zoas not opening :(

[ellarose]

Hey everyone, My zoas don’t seem to open anymore i have had them for a year and for about three months they don’t open anymore i’ve tried feeding them and all water parameters have been fine i’m not sure why this has happened? image of zoas opened before in the past and zoas today

 

[peterhos]

Hey everyone, My zoas don’t seem to open anymore i have had them for a year and for about three months they don’t open anymore i’ve tried feeding them and all water parameters have been fine i’m not sure why this has happened? image of zoas opened before in the past and zoas today
View attachment 3108679View attachment 3108680

 

[peterhos]

Hi There in Sydney My son lives in Cronulla … where are you?

I am no expert but have recently bought a dozen zoa frags so I hope I can keep them going. Elsewhere on this forum someone said he added (and started to test for) iodine and found that his zoas immediately came back to life. Lugols I think …
Anyway check that out … I certainly will read up on that if my zoas start to close up … good luck.

 

[aws2266]

Out of curiosity what are your parameters? "Fine" can mean lots of different things to people. Have you done any water changes recently or added new fish or inverts?

 

[ellarose]

Out of curiosity what are your parameters? "Fine" can mean lots of different things to people. Have you done any water changes recently or added new fish or inverts?

i get my water tested at the shop i get my water tested at and they said my salt was just a little bit low and everything else was perfect, i can get the water tested again and get them to write it down for me but since they have been closed for a very long time i’m not sure why it could be since nothing has really changed in the tank and everything else is happy. last water change was about 4 weeks ago and i just top the tank up

 

[LordofCinder]

the pics are very blue and its too hard to see, but looks like a lot of algae or something growing around the zoa's, that might be irritating them.

 

[footgal]

I would say definitely test for trace elements or just start dosing. I use SeaChem’s basic three pack but idk what’s available in your area if you’re from Sydney, Australia. The iodine solution sound like a great idea to me, the zoas are definitely starting to look skinny and malnourished. The pic from the past shows a lot of *something* mixed in with the polyps. Removing whatever that is will almost definitely also help

 

[Reefer Matt]

Zoas usually don't like detritus or algae on their base, in my experience. Blowing them off gently with a turkey baster, and removing surrounding algae may help.

 

[ellarose]

Zoas usually don't like detritus or algae on their base, in my experience. Blowing them off gently with a turkey baster, and removing surrounding algae may help.

will try that here’s a photo in white light

 

[ellarose]

I would say definitely test for trace elements or just start dosing. I use SeaChem’s basic three pack but idk what’s available in your area if you’re from Sydney, Australia. The iodine solution sound like a great idea to me, the zoas are definitely starting to look skinny and malnourished. The pic from the past shows a lot of *something* mixed in with the polyps. Removing whatever that is will almost definitely also help

here’s a photo in white light

 

[ellarose]

the pics are very blue and its too hard to see, but looks like a lot of algae or something growing around the zoa's, that might be irritating them.

 

[zoomonster]

Zoa's usually perk up with a little iodine dip. Now if they have algae on them or plug they start with a peroxide dip then iodine. But that's a little hard to do on in tank rock. Just looking at last picture you need something in there cleaning up all that hair algae around them. Might want to check nitrates and phosphates. There would not be much of that with a cleanup crew and fish. That rock would be clean just from my tang and angels.

 

[ScottJ]

If it's algae growing around your zoas, try researching dipping zoas in H2O2. I had a pretty bad infestation in a colony. Dipped in 3% H2O2 mixed 1 to 1 with tank water for about 3 minutes. It killed off the algae, but it ticked off the zoas. Took about 3 weeks for them to open back up. But now they look better than ever.
That is if you can get them out of the tank!

 

[ellarose]

Zoa's usually perk up with a little iodine dip. Now if they have algae on them or plug they start with a peroxide dip then iodine. But that's a little hard to do on in tank rock. Just looking at last picture you need something in there cleaning up all that hair algae around them. Might want to check nitrates and phosphates. There would not be much of that with a cleanup crew and fish. That rock would be clean just from my tang and angels.

my nitrates and phosphates have always been super low but i don’t have much of a clean up crew just a fox face fish, i can’t have anymore fish as my tank is too small but maybe snail?

 

[footgal]

my nitrates and phosphates have always been super low but i don’t have much of a clean up crew just a fox face fish, i can’t have anymore fish as my tank is too small but maybe snail?

I would just clean the algae by hand with tweezers and a toothbrush. Snails probably won’t eat GHA

 

[ellarose]

If it's algae growing around your zoas, try researching dipping zoas in H2O2. I had a pretty bad infestation in a colony. Dipped in 3% H2O2 mixed 1 to 1 with tank water for about 3 minutes. It killed off the algae, but it ticked off the zoas. Took about 3 weeks for them to open back up. But now they look better than ever. View attachment 3110970
That is if you can get them out of the tank!
View attachment 3110972

they are attached to the base of my big rock i don’t think i’ll be able to remove them but i just purchased red sea abcd hopefully that helps

 

[ellarose]

Zoas usually don't like detritus or algae on their base, in my experience. Blowing them off gently with a turkey baster, and removing surrounding algae may help.

hi coming back to this i have attempted removing the algae and even used a tooth brush only very small amounts came off but some wasn’t possible as it wasn’t large amount of algae only a small coat

 

[Tired]

Low nitrates and phosphates will often tick off and may slowly kill zoanthids. Aim for a minimum of 0,03ppm phosphate and 5ppm nitrate, if not higher. Healthy zoas getting plenty of nutrients should be able to ward off algae reasonably well on their own.

 

[ellarose]

how do i get those up ? should i turn my skimmer off

 

[Tired]

Turning your skimmer off is a good start. Reducing water changes, including entirely stopping them for now, is another good step. Don't do a water change unless you need to lower nutrients or raise other elements- let the nutrients rise and stay up.