Why are my zoas so unhappy?

[Just John]

I have about 20 or so different zoas and they are usually open and growing well, but lately at least half of them stay closed all or almost all of the day. What could be problem be?
My phosphate is high because I just discovered that my old test had been reading way too low and I dosed up this high because I thought they were close to zero. But I don't know that high phosphates would cause this.

pH - 8.0
Alk - 7.0
Phos. - .20
Nitrate - 4.3
Sal - 1.025

 

[fishguy242]

hi,hate to say,and hope not ,check for zoa eating nudi's,
they are same color as zoa they are on, small and hard to see,
take one colony that is giving you probs,
temperate freshwater dip 1minute,swish,check for pests...

 

[MNFish]

When mine did this in the past I ended up finding spiders, after tying everything I could think of.
I would do the dip as recommended above but also take a look an hour or 2 after the lights go out for spiders or other creepy crawlers.

 

[Just John]

You two are making me depressed

 

[Just John]

I'll give it a try

 

[MNFish]

To be honest spiders are not terrible, you just need to pick them off every night till they are gone for me it took a couple of week.
The worst part is they seemed to prefer the most expensive ones and leave the cheap ones alone.

 

[Lavey29]

Numbers seem good so as the others indicated perhaps some pests are bothering them. Did you change lights at all? Do you have cleaner shrimp or hermits that might be walking on them ?

 

[Just John]

When mine did this in the past I ended up finding spiders, after tying everything I could think of.
I would do the dip as recommended above but also take a look an hour or 2 after the lights go out for spiders or other creepy crawlers.

hi,hate to say,and hope not ,check for zoa eating nudi's,
they are same color as zoa they are on, small and hard to see,
take one colony that is giving you probs,
temperate freshwater dip 1minute,swish,check for pests...

Laver29 the only thing that climbs on them is an occasional snail and no lighting changes. I have not added any corals to the tank for a couple of months and the single polyp zoa that I added then has always been out and happy. Does that mean that nudibranchs and spiders are unlikely?

 

[MNFish]

Laver29 the only thing that climbs on them is an occasional snail and no lighting changes. I have not added any corals to the tank for a couple of months and the single polyp zoa that I added then has always been out and happy. Does that mean that nudibranchs and spiders are unlikely?

It took a few months between adding a Zoa and noticing the spiders for me, and for some reasons the spiders only seemed to like some of them. For me they liked the smaller slower growing ones like my Nightmares and most of my bigger ones alone.

 

[fishguy242]

dip one ,then we worry ,or not...

 

[fishguy242]

take pics too... before ,so we can compare.

 

[Just John]

Nothing to show. Unless the nudibranchs are virtually invisible, there is nothing there. I am going to do a second one.

 

[Just John]

Nothing from the second one either. All of the others are colonies on rocks, except a couple of plugs that I can pull off the rock and re-glue later.

 

[Lavey29]

Laver29 the only thing that climbs on them is an occasional snail and no lighting changes. I have not added any corals to the tank for a couple of months and the single polyp zoa that I added then has always been out and happy. Does that mean that nudibranchs and spiders are unlikely?

If they were doing well and now all of a sudden not doing so well then you kind of have to go through process of elimination. If your water, lights and flow are good and have not changed then pests would be the next logical thing to check for. I am sure there is some type of zoa disease(s) out there also kind of like what BJD does to euphylia corals but one that only attacks zoas. My big zoa colony as a section that has closed up for a few days now. I know when I dip new corals I always find things like spiders or tiny bristle starfish so its possible somethings got into mine also. I am going to leave it a week and see if it gets better.

 

[Just John]

take pics too... before ,so we can compare.

You just meant of whatever I find, right?
Also, thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Just John]

I don't think it could be this, but I had Reef Flux in the tank for a few weeks. There were no issues when I used it once before. I have done some water changes over the last week, but it has not changed or is worse.

 

[Lavey29]

I don't think it could be this, but I had Reef Flux in the tank for a few weeks. There were no issues when I used it once before. I have done some water changes over the last week, but it has not changed or is worse.

run carbon to clear out the rest

 

[fishguy242]

just any pics, if you have ,prior to dips looking bad, rt now pics ,tomorrow pics ?
agree w running some carbon...

 

[Just John]

just any pics, if you have ,prior to dips looking bad, rt now pics ,tomorrow pics ?
agree w running some carbon...

Got the carbon in there. I don't know how I had not thought of that the day I stopped using the flux.

 

[Just John]

just any pics, if you have ,prior to dips looking bad, rt now pics ,tomorrow pics ?
agree w running some carbon...

Here you go. Pics from now of un-dipped ones. Some have started to open like a few of them do later in the day.

A little food coming out of one. I fed them yesterday:

The two open polyps below have lost all of their color.