How long can zoas stay closed?

I bought a small frag of zoas thuds about three weeks ago and they still have not opened all the way. Just enough to see the color sometimes. All other corals appear to be fine, galaxea, hammer, toadstool and gonipora. I've moved them a number of times first two weeks trying to find happy place and nothing, left them alone in a spot this whole week where half the rock is shaded and half isn't and same opening up on both parts. Oh, and some random green zoas popping up in the tank from some pink mush on two of my rocks on totally different sides of the tank, they appear to growing out of control, with like literally 10+ heads now

 

We're missing a lot of crucial information.

What kind of lights?
Water parameters?

I have Power Compact lights and my zoas like to be mid level with alot of light no shading.

 

if one set of zoanthid polyps is growing and one is not opening I would think perhaps the specimen itself it flawed, or did not acclimate to the tank properly

 

Parameters are good, I do have a lot of light...4 t5s over a 25 gallon, but they were under 6 t5s where I got them really close to top of tank. I got them mid level on my tank, thinking about shading them but was worried moving them again

 

I've had them not open for weeks at a time. Zoas are finicky. If they start to fade away I'd be worried. But if they are closed and firm they have a good chance.

 

prob frying them, what bulbs/photoperiod?

 

and I'd stop moving them that much, let them acclimate to an area.

 

+1. Also, zoas are picky buggers. I feel that zoas are generally "easY" corals to care for and often grow great. But, some of the flashier/brighter/nicer ones can be what we zoaists call "melters". The wrong flow, light, param, and BAM gone over night!

Back to the original question. I have had some zoas that didnt open for a month or more. Finally, one day, they were open. Prometheans did this for me. Keep an eye on them. Dip if you need/want to.

 

I had a problem like that, lasted 1 month. I was testing for everything, every day and moving my zoas all over. Finally I just got tired of it and said "f' it". I left them alone and now I have fragged 1 colony 3 times and almost every other colony at least once. Just leave them alone and they will adjust.

 

I know it's going to sound crazy but zoas can move. My armor of gods didn't like where I placed them and started slowing creeping around to the bottom side of their plug. I noticed this because the space between polyps was getting bigger and bigger. Finally I moved them and they stopped and moved back to the top of the plug. Zoas are pretty resilient and I don't think they are that picky at all. Leave them alone and they will open fine for you. You may want to get that galaxea out of a pico though because they have insanely long sweepers and are extremely agressive.