I am so fed up with zoanthids, not sure what to do with them any longer. I have beautiful colonies with huges polyps doing extremely well and multiplying like crazy, then suddendly for no apparent reason one colony start to shrivel and die the next day or very soon after.
The strangest thing is that the colony right beside of the same zoanthids is doing great! I made a few frags of the same zoanthids and that's what is hapening with a few of them, but not all of them. Another strange thing is it seem that it is when they are at their most beautiful then they crash...I look at a colony and think "wow, beautiful big colorful polyp" and then the day after they are shriveled. It is almost as if they can read my mind and think "ok we'll go then". It is almost as if they know I am watching them...I know, sound crazy.
This is so puzzling as some of the same polyps, which are Eye of Rae, are growing among another colony which is doing great, but the few polyps growing interlaced in that colony are shriveled. The other type of zoanthids are doing great, not the eye of rae, and the colony of eye of rae beside it is doing great.
My water is great, I do 25% twice a month now, use Reef Crystal salt, calcium 420ppm, Kh is 7, mag is 1300 PH 8.1 at night and 8.3 day time, temp is 76.5F controlled with a controller. Light is 250 watt MH 14k. I dose trace element and coral vite, chromaplex and other food. Ammonia/nitrites 0, nitrates very low, less than 5ppm, phosphates undetectible.
When the polyps start to shrivel, it usually start with one or a few polyp shriveling. It is amlost as if they cannot close anymore and are still trying to close so they get some wierd shape, but they really can't close, even if I touch it. The strange thing is that they were multiplying a lot right before.
I see no parasite either. I dipped a few in 50% water tank and h2o2 but saw no parasites coming from that. At the begining it was only affecting Eye of Rae but now I have a colony or purple hornet doing the same
I tried killing a few polyp of yellow polyps and even though I scraped most of it from the rock it's growing back...so my most precious zoanthids are shriveling while I can't even kill those that I don't like!
Anyone had similar experience? I also looked at one polyp under the microscope but only saw a few protozoare but that would be normal for a dying polyp, right?