. Here are the water tests

Ca - 375
Mg - 1260
KH - dkh 7.7
NO3 - 5
NO2 - 0
Amonia- 0
Po3 - 0.2
PH - 8.2

 

[happysalt]

Hey Did you dip the coral before you put it into the tank? I would recommend an iodine dip and then put them in a low light low flow area of your tank to try and recover.

 

[Bfragale]

Your parameters look ok

I checked aqua one website. Says lights are for corals but does not give any further info as to spectrum or intensity.

I’m leaning towards lighting. But would need a par meter to test to rule them out. Sometimes you can rent these from a local fish store.

another possibility could be contaminants in the water like copper or rust or something else.

Could be stray voltage in the tank. Could be some kind of pest.

It’s hard to say, but that’s what comes to mind to me. Hope this helps.

 

[Dan7575]

I’ve moved them to low light low flow area but don’t have any iodine so I’ll get some tomorrow and try that

 

[Dan7575]

Your parameters look ok

I checked aqua one website. Says lights are for corals but does not give any further info as to spectrum or intensity.

I’m leaning towards lighting. But would need a par meter to test to rule them out. Sometimes you can rent these from a local fish store.

another possibility could be contaminants in the water like copper or rust or something else.

Could be stray voltage in the tank. Could be some kind of pest.

It’s hard to say, but that’s what comes to mind to me. Hope this helps.

What do you mean by stray voltage?

 

[Bfragale]

What do you mean by stray voltage?

sometimes a piece of equipment could be malfunctioning and allowing electricity to enter the water. I (thankfully) have never had this happen to me so I’m only speaking from what I’ve seen or heard with other people. I believe you can check with a volt meter- there are probably some good threads on here if you search. I think it’s fairly easy to test if you have the volt meter. I’m not sure if there is suppose to be “some” or none or what the acceptable range is- if any. Maybe this can be found in other threads.

 

[Shirley Weller]

I have a Goni similar to yours & I caught it one night sending out threadlike stingers to sting an Acan that was 3”-4” away from it. I moved the Acan but the stingers had already damaged one side of the Acan. It eventually recovered once I moved it. I suggest moving the Zoa frag further away from that Goni.

 

[Shirley Weller]

I doubt that stray voltage is an issue because it would be affecting other corals, etc. Same thing with contamination. These types of issues affect more than one coral. I still think if you move it away from the Goni you should see improvement.

 

[Dan7575]

I have no idea, I moved them away from the Goni after a revive dip and 24 hours later they look even more shrivelled and small. I have just tried an iodine dip, fingers crossed

 

[Bfragale]

I have no idea, I moved them away from the Goni after a revive dip and 24 hours later they look even more shrivelled and small. I have just tried an iodine dip, fingers crossed

I hope that helps. After a dip they may need a day or two to recover and open fully. It’s strange they they are only coral not doing well. Good luck my friend.

 

[Kellie in CA]

Zoas are tricky. One will thrive while the one next to it melts away. I have at least 20 different kinds... and there is always 1 or 2 that aren't happy.

 

[Dan7575]

So it’s been about a month since I posted this and the said zoas have still not opened. Arron a colony of 6, 3 of them have melted away but the other 3 are still little nubs but they don’t open. They have been closed now for maybe 6 weeks. Now and again I think I can see just a dash of the colour on the top like it is going to open but never does.

Is this something they can do just staying closed but still alive for this long or am I false hoping?