making sure zoas are closed

[tag]

Hi,

Humour me please and tell me what make sure they are closed means.

Take them from a dark tank?

Just how do you get them to close if they're open at the time that you're going to dip?

Thanks

Tina

[Richb]

Take my advice with grain of salt (no pun intended).

But from what I have read, you want corals to be closed when you did so that you attack the parasite, snail, worm etc that is hitch hiking on the coral and not affect the coral itself.

The closed coral will keep the dip from being ingested by the coral.

Also, when ever I pull out a Zoo frag to move around, as soon as I touch it, it automatically closes up.

I think as soon as you take it out of water, all the polyps will close up.

HTH

[M007]

I think the point trying to be made is to allow the coral to fully retract or close prior to dipping. Makes no difference if it's Zoa or Soft, LPS or SPS. Allowing the coral to retract protects the sensitive areas from damage during movement or dip. Take it slowly. The grab and rip approach is stressfull to coral.

[tag]

Hmmm, ok.

I recently followed some bad directions on dipping some zoa rocks and it's unlikely given the direction that they would have survived anyways but... I did have a heck of a time getting the polyps to close.

They remained open even after moving them and removing them from the water.

Not really sure why but I was wondering how I could make sure that they were closed.... I guess pull them from a dark tank?

Thanks for your help. I know it's an odd question.

Tina

[Aurel]

You could try holding the coral upside down and swishing the coral rapidly in the tank water prior to removal. Use gloves or tongs as there are usually bristleworms attached to the live rock holding the coral. Works well on LPS and softies.

[J_T]

I would be careful about shaking it in the tank. You would have a good chance of knocking stuff off that you are trying to kill off in the dip.

Most corals will close up from being moved. If not, then yeah, I would take the coral from the tank after lights out.

[Aurel]

Should have said tank water in a separate container that you use to remove the coral from the DT or use LFS water if introducing into a dip. Sorry for the oversight.