I picked up a few Zola/paly frags a couple days ago. They are all doing find except for the Ding Dang PE. There are maybe 4 or 5 heads of it on the frag but they all have taken on a sort of dome-like shape over the past few days and aren’t looking great. Does anyone know what this could mean? Too much light? Is something snacking on them? They are in the bottom right corner of my tank. The lights are reefbreeders photon V2 run at about 80% peak. I will take pictures when I get home
Dome shaped?
- Thread starter WillB
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When you say dome like, its when they almost seem inside out correct? Where the center forms a half sphere almost and the tendrils of the zoa are down low and almost folded underneath the polyp?
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Yes exactly! Here is a picture. It’s not looking as extreme as it was yesterday but they still don’t look healthy!
Im not sure why they do this. Sometimes zoas will extend their stalks toward light, however, this only happens in low lit tanks/areas in a tank. I have a friend where some of his zoas do this, they will stay like this for a week or just a couple days. Wish i knew why they did this, however, I can ease your mind in saying they will not die because of this.
DangerDave
Valuable Member
Some of mine do this sometimes too. I haven’t been able to identify why. Even amongst the same colonies some will do this while others won’t.
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Im not sure if its a defense mechanism (like if a hermit crab walks over them), or they do this to better absorb light... Like @DangerDave said, the same thing happens to my friend, some in the colony will exhibit this behavior while others dont.
From what I’ve seen, it’s a response to extreme stress, usually when they get too much light or rapid change in environment/chemistry. They normally recover but many times, if it’s extreme, they don’t. Yours don’t look so bad. If it were me, I’d place them in lower light if possible
