Zoanthid Problem

[Donya]

A while back I got a small piece of LR that had lots of little zoanthids on it. They were closed up at the store, opened briefly for me when added to my 12g nano, and have remained closed ever since my goby decided stack pebbles on the rock. It's been a few weeks since the pebble-stacking incident though, so I'm mystified as to why they're still unhappy. Everything else in the tank is thriving. Each polyp looks ok physically. I also discovered a small starfish in the tank this week. I am assuming that if the starfish was the cause of the behavior, I'd see half-eaten polyps instead of closed up but intact polyps. A couple of things I'm considering, assuming injury is not the cause:

- moving the rock to either less current, more light, or both.
- swapping the rock into my 5 gallon, where I can be sure that no harassment goes on behind my back.

Both of those options have problems though...if I move the rock within the tank, it might wind up getting landed on by my conch that periodically does backflips over the rockwork. I'd have to rearrange other rocks to make it completely safe. If I move the rock to my 5g, the lighting may not be as direct, since it's largely macro-dominated. But, on the plus side, there is nothing in the 5g that would bother the polyps.

What would you guys suggest?

 

[SkiFletch]

- moving the rock to either less current, more light, or both.

That, and wait Same thing happened to my zoos. Took em 3-4 weeks before they opened up after being toppled and buried in my sand. They look great now though

 

[crazyelece]

I had a zoo polyp survive being on a piece of rubble in my sump for over 3 months with no light. I found it one day doing work down there and moved it up to the display. Now there are three polyps on the piece of rock. I think zoos are pretty tough and it should come back with time.

 

[Donya]

Right then...I will get the rock into a more sheltered and lit area and try to move some rocks to keep the conch from parking its big behind on the polyps. And I'll keep my fingers crossed...I'm used to seeing immediate results from introducing stuff into my tanks so this if I'm going to go nuts if it takes 3 months

 

[Donya]

Happy dance! ONE polyp opened up for me with the new MH lighting hopefully other polyps to follow...