Zoas Died.. Why ?

[tat2life]

i thought zoas were easy to keep ? well mine have died for some reason.. im not sure why though. they never opend up at all and now they have almost completely vanished from the rock. the other 2 rocks i have with zoas on seem fine though but 1 is looking like its loosing some buds. any ideas what im doing wrong ? i have a 1 foot, 15watt standard bulb and a 3 foot 30watt t8 bulb. my tank is 3ft long, about 120 uk liters. and i leave lights on for about 7 hours a day

 

[chrissaysyes]

Well, it could be a predator of some sort...but that lighting seems a little weak to me. Maybe try moving the zoas closer to the surface?

 

[tat2life]

only thing i have is bristle worms and 3 fish, it is possible i have other things wich i havent seen but i have been looking for months and only ever seen a few bristle worms lol, they changed color from green to brown and just faded away to bare rock. i did move them closer to the water surface to get extra light. but i know ppl who keep them with just standard 15w lights. the other zoas seem ok though so i dont think its light and its not predator because all 3 rocks with zoas on are touching eachother thats how close they are and the other 2 are ok. could it be a feeding issue ?

 

[chrissaysyes]

Well it's probably not lighting. I wouldnt rule out predation. Feeding COULD be an issue but zoanthids are primarily photosynthetic.

 

[tat2life]

could it be a damsel eating it ? i just noticed my damsel peck at it.. i dont think he actually got anything but i have noticed him around it a few times now. and it is actually since i added him to the tank they started to vanish

 

[chrissaysyes]

I've heard of damsels irritating corals to death and have had them destroy my feather caulerpa just because they didnt like it.

 

[tat2life]

ah could be that then, i think i will get a anemone next a damsel should bother that too much

 

[chrissaysyes]

Damsels wont bother a nem, but they may try and host it.

 

[Lynden]

Heh, "because they don't like it". These things are nothing short of Satan's spawn, huh?

You will have problems keeping the anemone under your lighting. Though perhaps you could buy a bleached one then slowly upgrade the lighting over a couple weeks. Even doing that is a fairly large risk, though.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Have you ever looked into a damsels eyes? It makes you feel cold and ill like those starving children commercials.