Zoas are such a tease

[jd371]

You get a nice frag of Zoas and after the dipping and finding the perfect spot you are elated to see it open and looking great just hours after putting it in your tank. Days go by and everything is looking great with the frag. Then one day you notice a missing polyp, next day another and then another. Now you start to worry and maybe the spot wasn't great after all, you move it again to a spot with less flow and lighting hoping that it will get better... nope, you spend the next couple of days watching the Zoas just melt away. Why oh why do you tease us so!

Before

After

 

[Reefer40b]

Most likely starved get some phosphates in there and they will grow too fast... a broadcast feed of reef roids can go a long way doesnt take much either.

 

[paraletho]

Water is likely to clean. If this is an SPS tank it is a delicate balancing act, if there are LPS then it will be more about placement and war.

 

[DSC reef]

Some zoas just melt away. Even with many colonies growing we would have a few new addition just up and melt away. Never kept water to clean either.

 

[jda]

My water is pretty clean and the darned things are weeds in my tank. It disturbs people when I tell them this, but I put kalk over Rastas, Scrambled Eggs, Utter Chaos and Red & Blue Hornets when they start to get too close to my acropora. This is under high PPFD Metal Halide with building blocks of N at .1 and P at .01 with no feedings.

The only thing that slowed them down were cowries and other polyp eating snails or stars.

 

[jd371]

Some zoas just melt away. Even with many colonies growing we would have a few new addition just up and melt away. Never kept water to clean either.

This. Everything else is doing fine.

 

[fish farmer]

I had trouble with zoas years ago, all disappeared, while all the other softies did fine palys, shrooms, nephia. I think mine were too shaded in spots.

I put green dragon's eye zoas up near the top and they are growing extremly well. I got some fruit loops at the same time, put a little lower...haven't grown at all.

 

[305Reefer]

As someone who propogates a butt load of different zoas, I can attest to the fact that some zoas just melt. It sucks. Stuff happens. I used to get really worried and upset in my tanks when a zoa melted. Now I've learned to accept that every 2-3 years i will have to re purchase my blood shots or hallucinations or whatever melty AF zoa or paly.

 

[Jvesche20]

I had 2 heads from my lfs of a zoa. It opened up for a day then closed up and I waited a week or so and it never opened then one by one it disintegrated. I was so sad but knew it wasn’t me because I have 10+ other kinds of zoas and if something was wrong then the others would be gone. Still wonder why this happened though

 

[MrObscura]

Sometimes they just seem to melt. My people eaters currentlly are all of a sudden despite surviving the dino outbreak. All params are in line and there's plenty of nutrition. Other zoas are thriving... So, idk.

 

[Rakie]

If this is a common occurrence you're doing something wrong.

 

[MrObscura]

Yea, one type once in a while is a fluke, but if it happens with a lot of zoas you introduce then something is up.

 

[jd371]

The frag melted down to 1 polyp and stalled. It stayed like that for a few months but in the last month it's making a comeback, there are now 3 polyps.

 

[jda]

Z&P have only melted on me when I did not do water changes, or when I had them under inferior, low quality, lighting. Nothing has melted for me under Metal Halides.

All of that being said, there are some kinds that if you frag them too quickly or too much, they can die off - for these, you have to cut the connective tissue first, wait for them to heal and then frag them up. Gonzo/Tyree Space Monster is like this. It grows super fast, but if you frag it and cut too many polyps off, you can lose them all, so you have to frag where they have already separated or just cut one connective tissue at a time and wait for them to heal.

 

[moz71]

So happy to read this, (not for your frustration) but I am going through the same thing so I am not nuts. My LPS grow great but I just cant seem to keep Zoas happy. I have one frag that opens up beautifully and actually grew several other heads then the original heads started disintegrating. How can it grow and disintegrating at same time? frustrating! One frag feel off rock and now resting in partial shade and now seems to be growing again. I gave up trying to figure out so if it continues to grow from there great if not oh well! BTW I do have very clean water but i refuse to dose anything since only 6 months in new tank. I will be adding more food as I add more fish. Taking it extremely slow

 

[BeejReef]

Z&P have only melted on me when I did not do water changes, or when I had them under inferior, low quality, lighting. Nothing has melted for me under Metal Halides.

All of that being said, there are some kinds that if you frag them too quickly or too much, they can die off - for these, you have to cut the connective tissue first, wait for them to heal and then frag them up. Gonzo/Tyree Space Monster is like this. It grows super fast, but if you frag it and cut too many polyps off, you can lose them all, so you have to frag where they have already separated or just cut one connective tissue at a time and wait for them to heal.

No idea if you're right or not, but something about what you say seems to make a lot of sense.

 

[jda]

If you want Z&P to grow faster, then give them more light. While it is true that they do not NEED much, if you give them more, they will have more energy and grow faster. I keep them under high-PAR metal halide and they are like weeds that I have to kill with kalk sometimes if they pop up in the wrong places.