Melting/dieing Large Green Palys

[Albindia]

Hi There - Two of three large green palys appear to be melting/dieing.

1. Are they dieing?
2. Should I cut out the dead ones with a razor blade and leave the healthy one?
3. Just added a cleaner shrimp - any chance he got at it?
4. Any other thoughts on what could be happening here?

 

[Albindia]

Update - the paly is fine, I think it might have been giving off some toxin or something. Now the problem is that the zoas next to it won't open. I thought they may not get enough light as they are kind of under an overhang. I've moved them up in my tank,away from the palys, to see if they'd open. A bit disappointing because they looked great in the store and I was hoping the palys and zoas would grow in between each other. Any idea why they aren't opening??

 

[Albindia]

Figured I should share a pic of the healthy palys

 

[mr_X]

Zoas can take a few days to open in a new surrounding. depending on what kind of light you have over your tank, I would start everything somewhat low in the tank. Placing a coral coming from a t8 strip bulb at the lfs, directly under super strong lighting, can do more harm than good.
Try to start everything low and work them up to the places you want them over a period of days or even weeks.

 

[Albindia]

Thanks mr x - I had the zoas low in my 30g tall tank for two weeks. They were open a bunch at first and now are all closed up. Since my tank is so deep I thought maybe they were too deep, plus the fact they were under an overhang I thought they may need more light. My lfs had them under professional lights with a lot of other corals.

 

[mr_X]

In the wild, they can be found in much deeper water than your tank. That said, zoas don't close up because of not enough light. They will open more and stretch out, appearing taller. I would look to another factor. Perhaps flow or parameters.

 

[Albindia]

Hmm-that's what I was worried about. They like moderate flow right? I'm only running a 600gph power head, but I think it should be enough flow. Parameters looked good yesterday, nitrates, trites, alkalinity, salinity were good. PH was about 7.9 a bit low. Any other parameters I should check that may be causing it? I'm starting to lean towards disease possibly, I've read a bit about dips - should I try one?

 

[mr_X]

If they were doing fine for weeks and then won't open after you moved them, I would not be thinking disease.

 

[Albindia]

I got them from the LFS three weeks ago, full open week one, half open week two, now closed up. Sound like a parameter issue then? Any suggestions on what else to check??

 

[Albindia]

Btw I'm reading through your in wall build out - still back in about oct 2011- Looking forward to seeing how it pans out

 

[mr_X]

Not off the top of my head. You could try an iodine/lugols dip.

Ahh..the build is kind of stalled at the moment. Tank is doing better though. in the winter I am mostly laid off so I can take better care of the system.

 

[Albindia]

I don't have iodine or lugols- could pick some up next weekend. Unless iodine is available locally - would CVS have it or do I need a special kind??

Should I try a fresh water ro dip instead?

 

[mr_X]

Fresh water isn't going to kill off infections. It will just get off loose hitch hikers. I'm not sure if you want to use the drug store iodine because it's got other things in it besides iodine-
"Decolorized Iodine (Iodides Tincture U.S.P. - Rite Aid brand) $5 for 2 oz, generally used as and antiseptic. Contains alcohol (45%) denatured with ammonia, purified water, Ammonium and Potassium Iodides."

 

[Albindia]

I took the zoas out of the tank to look closely and noticed a zoa on the underside that looked like it may have had eggs or zoa pox on it. Not sure if I should have but I plucked it off. I should def get a dip, but can't do so until next weekend. Is it imperative I get the dip sooner? Any danger putting the zoas back in the tank after I plucked one off?

 

[mr_X]

What are these zoas? Common Indo ones or something you paid 100 bucks for? That should answer the question if you should wait or not.

 

[Albindia]

Split the difference - I paid 50. Will try to make it to the LFS sometime this week.

 

[Albindia]

Update! Haven't dipped yet but the plucking yesterday must have done something good because they are out today - see picture. I'm still going to dip soon and hopefully get these babies fully back up and running.