Bleached Zoa Recovery

[willisd]

I had some very nice “gobstopper” palys go missing after some tank maintaince that I had assumed were just complete goners. Lo and behold I actually located the frag in my rockwork about a week ago and while they are very bleached they are showing some color in the stalks.

I have kept them in a shaded nursery area of the tank for now, and I am slowly moving them outward into the light. Is there any possible feeding additives I should look into to accelerate healing?

I am attaching photos of them currently and what they looked like originally


they may be too far gone, but I do still see some orange on them so I’m seeing what I may be able to do to help the process

 

[mermaid_life]

My bet is that they will recover. Zoas on the way out usually get really skinny and start receding. Those still look plump! My zoas seem to like aminos and look their plumpest the day after dosing.

Slowly moving them into the light is a good call.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I had zoas that disappeared into a cave. For probably months. They all lacked color when I found them. I put them in the sand bed (not in shade just the lowest light and not direct light) and within a few weeks color started returning. By 1.5 months they had all color back. I did nothing special just left them be. Some zoas are like cockroaches and will survive anything lol

 

[willisd]

@mermaid_life which aminos are you dosing? I’m sure the other zoas in the tank would appreciate the snack too.

 

[mermaid_life]

@mermaid_life which aminos are you dosing? I’m sure the other zoas in the tank would appreciate the snack too.

I'm currently using the Red Sea AB+ but I've also used AquaVitro fuel. Both give similar results for me.

 

[mermaid_life]

Nice tank btw!!

 

[willisd]

Too often threads like this go unupdated so I wanted to give a little follow up.

everyone’s opinion that because there was a lot of mass in the stalk that they would likely come back under good water conditions was exactly right.

I probably babied them in the shade a little longer than I needed to, and a large clump fell off the original plug so I re-mounted it but they are doing great.

Under the heavier blues -

And under the more regular lights. Slightly closed up from moving things around

so I’m the end the moral of the story is always give recovery a chance and protect them while they’re healing

 

[willisd]

And here they are today fully recovered