Zoas Never Fully Opened

Hello, got this tiny cluster of Zoas from the LFS (for free) almost 3 weeks ago.

Some of the polyps have never opened before (not even at the LFS), and the ones that do don't open fully. Occasionally I'd see some dark brown stuff on top of the polyps that takes a while to go away.



Can still see some of the brown stuff in the picture.

Any idea what's wrong? Is my coral sick or something?

My tank is a 5G with 18W Power Compacts by the way.

 

What are your levels?

I'm no expert but maybe you have them too high in your tank. I got a colony a while ago and when I placed them in the midlevel of my tank they stayed closed up. Now that I've moved them lower in the tank, they are slowly opening back up.

 

Thanks, I'll try that, but I don't think that's the problem though.

At the LFS, it was in the display tank, right at the sand bed (and not all of them were open still), so it can't be because it's too high right? :\

 

What is your salinity? Reef tanks tend to do better at higher salinity levels. My corals will close up with anything below 1.024.

 

did you dip them? Probably have zoa eating nudi

 

i have the same thing going on im my tank i have 5 or 6 tips of zoas an only one of the zoas stay closed just like yours my sal is 1.025 moved it around to see if it helped but no luck
i got tould that to just give it time and thay would all open up bigger and better
its been about 3weeks for me

 

I don't think it's zoa eating nudis as they would be gone by now. There may be some algae or other irritant growing on them though. I would clean them off with a turkey baster or powerhead and see what happens. I had a very small frag of some zoas I got, and it took about 3 weeks for them to open, well one is opened, the other polyp is still semi shut. I would just let them go and see what happens.

 

Thanks for the replies guys

Um, if it's the zoa-eating nudibranch, how do I check if I have them? I saw a small brown worm-like thing on one of the polyps a few days back. I swear I saw it move right before I flashed my torchlight on it. :S

By "cleaning them off", you mean I just squirt the water onto them?

 

Yes squirt water on them or hold them in front of the powerhead. What you was more than likely a bristleworm check the hitchhikers section of 3reef.com
Danny

 

Here's one I captured a few weeks ago. One of my zoa colonies had been fully closed for a day when I got suspicious - I got out a magnifying glass, found that ugly thing, and plucked it out with tweezers. Fortunately, it only got one polyp. Haven't seen any others since, but I'm watching!



The suggestion of cleaning off any debris with a turkey baster is a good one, and if that doesn't help, you might try lowering it a bit in the tank as was also suggested. Good luck!