Gmk rescue thread

[Chrisv.]

So a few weeks ago I bought a frag of gmk from a local reefer. The frag seemed healthy at that point. As per their recommendation, I placed it at low light and low flow. Maybe 75ish par. Over the first week, polyp extension was "meh" at best. Each polyp would open and close throughout the day pretty frequent. After talking with the person who I got the coral from, we decided the coral might still be getting too much light. I dropped the intensity by about 20% and I have been slowly slowly ramping back up. I'm still not back to full light after 3 weeks.

At this point, the coral is staying closed pretty much all the time.

Here is a pic from April 2:

Here is from 10 days later:

Here is 5 more days later:

So it's certainly shrinking and not opening. I dose iodine, nitrate and aminos. I keep no3 at 10 ppm and po4 at .2ish.

What do you think? Anyone with experience with this coral have any ideas? Other zoas in the tank look ok.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

I Personally would do an iodine dip, lightly brush them with a soft toothbrush and raise lighting. I keep mine under 150par.

 

[Chrisv.]

I Personally would do an iodine dip, lightly brush them with a soft toothbrush and raise lighting. I keep mine under 150par.

Lugol's solution? What concentration? How slowly do I need to increase the lighting? It may not last much longer at this rate...

 

[ZoWhat]

STOP IODINE
STOP DOSING

I'd get this thing in 100% brand new SW

I killed a bunch of zoas a year ago dosing iodine. Ppl say you need it. BONK, total BS

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Lugol's solution? What concentration? How slowly do I need to increase the lighting? It may not last much longer at this rate...

I use seachems reef dip which is iodine based, cant say for sure what concentration of lugols. Its already in a rough state so it may or may not make it. I would put it in 100 par to start with and see if it opens up

 

[TheDragonsReef]

STOP IODINE
STOP DOSING

I'd get this thing in 100% brand new SW

I also agree with this, unless youre doing icp tests and seeing that it's depleted its very easy to overdose iodine

 

[Glenner’sreef]

It doesn’t like something in your tank. What about a Zoa nipper? It happens.

 

[LRT]

Yeah I'm not sure it's anything to do with flow or par. Mine sit around 175-200 in a heavier flow area in my tank.
Have you seen pictures of colony frag was taken from?
Nutrient levels and other params close to tank frag was taken from?
Unfortunately I keep hearing about Gmk frags melting. Like most other collector corals these seem to be farmed and fragged frequently in most likely less than ideal and healthy conditions with unhealthy frags being passed around and fragged again and so on and so forth.
Could be something in your tank they dont like.

 

[Chrisv.]

I test iodine and iodide using the seachem test kit and unless I have just dosed it, my levels are zeroed out. The zoas basically always look better the day after iodide is dosed (red sea iodine +).

This is a zoa only tank-- only two fish. A firefish and an orange spotted blenny. The first day I had these in the tank, some blue leg hermits tried to mess with them-- so I got rid of the hermits.

I agree that these tend to be over fragged. The coral I bought was a frag that another person grew out. I don't know what it was when he got it, but it came to me as three full size and three baby polyps. I'm not sure about overall health, but in the two weeks from the time the seller posted it until I bought it, another polyp popped up. I did notice that the tissue seemed more fragile than all of my other zoas.

If there is a concern that iodine has been overdosed, should I still be dipping in seachem iodine dip?

I can get a water change through... I'm not thrilled about the idea of a 100% water change all at once. Maybe 33% per day for several days?

I can certainly increase the light. My other corals will be much happier to have the light back up to proper levels. I've been trying to baby this stupid thing.

 

[LRT]

I test iodine and iodide using the seachem test kit and unless I have just dosed it, my levels are zeroed out. The zoas basically always look better the day after iodide is dosed (red sea iodine +).

This is a zoa only tank-- only two fish. A firefish and an orange spotted blenny. The first day I had these in the tank, some blue leg hermits tried to mess with them-- so I got rid of the hermits.

I agree that these tend to be over fragged. The coral I bought was a frag that another person grew out. I don't know what it was when he got it, but it came to me as three full size and three baby polyps. I'm not sure about overall health, but in the two weeks from the time the seller posted it until I bought it, another polyp popped up. I did notice that the tissue seemed more fragile than all of my other zoas.

If there is a concern that iodine has been overdosed, should I still be dipping in seachem iodine dip?

I can get a water change through... I'm not thrilled about the idea of a 100% water change all at once. Maybe 33% per day for several days?

I can certainly increase the light. My other corals will be much happier to have the light back up to proper levels. I've been trying to baby this stupid thing.

I wouldn't do anything crazy drastic especially if your other zoas are thriving.
If they where healthy in reccomended flow and par they should have acclimated smoothly for you.
Full tank shot of other zoas?
I have a feeling it something either in or not in your tank that they don't like.
.2 phosphates seems high. What was phosphate level in tank you got them from?

 

[Chrisv.]

I wouldn't do anything crazy drastic especially if your other zoas are thriving.
If they where healthy in reccomended flow and par they should have acclimated smoothly for you.
Full tank shot of other zoas?
I have a feeling it something either in or not in your tank that they don't like.
.2 phosphates seems high. What was phosphate level in tank you got them from?

Here are some of my other zoanthids. I agree that something is not right that they don't like. If they were happy they wouldn't look like this .

I will ask about the po4 level in the source tank.

 

[Chrisv.]

It's frustrating. I know that they are "high end" but they are freaking zoas...

 

[LRT]

The rest of your Zoas look on point and not sure id start chasing tank params to make the gmk happy. I've lost thousands in high end corals doing that. Could be as simple as it stressed from tank to tank transfer and got a bug. Could of picked up a pathogen fragging it you just don't know.
Do you have cipro on hand?

 

[Chrisv.]

The rest of your Zoas look on point and not sure id start chasing tank params to make the gmk happy. I've lost thousands in high end corals doing that. Could be as simple as it stressed from tank to tank transfer and got a bug. Could of picked up a pathogen fragging it you just don't know.
Do you have cipro on hand?

I do have Cipro.

I agree. I really don't like chasing params for new corals in a tank that's otherwise doing well. I was giving this one the special treatment because I REALLY wanted to not kill it. With most captive bred coral, I have an "if it likes my tank and lives, great!" policy. But this one I really do like, and I would love for it to take off.

 

[LRT]

I do have Cipro.

I agree. I really don't like chasing params for new corals in a tank that's otherwise doing well. I was giving this one the special treatment because I REALLY wanted to not kill it. With most captive bred coral, I have an "if it likes my tank and lives, great!" policy. But this one I really do like, and I would love for it to take off.

Could mix up 250mg cipro/Gallon tank water and give it a 2hr bath after lights out and see if you see any improvement over next cpl days. I've never seen it hurt anything personally.
And maybe get the frag back in 75par in least amount of flow and see how it does.

 

[Chrisv.]

Could mix up 250mg cipro/Gallon tank water and give it a 2hr bath after lights out and see if you see any improvement over next cpl days. I've never seen it hurt anything personally.
And maybe get the frag back in 75par in least amount of flow and see how it does.

I just reread your cipro jawbreaker thread. I noticed you skipped treatment some nights. Why?

 

[LRT]

I just reread your cipro jawbreaker thread. I noticed you skipped treatment some nights. Why?

I think I seen someone treating nems using the every other day protocol. We came up with the dosage in that thread. I know @Eagle_Steve uses different dosages as well. Couldn't hurt to try it. Cipro hasn't always worked but when it does I usually see improvement by next day or 2.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I think I seen someone treating nems using the every other day protocol. We came up with the dosage in that thread. I know @Eagle_Steve uses different dosages as well. Couldn't hurt to try it. Cipro hasn't always worked but when it does I usually see improvement by next day or 2.

I treat nems everyday and shrooms or zoas get every other day treatment if needed. I have only had to do zoas a few times. The only ones I had to do were wild ones I collected in FL. They always look horrible or die if I do not do it after collecting. Being as they have to be “scraped” off the rocks, it does make them susceptible to things while I dive and collect other things.

For zoas, I do 250mg per gallon for 2-3 hours with a small 5v cat fountain pump pointed at surface. I then move them to a 5g tank with fresh sw and a small ph/heater. I use an a80 for a light and they get about 80 par under it. Usually after a week and 3 treatments, they recover.

Not saying yours need that, but wanted to let you know how I treated fresh collected and damaged ones.

 

[Chrisv.]

I treat nems everyday and shrooms or zoas get every other day treatment if needed. I have only had to do zoas a few times. The only ones I had to do were wild ones I collected in FL. They always look horrible or die if I do not do it after collecting. Being as they have to be “scraped” off the rocks, it does make them susceptible to things while I dive and collect other things.

For zoas, I do 250mg per gallon for 2-3 hours with a small 5v cat fountain pump pointed at surface. I then move them to a 5g tank with fresh sw and a small ph/heater. I use an a80 for a light and they get about 80 par under it. Usually after a week and 3 treatments, they recover.

Not saying yours need that, but wanted to let you know how I treated fresh collected and damaged ones.

Thanks. Do you think there is harm in trying cipro in this case? I’ve never tried it on coral.

 

[Chrisv.]

In the spirit of follow-up, this coral was gone within 4 days of this thread being started. I did a large WC and give the coral an iodine dip, with the plan to start cipro the next day. After talking with many people on the subject (including this thread), I landed on 250mg/gal cipro to be administered as two hour baths every other day.

So in the end, I have the world's most expensive frag plug, lol. I don't think I will bother with GMK in the future. It could have just been my specimen, but the tissue just seems a little softer or something with this strain. Not physically as sturdy as many zoas. They are beautiful, but not worth the PITA.