Coral lifting off frag plug

[djohnson610]

Hello everyone, I got this coral about two months ago and it never seemed to take off like my others. I noticed some white stringy algae (?) on it when I had it on the bottom of my tank so I glued the plug to one of my rocks. Went to look at it today and noticed it was starting to lift at the base. Any idea what’s going on and/or how to help it if it’s dying? Thank you!

 

[tbrown]

Zoas will sometimes "throw" polyps.

 

[ryanjohn1]

Looks like normal spreading of zoas to me

 

[djohnson610]

It’s getting worse….the biggest polyp is hanging by a thread and all the “tissue”? That’s in between the polyps is pretty much gone. I did a peroxide dip tonight(1:3) and found a long white worm and what I think were a bunch of copepods and a couple bristle worms. I feel terrible I’m just watching it die. Any other advice or thoughts?

 

[NancyFish]

It’s getting worse….the biggest polyp is hanging by a thread and all the “tissue”? That’s in between the polyps is pretty much gone. I did a peroxide dip tonight(1:3) and found a long white worm and what I think were a bunch of copepods and a couple bristle worms. I feel terrible I’m just watching it die. Any other advice or thoughts?

That one frag had all of that! Were you able to save it

 

[tbrown]

Is it dying or just separating? As previously stated, Zoas will have polyps "break" off a colony and start their own. That's one way they propagate. The polyp in the picture looks healthy and appears to be going off on its own.

 

[Thumbster]

Do you have any idea what par it is getting? I had a similar problem with one of my zoas early on.
I had read that they like low par so I sat it on the sandbed and it started falling off the plug. I finally re-glued it to the plug and said heck with it and stuck it on top of one of my rocks getting about 150-200 par and it took off and has been fine ever since.
This pic was taken a few months after I moved it. It started with about 5 polyps

and now 7 months later, it’s at least 5 times this size.

 

[djohnson610]

That one frag had all of that! Were you able to save it

I know Trying!

 

[djohnson610]

Do you have any idea what par it is getting? I had a similar problem with one of my zoas early on.
I had read that they like low par so I sat it on the sandbed and it started falling off the plug. I finally re-glued it to the plug and said heck with it and stuck it on top of one of my rocks getting about 150-200 par and it took off and has been fine ever since.
This pic was taken a few months after I moved it. It started with about 5 polyps

and now 7 months later, it’s at least 5 times this size.

I have it on the bottom of my tank right now only because I wasn’t sure if I was going to do anymore peroxide dips so I didn’t want to glue it back down. The snails and crabs like to knock it off. I’ll try moving it to the top though if it’ll help!

 

[djohnson610]

Is it dying or just separating? As previously stated, Zoas will have polyps "break" off a colony and start their own. That's one way they propagate. The polyp in the picture looks healthy and appears to be going off on its own.

I hope it’s just separating but it looks like all of the tissue between all of the polyps is disappearing…. Unless they’re all trying to propagate a new colony lol none of them are really opening and it just looks way worse than when I brought it home

 

[tbrown]

I hope it’s just separating but it looks like all of the tissue between all of the polyps is disappearing…. Unless they’re all trying to propagate a new colony lol none of them are really opening and it just looks way worse than when I brought it home

Get a fresh picture?

 

[djohnson610]

Update! So the next day my other corals all started to close up. I moved the Zoa to my highest rock as suggested and had my water checked for trace minerals. Calcium was 360 and magnesium was 1320 so I dosed both and they are both wide open and look so happy! The one polyp still looks like it’s going to fall off but the rest are opening and look great