Anyone else have certain Zoo's they can't keep???

[Kaos]

My tank is full of zoo's that are spreading pretty good. But some Zoo's just don't do well in my tank. I don't know if it's flow, lighting, chemical, etc. It really stinks because PPE's don't seem to do well and that's my favorite Zoo.

It all starts the same. I'll get a shipment of Zoo's. They'll open, reluctantly, over a few days and then seem to do ok after that. A month or two later they will start opening only partially or closing up often while the lights are on. Then, they just stop opening all together and waste away. I have had this happen to PPE's, Yellow Eclipses, and Nazanines. The confusing thing is the multiple other types of Zoo's I have do great. I've tried moving the unhappy Zoo colonies to more/less light and more/less flow area's, but it never helps (long term). My param's are right were they should be and the tank has SPS and LPS corals that are doing fine also.

So does anyone else have a problem w/ keeping certain types of Zoo's, or is this just me?

[MUCHO REEF]

Excellent question Kaos, glad you posted it.

MR

[nalbar]

Anyone else have certain Zoo's they can't keep???


Absolutely.

My system seems to have trouble with pinks. Yet PPE and RPE types (I have no PPE's, just the 'type' of polyp) grow like freaking CRAZY. They double about every 5 weeks.


The 'they do good and then slow fade' syndrome you describe is something I have noticed for years.

I believe it is caused by how fast we get corals. They come into the wholesalers and are shipped out within days to LFS's. Then we purchase them. They have had no time to get over (or even yet have) the shock. So they open in a kind of relief in being back in water, then slowly fade as the shock of acclimation kicks in.

My solution is to do nothing. I leave them in place and let them fade. I very rarely will lose a whole colony, just some (or most) of the polyps. Then they slowly climb back.

To strong of light is a large cause IMO. I strongly suspect that many types are deeper in the ocean than we think.

This syndrome does not happen very often with frags that come from existing tanks. Just the ones fresh from importers.


nalbar

[Pufferpunk]

That "slow fade" is the entire reason for my starting the Vit C treatment. I used to dread getting new stuff in, because there was a less than 50% chance of them making it. It makes me sick to look at my old pics of zoas I used to have! I now feel there are no zoas/palys I couldn't keep.

[Kaos]

nalbar, you raise a good point about how quickly the coral can go from wholeseller to LFS to hobbyists. The difference w/ my system is every one of my corals (Zoo's, LPS, SPS) came from fellow hobbyists.

I agree that some of these corals are probably coming from deeper in the ocean then we suspect. Just because you find coral "x" commonly at "y" depth does not necessarily mean that the frag you got came from "y" depth. Whose to say that frag wasn't collected deeper/shallower then "y" depth and has adapted to that enviroment. Then we try to recreate the believed common enviroment and can't understand why this frag didn't make it when others, recreating the same enviroment, are having success.

When I buy a frag from a fellow hobbyist, I ask several questions as to their lighting, tank size, where the colony is in the tank (high/low/middle), and flow (amount and type). This way I can try and provide a similar enviroment in my tank for that frag. Although my tank is small I have it set up in a way that I can simulate many different flow and lighting requirements. But I still can't seem to keep PPE's.

[Pufferpunk]

What about other PEs? Or is it just the PPEs that are a problem?

[Kaos]

Pufferpunk, what kind of Vit C treatment are you talking about? I've never heard of that before, atleast that I can remeber.

[Pufferpunk]

There's a great thread here, you have to read!

[Kaos]

Originally posted by Pufferpunk
What about other PEs? Or is it just the PPEs that are a problem?

I have not tried any other PE's that I can think of. I had some Yellow PE's, supposedly, that faded away as mentioned above but they didn't have the green mouth (as far as I could tell).

[Pufferpunk]

All PEs have a green mouth.

[nalbar]

So does that mean that mine, which no longer give the appearance of a green mouth, are no longer RPE's?

Lighting is what decides what we see.


Kaos, PE's grow like mad in my tank, it's a low flow (some would say extreme low flow), bright white light, 24/7 wet skimmed, fairly 'dirty' system with VERY few fish for its size.

One thing I have noticed is some of my polyps get quite a negative reaction to some types of filtering media (the kind you put in bags) like nitrate removal media. Not the PE's though.

Even carbon sometimes gets a reaction.

nalbar

[Pufferpunk]

Well, the indentifying factor for a PE is the green mouth.

[Kaos]

Ok, so here's an interesting twist. I just got a couple polyps of PPE's Sat. (my 2nd try at them) and I recieved some SPS corals. Well, the PPE's were doing the same thing as the last ones (mentioned above) and an ORA Tort frag was having trouble w/ polyps coming out sporatically (I think due to shipping taking 2 days). Well, I had a canopy mocked up for my 20L RR I'm going to transfer over to shortly. The hood contains a single Hamilton 14K 175w MH and 2 URI VHO super actinic R's. I thought it would be worth a shot to put this setup over my ten to see how things respond to the actinics only and then w/ the supplementation of actinics when the MH comes on. Within a few minutes of the actinics coming on, my PPE's opened up more then they have since I got them. The ORA Tort has more polyps extended then it did all of last night.

I think I'm going to run this setup for a few days to observe it's effects. I don't know if it's the light change or if actinics are more then just for aestetics. I haven't been in the debate for awhile (since I went to a single MH only setup), but when I last kept track, most people were of the opinion that actinics were just for looks. It always made sense to me that they were more then that because of the blue spectrum the produce and I've heard of people having good results by using actinics only over tanks.

[geoxman]

Oh wow! I do not have the time to respond to this tonight as we have a scheduled party to attend. I will try and give my response by tomorrow night on my experience with different geographical regions and their colors, flow, nutrient level, light level etc....

Great and very interesting subject and I hope to contribute my 2 cents.

Nice thread Kaos!

[flyyyguy]

Purple Deaths
0 for 3. granted the first frag that died was DOA since the shipper was a moron and didnt have a clue...........but that doesnt account fo the other two which arrived in perfect health and were lost in the week or two to follow.......

its too bad, because I really love the purple and electric blue skirts and plan on trying again........

[shramj]

I had that problem also, like 5 months ago when I added zoas, my whammin watermelons took off and my tubs blue didn't do anything. At least now my tubs are growing some, I was worried at first but you are onto something.

[Pufferpunk]

My Purple death stayed folded in half for 2 months after I got it. I was just about to tell the guy I bought it from to send me another one, when it finally opened up. That was this summer--now there are about 15+ polyps on it.

[nalbar]

I was thinking of picking up some purple deaths this week. No you are scaring me.


nalbar