Unhealthy Zoa's possibly

[outdrsyguy1]

I have several frags of zoa's and this ones been opened great for atleast a month. Last few days the heads shrunk down but didn't "close". It almost looks like someone put a noose under each head and squeezed as they neck down from the base to just below the head and then the head is shrunken. Been this way about 3 days now I think.

Cause for concern? All my other zoa colonies look good still.

I dipped this colony after the 2nd day thinking my zoa eating nudi's might have returned but didn't find any when I dipped. Just the usual fare, bristl worms, pods etc.

This picture was a day ago, now all but 3 polyps look this way in this colony.
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[jbadd99]

They don't look too terrible. Params?

 

[outdrsyguy1]

All the heads look tiny all the time like the ones in the lower right. Now, there's only two heads at the top that are fully open like the ones at the top above. Just seemed weird, never seen them look like this.

Tank Size 110 (tall 90 dimensions. 48 x 18 x 29)
2 - 250 MH (20k Megachrome geismenn (installed 1/22/2013)
2 - 95 watt hamilton PC double actinic bulbs (installed 11/1/2012)
PC's run 10 am to 9:30 PM
MH's run 2:30 to 7:30 (used to run about 8 to 10 hours 6 weeks+ ago)
Tank cycled as of 10/25/2012
Was running 2 PH, but worried maybe not enough flow and added turbo stream 6105 that ramps up and down day and night using my Apex (a little less at night)
Salinity - 1.024
Alk 7.5 dkh (7.4 to 7.9 max range)
calc 400 ppm (380 to 405, but usually right on 400)
mag 1320
PH 8.05 to 8.16 night/day
temp 79.5 to 80.5 (runs on a chiller to keep temp 80 +/- .5)
Amm/Nitrite/Nitrate 0/0/0
Phosphate - not sure, very minimal to no hair algae. My Red sea phosphate pro measures .06 from tank and RO/DI water measuring 0 TDS
1 Teaspoon of Kalkwasser per gallon of makup water on ATO
15% water change with IO reefcrystals every 7 to 10 days (siphone 1" sand bed as much as possible each time)
Skimmer - kent marine nautilus TE (doesn't seem to pull all that much out, but I do not feed very much)
Feed about 1/3 a PE mysis cube per day, up to 1/2 at max
Fish: 3 bartlets anthias, 3 OC clowns, purple firefish, red firefish
CUC 3 trochus, 2 hermits, small army of stometella
TLF reactor running phosguard (change once a month, been in 2 months tops)
2 "unit" bags of chemi-pure elite (change every 2 months)
2 - 4" filter socks I change every 3 days, soak in bleach and let dry min 24 hrs

 

[jbadd99]

pH looks to be a little low but nothing too out of whack.

Also, as I understand it, and have experienced, zoas need some nitrates/phosphates to survive.

The only time my zoas ever looked like that is when they were too close to my LEDs. After I moved them down, they opened back up.

 

[clay4au]

i'd dip them in 50/50 peroxide/tank water for a minute or 2 and blow them off with a turkey baster.
Be sure to shake the plug so all heads are closed before dipping.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Yeah, if they don't look good tomorrow night, i'll dip them and place them lower in the tank and see if things change. I did replace one of my 95w actinic bulbs recently with a normal "white" reef bulb so maybe it just broke the limit. Wouldn't think so with the halides being 2 - 250 but who knows!

 

[clay4au]

i don't think it has anything to do with the bulbs, I think its some kind of algae/fungus/diatom growing on them and constricting them.

 

[rdnelson]

Could it be the mushrooms behind them are irritating them?


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[ddaddy2420]

rdnelson99;846293 wrote: Could it be the mushrooms behind them are irritating them?


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I have zoas in my tank next to mushrooms and mine don't seem to bothered by the mushrooms as they all open up all the time. Never thought about mushrooms irritating anything in my tank. Wonder if they could irritate blue clove polyps?

 

[rdnelson]

I don't think anything bothers blue clove. LOL. But some mushrooms can send out feelers. It may be a stretch but worth trying.


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[darren24]

I know this does not help but I have kept zoas / palys for years. Sometimes they will do well for a while and then just start this dieing process. I had some solid gold large palys that hade turned from 1 -5 polyps and I looked the other day and 3 of the polyps have the shrunken neck syndrome... They normally do not come back from this. The 2 remaining polyps look fine.

 

[spike]

What dip are you using? Have you tried different dips?

 

[outdrsyguy1]

I use revive coral cleaner now. I used to use coralRX but found it to be too weak to be effective. Revive works great but you do need to be careful not to dip too long with some sps.

That's really sad if they are on the outs, they always looked great except for a couple weeks a month ago when the nudi's got to them. Came back strong though, no idea why they would die first compared to the rest of my stuff in the tank.