My zoas seem different

DucofWestmoore · Mar 11, 2019

So from October 2018 until March 9th 2019, my zoas have been always been opened, bloomed and never closed. This past saturday morning , I went down as usual and notice that my "zoa garden" feature were closed up and looked trampled. I first thought it was my clean up crew which only consists of 1 narc. snail, 1 margarita snail, and 1 crown snail. This is the same CUC I had when I initially started up my tank cycled my tank. I never had this issue.

What concerned me is when the polyps were closed up they looked like the were mowed over and spaced out (I don't remeber them being spaced apart....and didn't open back up all day or the next day. They are starting to open up now, but they usually aren't shy. Not sure what to make of this.I'm hoping it goes back to the "bushy" appearance. See the pictures I've attached and give me your ideas. Thanks in advance all

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DharkaronReef · Mar 11, 2019

After looking at your before and after pics, it def looks like your zoas are missing some polyps. Have you noticed any fishes that might pick on it? Also, try to zoom in on the zoas polpys when closed and see if there are any pests or white spots.

Vahanyos · Mar 11, 2019

Any changes in the tank? My zoos did that when I stripped my tank of nutrients too fast

sfin52 · Mar 11, 2019

Bimmer007 said:
After looking at your before and after pics, it def looks like your zoas are missing some polyps. Have you noticed any fishes that might pick on it? Also, try to zoom in on the zoas polpys when closed and see if there are any pests or white spots.

other ZOA look like they are growing

DucofWestmoore · Mar 14, 2019

Vahanyos said:
Any changes in the tank? My zoos did that when I stripped my tank of nutrients too fast

yes, I nailed it down.....drum roll......it was my tank temperature. And it makes a lot of sense because weather here in VA has been up down up down--additionally, we are just on the way out of winter-- during winter, I dial my therm a little higher, to offset the cold side air & taken accont of my indoor temp of 720--it would balance out to 78 in my tank. With that said, now that weather is getting nicer, I kept my tank therm the same. So it was running 78.9 . It's at 78.1 now.

Also make a lot of sense why the closed because the zoa garden is located at the top middle of my tank, I gather is warmer at towards the top. The other zoas weren't affect because they are at the bottom which is likely cooler.

Thank all that chimed in.