[bobaxtell]

My tank is about one year old and has been trouble free. It is maintained by a professional every 2 weeks. He does not know what the problem is and we have done all of the water tests possible.
To explain the problem very quickly 3 of my 14 Zoanthids are retracted like they would be at night and they have been that way for 5 days.
Any ideas?

[ACE]

You have a professional maintain your tank WOW!!!

I don't know what your problem mite be if only 3 of 14 are closed.

[crazygator]

many of the polyps, including zoos, will go dormant for five to seven days whill going through a growth. it's scary the first time, and the second, and the third, and the..... you get the idea. with my zoos and stars i still get nervous after three or four days wondering what i did wrong. then come to find out you just became a new zoo parent again. congrats this means that your tank is running at peak performance.

[bobaxtell]

Thanks that is encouuraging. Will let you know.

[Taras1]

Originally Posted by crazygator

many of the polyps, including zoos, will go dormant for five to seven days whill going through a growth. it's scary the first time, and the second, and the third, and the..... you get the idea. with my zoos and stars i still get nervous after three or four days wondering what i did wrong. then come to find out you just became a new zoo parent again. congrats this means that your tank is running at peak performance.

Thanks for the tip. I just got some aquacultured stars which were ok for a week and suddenly closed up. Tank parameters were good. What else should I look for?

[bobaxtell]

They are still closed after about 2 weeks. I have re done every water test I can think of and everything is normal. Only thing a little high is CA ~400. Any other ideas?

[RyanG]

What type of lighting, how much flow if any is pointed at the zoos. Please list your water parameters for us. (NO2, NO3, etc.)

[bobaxtell]

Here are water parameters:
ph 8.1
kh 15
nh4 0
no3 15
no2 0
salinity 1.022
temp 77
I harvested to branches off of my leather corals the day before the Zoanthids closed up. I beleive they "put out" a protective poison when I did that. I have harvested one at a time b/4 but never both. Only change to what I have been doing. We a currently going to do a 30% water change every 2 weeks and see if they recover. If not we are going to move them to a quarentine tank by themselves and see if they will recover in that scenario.
Regarding the flow and lites. This tank has been set up for over a year with no changes to flow or lites. I am going to post a pice of my tank for everyone to see.
Thanks for you help!

[starboy]

You like taking big risks.
Never cut a leather in a tank situation.Always get it out of the tank and cut it in a bowl of tank water,wait 15 minutes,then throw all the water away and just return the cut leather to the main tank.They can release a powerful toxin as a defense mechanism that will totally wipe out everything in your tank when cut.
I think your zoas may have a parasite problem.There is a critter called a zoa spider that hides amongst the polyps,or in holes in the LR nearby.It's night active and to reproduce lays eggs which hatch into tiny larvae.These larvae burrow into a zoa and eat it from the inside out.The polyp once infected doesn't open again.