Zoa Woes

[hansnfrans]

I picked up an awesome frag of zoas from Rod's Reef on Sunday but it still hasn't opened. It was all opened up and doin' great in his tank but that isn't the case in my tank unfortunately. All my other zoas are doing great and I even put 5 other zoa frags in my tank since the aforementioned zoas and they all opened up right away. Rods frag did not have any snails on them or other critters that I could see.

Here's the details:

Rod had them on the bottom of his cube tank under a 250w MH and I put them on the bottom of my 29 gal tank under a 150w MH and 84w of 50/50 PC lighting.

The zoas were only in transit for 1 hour before being acclimated to my tank.

I acclimated them slowly over the course of 1 hour.

My ORP is at approx. 314mV.
Ammonia=0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=0
pH~8.4
Phosphate=unknown (Salifert test kit on the way) but I just
ran Kent phosphate sponge for 2 days right
before the zoas entered my tank.

I am supplementing with the appropriate dosage of ESV B-ionic every day.

That's all the info that I can possibly think of, that would apply to this situation. I do not doubt the health of the zoas in Rod's tanks. I am pretty darn sure that it is something that I did wrong here.

Should I dip at this point? Anything else that I can do? Don't want to lose these!

Thanks.

[FISHMAN350]

hey hans did you drip those bad boys or check salinity from rods/your tanks?

[hansnfrans]

When I acclimate, I put the frag and the original water into a specimen container that sits inside the tank. Then I use a turkey baster to add a couple squirts of tank water. After about 15mins I pull out about two basters worth of water from the specimen container and then add about 2 more baster's worth of tank water to the specimen container. I continue this for about an hour or so.

[FISHMAN350]

good technique. dont know what to tell you. maby try talking to them?:eek1:

[sugartooth]

Have you tried any other spots in your tank? In 2 of my tanks I have favorite spots that somehow anything I put in those areas do well. ( Even when I change how I direct my flow, but not by much)
It happened to me with PE's. For some reason, a colony wouldn't open and all the others only a few inches away were doing fine. I just moved them closer to another colony that is doing well and they started to open up.

[hansnfrans]

I have them right in the middle of a bunch of open frags.

[mbunaman]

Give them more flow zoos are not picky when I buy wild colonies I put them in straight RO water for a dip to deinfest them and then I place them straight in my tank. Many people on the boards seen my tank it is full of zoos. Also check for predators such as nudibraches and pyramidal snails. Usually if something is irritating them the will not open up. I sugget doing this. Give them a freshwater dip with Lugols Iodine for 5 minutes with straight RO. Start swooshing them in the mixture then let them sit for a few minutes. Put them back in the tank with no lights on preferablly do this at night then in the morining the should open up. But make sure they are under a good flow.

[jason9jay]

watch out for chemical warfare!

[hansnfrans]

mbunaman- I just read about that dip on the zoa board here, and I am going to give that a try very soon. As for the flow, I have 2 maxijet 1200's on a wavemaker plus my return pump is pushing another 350gph, this is in a 29 gal tank.

[mbunaman]

Your flow sounds good. Try the dip you should be ok. Usually when they are closed its something irritaing them from my experience keep us posted. Let me know if you need any help.

[hansnfrans]

Here's a pic of what the zoas looked like a few days ago. Notice the stuff hanging out of the mouth. I tried blowing it away w/ a turkey baster but it wouldn't budge.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m65/hansnfrans/29gal%20aquarium/DSC01114.jpg

[PSam]

I've had some that took over a week to open after receiving them dry-shipped. Maybe they're just taking a little time?

[hansnfrans]

I think it's been almost 2 weeks now. When I bought them, it'd been at least a few days since they were fragged from the mother colony, so I doubt it is a physical trauma/recovery issue.

[DSMawd21]

Hans i want some full tank shots your well over due!! As for the zoas i have no clue..maybe there is some sand in them as they were fragged and its stuck in them! i have no clue!!

[hansnfrans]

I had just taken some full-tank shots today. It's only a 29 so it isn't even remotely impressive. The 29 is setup like a holding tank. Frags all over the place w/out any order or method to the madness. But I will post the pics on the thread that you started for that sort of thing.

[Rod Buehler]

Did they ever open? Those are some of my favorites. I dont remember mounting them on a plug though. Did I? or did you do it yourself?

The water flow was a good suggestion. Those zoanthids were in the front of my surge so they are used to plenty of flow.
(ps> Im glad that you tittled the thread Zoa woas, instead of zoo woos :p )

[Pufferpunk]

Those blue & yellow I got did the same thing. They all got thin & every one disappeared.

[hansnfrans]

Rod - Hi. 2 polyps are trying to open but it appears that these 2 polyps have lost their skirt from being closed up for so long. The color on the disk is mottled. These two things always seem to happen when zoas remain closed for a while.?.? After a week of them not opening, I decided to mount them on the plug w/ a bit of super glue gel. I can't glue them onto a rock yet b/c of the move to the 120gal.