Zoa opening- How long is this going to take?

[Staci.Pinck]

They can take up to a week or more to open up...especially when you have other denizens disturbing them. My culprits are a decent sized conch, some nassarius snails, and a Falco hawkfish that likes to touch them...a LOT. I have some Midas zoas that got mad when I moved them 3" higher in the tank and refused to open for almost a week until I put them back to the bottom of the tank. Moved Red People eater to the same spot and they never closed. Some are more sensitive, just have lots of patience.

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

Update: Polyps still haven’t opened. It’s been over 72 hours since they entered the tank. At first, to try to get them light and flow, I was putting them up on the aquascape in position I eventually plan to use for more demanding corals. However, after finding that my snails and urchin have knocked it off that ledge like 3-4 times now, I’ve decided to leave it on the bottom where I had initially planned for it to grow out anyways. My two clownfish and my Catalina goby, as well as my box crab and CUC, all appear to be leaving it alone now.

given how small the retracted polyp form is, it’s hard to know for sure, but I *think?* that the zoanthids are starting to get puffed out. Like, in a lot of photos I’ve seen online of closed Zoas, there are visible cylinders which contain the retracted polyp, whereas initially mine just looked like fried eggs on a rock- bunch of goo with visible mouths. Now, I can sorta see that each one has a differentiable proudness off the rock- and Im guessing that means they’re less retracted than they had been. So this certainly isn’t the best case scenario, but I’m hoping it’s a sign of good things on the way?

 

[Staci.Pinck]

Update: Polyps still haven’t opened. It’s been over 72 hours since they entered the tank. At first, to try to get them light and flow, I was putting them up on the aquascape in position I eventually plan to use for more demanding corals. However, after finding that my snails and urchin have knocked it off that ledge like 3-4 times now, I’ve decided to leave it on the bottom where I had initially planned for it to grow out anyways. My two clownfish and my Catalina goby, as well as my box crab and CUC, all appear to be leaving it alone now.

given how small the retracted polyp form is, it’s hard to know for sure, but I *think?* that the zoanthids are starting to get puffed out. Like, in a lot of photos I’ve seen online of closed Zoas, there are visible cylinders which contain the retracted polyp, whereas initially mine just looked like fried eggs on a rock- bunch of goo with visible mouths. Now, I can sorta see that each one has a differentiable proudness off the rock- and Im guessing that means they’re less retracted than they had been. So this certainly isn’t the best case scenario, but I’m hoping it’s a sign of good things on the way?

I think it is. I'm still teaching myself patience on moving around my softies too often when acclimating them. The best advice I was given was to place all my new frags on the bottom for a full week then slowly start moving them up in the tank to where their final location will be...like a couple of inches closer to the light at a time until they are at the right level. Let them sit there a week and see if they like the location before gluing them in. My husband & I each have tanks and it's been a real trial and error process on which levels our zoas like.

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

I figured my last comment didn’t explain it particularly well, and considering I don’t have side by side photos that can show the difference, I figured I should draw it.

Obviously this drawing isnt perfect but hopefully it conveys what I’m seeing. At first my zoas seemed really angry, they were retracted to the point where they had no noticeable rise off the rock on the frag plug. Additionally, their mucus covering seemed to have a bit of white hazy stuff, probably from their stress with my hydrogen peroxide dip. Now, they seem to be “fluffier“ in the sense that you can see small nubs that rise off the rock, bit still not nearly as tall as I’d expect them to be once comfortable and fully extended, not to mention their mini tentacles are still completely non visible, but the fact they’ve got that bit of poof to them I’d imagine is on the right track?

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

the other thing I ought to mention is that Im still fighting an uphill battle against high nitrates. Prior to the zoas arrival, I was carbon dosing and using microbacter7 on a daily basis, and despite this and the regular weekly 20-25% water change, my API test kit was still showing a blood-like red color, which would suggest my nitrates were through the roof. Realizing this would be very bad for the zoa, a few days prior I did a 75% water change and that finally helped drop my nitrates a fair bit. Went from red, which means like 60-200+ ppm if im not mistake, to a light orange more like 30 ppm. Unfortunately, I did a nitrate test a day and a half after adding the zoas and the nitrate has risen to maybe 5ppm, so I did another 75% water change. I haven’t checked the nitrates yet but given the measures ive taken id assume they're at 30 or less. I know- thats still absurd- but given my tank was started in mid-late November, it simply hasn’t had the time to build up a high enough concentration of anaerobic nitrate removing bacteria. I’ve cut down on feeding substantially to try to help prevent further issues.

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

Update: one polyp has begun to just BARELY show its orange skirt. Kinda hard to tell but it seems like it’s somehow only partially open- like the zoanthid equivalent of a cracked door. The rest of the polyps remain closed blobs. The WYSIWYG photo showed 7 polyps- and as of right now aside from the one that is barely starting to open, I can see 3 mouths in the blobs. Granted, the zoa is in the bottom of my aquascape and this doesn’t involve me having picked it up to rotate the frag plug 360 degrees and count the mouths. So I guess theres a CHANCE that 3 of the 7 have melted, 3 of the 7 are still angry, and 1 of the 7 is beginning to relax?

 

[Just John]

I had an entire colony closed for weeks once and they recovered. I think they are going to make it.

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

I had an entire colony closed for weeks once and they recovered. I think they are going to make it.

Do you have any advice or can you find any photos you could use to show me the visible point at which you differentiate between a zoa simply being stressed/angry and it actually melting? That’s a distinction I still don’t fully grasp

 

[Narideth]

Regardless of whether they're stressed or melting, I don't believe there's much you can do to 'help' them beyond letting them settle undisturbed by you and or your other critters, and keeping the tank parameters at a healthy level. It's the best thing at the moment in my experience, and even if they look poorly, sometimes corals will surprise you.

I had to do a superglue treatment to a small fire and ice colony I received in order to seal off a small aptasia, and only two of the 12 polyp colony opened within 24-48 hours. I was certain the others weren't going to make it, however, within a week or so, all of them stopped being angry and opened up. This was after my normal 2-stage dip (Coral RX and Iodine).

They're resilient little things, have faith, we're rooting for you and them.

 

[bBurn18]

Did they ever open up?

 

[Akreefnewguy]

I just got my first coral ever- treehouse of horror zoas. they arrived a day early and I had less time to handle them than I would have liked. With that being said, I started with a Bayers dip, followed by a Polyp Labs Reef Primer dip, followed by a hydrogen peroxide dip, and finally a freshwater dip. Between each I dunked the coral in a container of untreated saltwater. Each dip was probably 1-3 minutes long. Then, I chopped off the "dowel" portion of the frag plug so the disk could sit on my rock work, and placed it in my tank. Unfortunately, it's been 2-3 hours, and the polyps have not extended at all. Given Im new to coral the inevitable question is whether it's dead or just will take more time. Any thoughts?

How long should I expect the polyps to take to open like that?

Mine opened in about 3 hours

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

Did they ever open up?

One of the 7 polyps has opened. The others haven’t melted yet so I’m hoping they might pull through?

 

[JTP424]

Progress is progress!

 

[dsmith1857]

Do you have any advice or can you find any photos you could use to show me the visible point at which you differentiate between a zoa simply being stressed/angry and it actually melting? That’s a distinction I still don’t fully grasp

A melted zoa is simply gone, the polyp isn't just closed up it's gone. Like it will go from 3 or 4 or I see in the photo to 1 or 2 closed polyps. My best advice with all coral is going to be slow down. Slow down and research the best dip, inspection, and acclimation process for each coral because they can be different. If you can't slow down and stop trying to fix things you are going to be in for a lot of lost coral.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I havent seen a full tank pic in this thread. I havent seen any parameters, age of tank, type of lighting or flow.

Its important to figure out why they died, they should not have died, it indicates something wrong in the tank.

 

[littlebigreef]

I havent seen a full tank pic in this thread. I havent seen any parameters, age of tank, type of lighting or flow.

Its important to figure out why they died, they should not have died, it indicates something wrong in the tank.

OP ran off 4 or 5 dips (including 1-3 mins in h2O2) when introducing their ‘first coral’ which happens to be a particularly sensitive strain of zoas, so that’s 90% of it right there- not so much an issue with the tank.

That said, more context around what’s going on with the tank never hurts.

 

[jx.reef]

First off, I love the picture you drew! Very well put haha. I’ve never had a zoa not open after a day or two (even with rough shipping delays in freezing weather). I suspect the zoa does not like something with your water chemistry. Have you tested your nitrate/phosphate levels? If it’s zero, they’re going to be ticked off.
I’m currently growing over 50 zoa strains and they’re always open unless something is actively wrong with the water chemistry.

 

[melhe]

I got a bunch a while ago . Most opened right away . The last one took two weeks to open . As long as they are melting . They are alive . I feel I am lucky finally they opened after two weeks because if they don’t open . They can’t get photosynthesis. They starve

 

[melhe]

NOT melting I mean . Typo above

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

Ok well turns out mine haven’t melted. Actually a few more opened!