Water change and Zoa's

leilani908 · Jan 24, 2020

Hi! So I was told that Zoanthids get disturb more or easily with water changes and hands going in the tank, and I was wondering if I should do less water changes to promote growth or not. I do water changes every 2 weeks. My tank is 15 gals. Thank you!

Tahoe61 · Jan 25, 2020

I would continue with the routine WC on a tank that size. Zoanthids are not as sensitive as they are made out to be on the forums.

leilani908 · Jan 25, 2020

Tahoe61 said:
I would continue with the routine WC on a tank that size. Zoanthids are not as sensitive as they are made out to be on the forums.

Okay! Thank you! I was wondering because one of my zoas hasn't been doing good even though the rest are fine, so I wasn't sure. Thank you!

resortez · Jan 27, 2020

From my understanding & what my lfs owner has told me, zoas are the hardiest coral. The lfs owner told me that he buys direct from importers & they ship zoa rocks with no water, only wrapped with damped news paper because water is heavy & the cost in shipping coral with water would sky rocket shipping cost. Seems like zoas can handle extreme conditions.

littlebigreef · Jan 28, 2020

leilani908 said:
Okay! Thank you! I was wondering because one of my zoas hasn't been doing good even though the rest are fine, so I wasn't sure. Thank you! ☺

It's not unusual for a strain of zoa within a larger garden to have issues and some strains can be fairly temperamental.

We might be able to help you trouble shoot if you can provide some pics and params or let us know what's going on with it.

leilani908 · Jan 28, 2020

littlebigreef said:
It's not unusual for a strain of zoa within a larger garden to have issues and some strains can be fairly temperamental.

We might be able to help you trouble shoot if you can provide some pics and params or let us know what's going on with it.

Here's a photo of it now. And I he second was it a week ago.

littlebigreef · Jan 28, 2020

So it just looks POed at the moment and not opening? Notice anything bothering it or any pests on the actual frag?

Are you familiar with lugols/coral rx/furan-2 dips?

leilani908 · Jan 29, 2020

littlebigreef said:
So it just looks POed at the moment and not opening? Notice anything bothering it or any pests on the actual frag?

Are you familiar with lugols/coral rx/furan-2 dips?

I have noticed little pests in the frag and I dipped it once to remove them, but last I checked they're still there because I think they were on the rock. Idk what they are exactly as they don't look like the normal zoa eating nudi or spiders. They're small and I tried to tell my LFS but they said it's probably copeopods and to leave it be, but they don't look like copeopods. I have ReVive Coral cleaner dip. Do you think I should dip it again and maybe the rock too? It's a small rock. What's POed?

littlebigreef · Jan 31, 2020

POed- p*ssed off.

So if you googled imaged nudis and spiders and they're not that its likely not something you need to worry about. A lot of zoa keepers will do a yellow coris wrasse or something similar as these fish are good at picking off little critters. Since you're in a 15 gal it might be something to consider but is probably unnecessary.

You didn't include any water parameters but zoas can be sensitive to alk swings so that might be something to test for if you're actively dosing. If not, just having an idea on your params is useful to rule that out as a possibility.

Your zoas will benefit from feeding, reefroids is as good as anything, so depending on your fish load and how heavily your feeding this might be something to also consider.

Finally, some times zoas just go sideways and start melting. Usually there's a root cause but not always. If anything in my collection is looking off I might do a mild lugol's bath (tank water with a few drops of lugols and an air stone to move the water for 5 mins or so). This can be very therapeutic. If there appears to be actual issues with the tissue- splotchy discoloration, pinching, obvious wounds I'd do a furan-2 dip (same as above but for 15-20 minutes) followed by a lugol's bath. Depending on how the zoa responds I might go 3-4 days straight, take a day off, and repeat.

Now, many ways to skin the proverbial cat... this is what works for me. Lots of other products and techniques out there.

As for action vs inaction, what I've said above is pretty mild treatment. Even if the zoa is generally healthy you're not going to lose anything by doing this. I tend to have a heavier hand when it comes to treating zoas, I've found earlier intervention can indeed make a difference. But, I can certainly respect the wait and see approach as well.

I hope this is useful. If you have any other Q's just lmk.

leilani908 · Feb 2, 2020

littlebigreef said:
POed- p*ssed off.

So if you googled imaged nudis and spiders and they're not that its likely not something you need to worry about. A lot of zoa keepers will do a yellow coris wrasse or something similar as these fish are good at picking off little critters. Since you're in a 15 gal it might be something to consider but is probably unnecessary.

You didn't include any water parameters but zoas can be sensitive to alk swings so that might be something to test for if you're actively dosing. If not, just having an idea on your params is useful to rule that out as a possibility.

Your zoas will benefit from feeding, reefroids is as good as anything, so depending on your fish load and how heavily your feeding this might be something to also consider.

Finally, some times zoas just go sideways and start melting. Usually there's a root cause but not always. If anything in my collection is looking off I might do a mild lugol's bath (tank water with a few drops of lugols and an air stone to move the water for 5 mins or so). This can be very therapeutic. If there appears to be actual issues with the tissue- splotchy discoloration, pinching, obvious wounds I'd do a furan-2 dip (same as above but for 15-20 minutes) followed by a lugol's bath. Depending on how the zoa responds I might go 3-4 days straight, take a day off, and repeat.

Now, many ways to skin the proverbial cat... this is what works for me. Lots of other products and techniques out there.

As for action vs inaction, what I've said above is pretty mild treatment. Even if the zoa is generally healthy you're not going to lose anything by doing this. I tend to have a heavier hand when it comes to treating zoas, I've found earlier intervention can indeed make a difference. But, I can certainly respect the wait and see approach as well.

I hope this is useful. If you have any other Q's just lmk.