Why so many problems with pink zoas?

[MontanaBay]

I've noticed that pink strain zoas seem to have a lot of reported problems, poor extension, melting, growth, etc etc.

I myself have a hard time keeping them, any one else have thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Josh

 

[iani]

I think that is a problem with a lot of wild zoa colonies. Maybe b/c all the pink strains you are getting are wild?

 

[MontanaBay]

I usually get long generation strains (most the pinks I get are from Trieu), so I don't think its a wild strain issue...

 

[iani]

Hmm, I personally haven't ever had problems with pinks. I do notice that some don't like high light though. What strains of pinks are you talking about specifically?

Here is a picture I took last night of some rose nebulas

 

[MontanaBay]

pink blasts was one strain, I think I've had a pink nebulas along the way, and a couple "no names" (probably some version of blast or nebula).

the only one left is a second generation (to my tank) blast.

I think you are right about lighting, the ones I lost definitely bleached, maybe the lack of pigmentation makes it more prone to irradiation damage?

 

[ReeferGirl]

If anyone wants to pawn off some pink ones, let me know, ill try my hand at growing them. heehee

 

[DurTBear]

I had a pink colony that did really well for about a year and just recently completely melted away. I have a feeling the rock they were on started rotting since when I pulled it out, there was a lot of black on it. I originally bought it from Atlantis so maybe someone that has a lot of experience with them can chime in to see if they buy wild stuff. I think I only have one other mini-colony of pinks with green around the mouth (bubble gum pinks maybe?) and they are doing fine.

 

[ReeferGirl]

how sad. i hate when stuff dies. i know its the nature of the beast, but its just unfortunate when something that youve had for a while up and dies. i hope you get some new rose nebulas someday, those are really really nice!

what kind of black stuff was on it? like mold?

 

[iani]

Pretty much most frags or colonies from stores are wild. What most stores do including some of the bigger zoanthid ones like zoafrags and zoanuts is simply frag up wild colonies. The only one I know that actively propagates a lot of zoanthids for sale is new alameda aquatics.

 

[DurTBear]

Yeah, those rose nebulas really pop! I'll have to get a hold of those one of these days.

The black stuff kind of looked like coralline algae but slimy. Not sure if you've ever bought live rock online but when you do, you have to use a tooth brush and scrub all that dead stuff off. That's what it looked like. And it smelled awful when I took it out of the tank. A good sign that something was dying/rotting.

 

[DurTBear]

I guess I primarily buy/trade zoas from other reefers nowadays. But in the future, I'll make a conscious effort to buy zoas from New Alameda.

 

[ReeferGirl]

oh ive seen that stuff before. speaking of scrubbing my rocks, i have to take a bunch out and scrub this padina algae off my rocks, because it spreads like wildfire!

i havent been to new alameda aquatics, im going to have to check that one out. i feel bettery buying from a place that isnt harvesting from the wild.

 

[iani]

Chris at aquatic central is also propping some zoas/palys but none are for sale I think haha.

 

[ReeferGirl]

i just bought a big sheet of eggcrate so i can start propping soon.

 

[DurTBear]

I have the eggcrate...just not the tank, lights, heater, powerheads, rock, skimmer and fuge to start proppeing! Haha!

 

[ReeferGirl]

lol!! gotta start somewhere, right? LOL im just going to use the 60 gal and frag that tank out.