Bam Bam In Trouble

[Dave Dobson]

Hi all, I had a single bam bam polyp doing quite well. Well enough that a new sprout began on it's side... but shortly after that it closed up and has been this way for a couple of weeks now. Everything else is doing well - just wondering if I should get my hopes up of it coming back or if there's anything I should be doing. At night under actinic I can still see a bit of an orange glow in it's center and it hasn't melted away so just wondering what's going on?

 

[EricTMah]

I've had luck with a mild peroxide dip to bring back zoas. But I'm definitely not the zoa expert.
So I'd recommend waiting to hear back from some of the more experience zoa/pally keepers on this site. Maybe @Jaysan can chime in. I know he's got quite the collection

Sony Xperia Z3

 

[TORX]

I love bam bam's, stood all my frags but then lost my colony on a tank switch Good luck, they look awesome

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Could be too much light? Where are they in the tank?? What kind of lights are you running? Have you inspected for any pests on it.

 

[Jaysan]

Hey!
got tagged on here! haha

If the zoas are closing up, here are a few things you can check for:
1. Are there any copepods in your tank that are consistently annoying the zoa/paly (I usually check when the lights go out)
2. Do you see any nuisance algae growing on the closed polyps? If so, use a turkey baster to blow them off. The algae can prevent the polyp from opening again.
3. Do you have hermit crabs? If so, check them at night to see if their picking around the zoas. That could piss them off and they could stay closed.
4. I notice in your picture that the zoas in the back are also closed. Is this the same reason? same coral?
5. Do a quick freshwater dip on the zoas. dip it and swish it around to see if any critters fall off. (could be a sign of bad bugs in your system)


Remedies:
Use a turkey baster to blow at the polyps every day to take off any algae that can grow on them
Freshwater dip, coralrx, coral revive. Any of these are good
Move the corals to lower light for now (2-3 days to see how they react)
keep an eye out for critters bugging the polyps!

Let me know how this goes!!

 

[Dave Dobson]

Hi all and thanks for your comments. I have definitely seen a whole lot of tiny critters around the tank which I think are copepods. I'll try to keep an eye on them and the bam bam. And yes the same thing happened with the colony behind, they were doing great and then just closed up on eday.

When you say freshwater dip is that literally taking them out and dipping in purified water, no other chemicals? I can give that a try. I don't see much of any algae growing anywhere at this point. They are in fairly low light at the moment though I have a new light on order that I'm hoping will liven things up, the system I'm using now was from kijiji and is quite old. I have only some snails in the tank (it's just a 10 gall) no crabs.

Thanks again!

 

[TORX]

Looking back at your past threads. Looks like there have been issues in the past with zoas and Flavia being eaten. I did not see where anyone asked what live stock you have in your tank? I only ask as some can nip at corals, I have had my hippo recently nip at my zoas even. And he had to pick my nice ones. hoping that my sunny d and rasta colony come back.

 

[Dave Dobson]

I have heard of that happening - I only have small snails in the tank at the moment...