How do you Kill a Zoa?..... Sell it to me

[AZMSGT]

Sigh......
I had a friend give me a Zoa chunk and I put it in my 20g QT tank. It thrived, in no time it grew out a couple more tentacles. OK, cool, I know, I'll go buy a few more. So I picked up 3. 1 is doing good it's open and loving it, the other opens a little but not really enjoying being in the tank. The third closed up the day I bought it and hasn't opened at all. as a matter of fact I'm pretty certain it's dead now as it's turned into little nubs on a plug.

Fourtunatly I didn't spend allot on these but dang.. You see one doing so well you just assume others will too. Nope.

 

[AquaticJamaica]

Pictures would help

 

[ScottR]

Sigh......
I had a friend give me a Zoa chunk and I put it in my 20g QT tank. It thrived, in no time it grew out a couple more tentacles. OK, cool, I know, I'll go buy a few more. So I picked up 3. 1 is doing good it's open and loving it, the other opens a little but not really enjoying being in the tank. The third closed up the day I bought it and hasn't opened at all. as a matter of fact I'm pretty certain it's dead now as it's turned into little nubs on a plug.

Fourtunatly I didn't spend allot on these but dang.. You see one doing so well you just assume others will too. Nope.

Totally depends on QT parameters. Sometimes I feel QT tanks (from the ones I’ve seen) are crystal clear water just set up with freshly made SW. perhaps too unstable if not established. However, I’ve tried killing zoas and failed.

 

[Silent]

I thought zoas were the first forms of life and impossible to kill

 

[AZMSGT]

Here’s the picture

 

[Silent]

I see a lot of detritus in the pic. are your parameters ok?

 

[AZMSGT]

thats left over Zoa food and a small amount of snail poop. I put the food in the tank yesterday.

Like I said, the one that’s closed and nubs has been like that since the LFS bagged it. The others are doing ok and well.

 

[Kremis]

Definitely still saveable! Zoas will not open when they are covered in algae like that. In order to get them to open, you need to remove the algae. You can do this in a few different ways. I usually just brush it off then place the zoas into higher flow for a bit. Other people have success using things like hydrogen peroxide.

 

[blasterman]

Totally depends on QT parameters. Sometimes I feel QT tanks (from the ones I’ve seen) are crystal clear water just set up with freshly made SW. perhaps too unstable if not established. However, I’ve tried killing zoas and failed.

Yeah....this. QT and frag tanks are often in a state of perpetual nutrient cycling and zoas / palys don't like that. They prefer either zero nutrient conditions or high nutrient conditions (nitrate 10ppm or higher) in my experience. Zones in the middle with young tanks tend to have rising and falling competing algae and bacteria colonies and this makes them close up.

Diatoms are a big problem with new tanks (silicates are present in most salt mixes) and are a big reason they close up in new tanks. Imagine swimming in a pool full of razor blades and that's how zoas feel during diatom outbreaks.