Zoas Frustratingly Struggling

[shimps1]

I have a few different kinds of zoathids in my tank (7 weeks old, 12 gallon AIO), that have been in there for about 3 weeks now. Up until last week, they were doing great. They are now closed up extremely tight, and appear to be flattening out a bit, to the point I am worried they'll start melting.

Current parameters:
1.025
79 degrees
7.9 pH
8 Alk
.3 ppm Nitrate
0.06 ppm phosphate
460 calcium
0 ammonia

Tank is fully cycled, and has other (LPS) corals that are growing and appear happy. Even a Fruity Pebbles monti frag I have is growing.

Alk is unstable right now, and I'm working on how to handle that. Currently doing a 20% water change every couple days to keep it around 8.

They don't appear to be diseased, but they are refusing to open. It started with one colony, and has spread to all of them. I suspect disease, but there are visible symptoms.

I have a few ideas:
Last Thursday, I added 10 sexy shrimp, who like to hang out around the zoas. They stay closed because they are walking on them.
Last Friday, I added a shipment from IPSF that included reef amphipods, which I am seeing crawling around the zoas.
Alk is unstable and nitrate and phos are both very low.


Are amphipods or sexy shrimp known zoa eaters? I haven't seen any specific feeding action (even checking at night), but these zoas are really starting to fade. Plus, the first frags started looking bad before I added either of the above.

I dipped a couple colonies this morning in Coral Rx to see if it would help, maybe it was an infection or something. They look marginally better, but are looking worse as the day goes on, not better.

I am feeding the tank heavily to try to prop up nitrate and phosphate, and I have some Neophos and Neonitro coming to help dose both of those.

Any other suggestions to try to help these zoas out? Is this really a shrimp or amphipod problem? I doubt I can get permission to remove the shrimp (kids love them), and the amphipods are a permanent addition now.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Its the sexy shrimps, they eat zoa's. They ate a colony and a half of my zoa's before I figure it out, I don't keep them anymore for that reason. If you google it, there are others with similar experience. Good luck

 

[shimps1]

Its the sexy shrimps, they eat zoa's. They ate a colony and a half of my zoa's before I figure it out, I don't keep them anymore for that reason. If you google it, there are others with similar experience. Good luck

I would agree, but they were starting to struggle before I added them. That's why I am stumped.

 

[shimps1]

The clownfish figured out they like the taste of Sexy Shrimp, so there are only 2 left, and they are in hiding.

I had some new zoas show up yesterday, quite a few. About 50ish total polyps. They have never opened in the tank. I am completely stumped as the the reason. The shrimp could not have eaten them, and they never opened on the first day in the tank. I have seen amphipods around the zoas, but they have been closed up since they went into the tank, so they would not have been able to eat them.

There are no clear visual symptoms on them, except for the fact that they are closed up tight. The BRAND NEW ones have never opened.

I have reduced lighting to about 100 PAR at the zoas rock, reduced flow to a soft random flow, and started dosing to get nitrate and phosphate to get the tank to 10 N and .1 P.

At this point I am thinking there is something that is toxic specifically to zoas in the tank. Every other coral looks good. The tank is 8 weeks old and I already have montipora showing growth, all torches are fully extended, GSP is growing up the back wall.

I am running carbon already. TDS from RO/DI water is zero. I just performed a water change yesterday before putting the new zoas and corals into the tank.

Parameters this morning:
1.025 SG
79 degrees
8.9 dkh
440 calcium
12.4 nitrate
.07 phophate (dosed up to .1)
1420 mag
.25-.5 ammonia, hard to tell from API test.

Is there anything else I can try to figure out?

 

[GSPClown94]

Can you post some pics of the zoas that are closed up? Any algae or other things growing on them? Anything crawling over the zoas like your shrimp and amphipods can definitely irritate them and cause them to close up. The amphipods are probably just looking for food near the zoas and not actually eating them.

 

[shimps1]

This is a Playboy Bunny Paly colony, that was doing great:

This was an AOI frag (farthest left), Smurfette frag (top), and a new as of yesterday King Midas frag at the bottom:

This is a brand new Astral Shift frag that has never opened, you can see some others as well:

 

[GSPClown94]

I’m not sure if it’s just the quality of images but it looks like there is some fuzzy translucent growth on a few of them. If so this may be some kind of bacteria.

 

[GSPClown94]

Currently doing a 20% water change every couple days

Also this seems a little excessive, especially considering nitrates are already low in your system.

 

[shimps1]

I’m not sure if it’s just the quality of images but it looks like there is some fuzzy translucent growth on a few of them. If so this may be some kind of bacteria.

I wish there was a growth on them that I could blame, but there is nothing. That's just the best picture I could get. To the naked eye there is nothing on the polyps.

 

[JoJosReef]

Sure I'll get some pushback, but my few remaining zoa frags were ailing in my new 25g tank. First the utter chaos dwindled and died. Then some of my "recovering" zoas disappeared. When the exospheres and stratocasters started suffering, I decided to remove kukenthalis shrimp. Set them up on frag racks in the glass. They stopped doing poorly. Then caught a hermit (I had red dwarf hermits--not scarlets) on top if an ailing zoa. Rehomed the hermits and since then no zoa problems (knock on driftwood).

 

[ColorMeGone]

They do seem unhappy and if it were me, I would dip them in a dip with iodine in it like Sechem reef dip. Then a quick shot of a low dose Peroxide dip and that should make sure all the bad stuff is gone. Keep your N03 stable where you have it and your P04 stable around .1 and see what happens.

 

[shimps1]

Update again...

Parameters this morning, checked with API Ammonia test, Salifert Mag, and Hanna for the rest:
1.025 SG
78 degrees
7.8 pH
9 dKH
448 Cal
1420 Mag
10.6 Nitrate
0.06 Phos (dosed up to .01)
0 ammonia

I am at my wits end with this. I have banished all but three hermits to the sump, and I'm down to two sexy shrimp that are in hiding from the clownfish.

I ordered an ICP test to see if I have some heavy metals that I can't test for building up. I'm running heavy GAC to hopefully absorb anything.

I even bought a small frag from a local hobbyist yesterday to see what would happen. They were open and happy in the container on the way to my house. Once I put them in the tank, they slowly closed, and have not reopened as my lights have come on this morning.