Zoos Not Spreading?!?

[Chris5]

Without getting to crazy on the subject, what would be the cause of this coral not spreading on to neighboring rocks??? Ive had zoos for a year now without any spreading goin on, but they are healthier than ever...Running combo PC & T5 lights...Supplimenting trace elements as well on occasion....

All water paramaters have been in check for some time now and ive had other corals attach to rockwork just not zoos...

 

[Deanos]

but they are healthier than ever

Healthy zoanthids spread onto neighboring surfaces. Some even incorporate sand into their bases if no 'solid' substrate is available. They may not be as healthy as you think.

Post a picture of a sample frag in your tank for more precise information.

 

[DEEPWATER]

what are your PO4 levels ?

 

[Chris5]

PO4 meaning phosphates, if thats what your asking probably on the higher side but nothing extreme, running carbon to try and help but i think my ro/di is in need of a changing

 

[DEEPWATER]

PO4 meaning phosphates, if thats what your asking probably on the higher side but nothing extreme, running carbon to try and help but i think my ro/di is in need of a changing

kinda high ,,,high is very low in phosphates ,,meaning .5 is high

 

[Chris5]

well high or low enough to show some signs of cyano again (small amounts)...but i am talking about over a year now of non-spreading zoos ..very strange bc other softies in my tank have propogated to other rocks including button polyps and sun polyps and leathers and mushrooms..maybe its the zoo rock? only zoos i have.....

 

[DEEPWATER]

well high or low enough to show some signs of cyano again (small amounts)...but i am talking about over a year now of non-spreading zoos ..very strange bc other softies in my tank have propogated to other rocks including button polyps and sun polyps and leathers and mushrooms..maybe its the zoo rock? only zoos i have.....

what test kits are you using ,,and what are your parameters ? Lighting?

 

[Deanos]

Post a picture of a sample frag in your tank for more precise information.

:scratch:

 

[digitalreefer]

I'm building a zoanthid tank and have been studying them non stop lately. Here's some of what I've managed to confirm from various sources:

Different zoanthids require different amounts of light and grow at different rates due to photosynthetic production rates. In addition to normal water parameters being in check, zoas require iodine and strontium in order to grow and reproduce, in a smaller tank, regular water changes with quality salt should maintain the level of these trace elements, however infrequent water changes or larger tanks may require the addition of these elements to maintain acceptable levels for zoanthid growth.

Here are a few things you can try:
1. Check your bulbs and replace if necessary
2. Move your zoas to provide more light (contrary to popular belief, zoas are not all low light corals even though they're hardy enough to survive low light conditions)
3. Test your iodine and strontium levels and make sure they're acceptable. Iodine is found at 0.06ppm in seawater and can be slightly higher to promote zoanthid growth, strontium is fount at 8ppm

Let me know if this helps
If none of this works... give your zoas to me and try a different type of coral... lol

 

[masterswimmer]

I agree wholeheartedly with digital. I have zoos in my 75g that all spread at different rates. I also have zoos that are spreading prolifically on my sandbed, like Dean said.

Some of my zoo's don't spread at all but are open and look healthy (same tank as all the others mentioned above).

Try moving them around, might help.

swimmer

 

[alti]

IME water flow can make a huge difference. Its greatly underestimated by many aquarists. many people tend to blame other things when corals dont grow as expected, but IMO proper flow is more important than light and minute water parameters. Feeding is the only thing i rank higher but for zoas its not very important.

 

[digitalreefer]

One other thing, although zoanthids produce most of their food via photosynthesis, they will eat very small food in the water column including baby brine shrimp. The ones you buy in a store will not work, you'll need to breed your own, and harvest them within 12 hours of hatching before they grow too big. You can then shoot them towards the zoas with a turkey baster. Don't shoot too close, as they'll close due to water motion and shoot some elsewhere for the fish to grab so they don't eat them before the zoas.

I'm slowly finding that the colonies I feed seem to be doing better. This may not be the most scientific finding, but it does seem to work.

 

[digitalreefer]

IME water flow can make a huge difference.

He's right... zoas like moderate flow, if it's too heavy, they won't reproduce... if it's way too heavy, some may not even open. Not enough limits their food supply.

 

[fritz]

I call BS on the baby brine shrimp, if anything I'd try phyto or rotifers. Ricordia for example which have a MUCH larger mouth then zoanthids (if that even is a mouth on a zoanthid I've never seen a pic of it eating anything) eat rotifers. Yellow polyps which have sweeper tentacles and very large mouths respond best after eating phyto. Even though the will swallow brine or even mysis, feed a yellow polyp some phyto and tomorrow you'll have three.

CF lights have very little penetration so unless your zoas are up high those lights might not count. I agree try moving them around.

Also you haven't mentioned if you HAVE been moving them around (they don't like that). I found that mine didn't spread either, till I left them in one place for a long time. Then they start spreading.

 

[Chris5]

Ok so I admit my water changes arent up to par with most on the board but never the less I change it when I can...I dose once a week with trace elements for that matter but i know its not the same, These pics are old but more or less this is how my setup looks, and i still have the same zoo rock...I run combo PC & T5's (actnics) for now, hence why i have mostly softies/mushrooms and some LPS...

I dosed strontium before the trace elements every 4 days as per the bottle and noticed i was getting cyano outbreaks..and recently read an article somewhere that stated too much strontium in the system can lead to algae outbreaks esp cyano..so i stopped and switched over to trace elements which has strontium in it to a lesser degree as well as iodine (i also dosed iodine ESV brand as well before hand)..

The only other thing i can think of is that my placement was in a good amount of flow but not near any rocks that they could have spread to, so 2 days ago i switched its position to slightly higher in the tank and next to some rocks so we'll see if that does the trick but ive never seen zoos in any of my tanks spread and i was looking forward to making like a sea mat of zoos :irked:

 

[digitalreefer]

I call BS on the baby brine shrimp

I had thought the same initially, that the motion from the baster closed the zoas, but after reading about them eating baby brine shrimp in numerous sources, I tried feeding while ensuring the baster didn't close them. Shortly afterwards, the shrimp began to swim over and the zoas would in fact eat them.

The other thing that I've noticed is that occasionally a colony will close nearly all of it's polyps for seemingly no reason. It is a fact that although each polyp is an organism, they do operate together to some extent. The only reason I can come up with for this is that they sense food in the water column and close in an attempt to eat.

I've been doing as much research as possible on this, and am hoping to have more concrete evidence of this soon, but for now that's what I've got.

 

[digitalreefer]

The only other thing i can think of is that my placement was in a good amount of flow but not near any rocks that they could have spread to

Careful not to have too much flow around them... they shouldn't look like they're blowing in the current, gently moving at most.

I was looking forward to making like a sea mat of zoos :irked:

You might want to carefully remove a few polyps and glue them to nearby rocks. Zoanthids are more likely to spread if the have a lot of room on their sides.

 

[masterswimmer]

Chris, the pix you posted reflect very cloudy water. Are you running a skimmer? Carbon?

swimmer

 

[Chris5]

Master,

I explained above that those were old pics, very old actually when i was just starting up my tank...but mentioned 1.5yrs later i still have that same zoo rock and it never spread, maybe due to the positioning (not near any rocks) and or more flow than needed on them....and yes of course at this point carbon and a skimmer is running lol ...

 

[alti]

the feeding point is moot. zoanthids are one of the few corals that rely almost entirely on photosynthesis for energy. the food they do consume is mainly dissolved nutrients in the water. the abbreviation for brine shrimp is BS and it is BS that they will eat them. its the same for rotifers. Sorry if im kinda direct on this point, but i grow corals for a living and ive done enough research and experimentation to come to these conclusions.

as stated before, moving them will definately slow down growth. finding a goos spot and leaving them alone is key. every type of zoa has a preference for lighting and flow, so sometimes it can be tricky.

If that colony has not spread to neighboring rocks in the course of a year i really suspect there is some problem with your overall tank maintenance. IMO water changes and carbon changes are extemely important. more so on softie systems than any other type of aquarium. softies can emit a ton of vile chemicals into the water . these toxins can reach very high levels if left unchecked.