Zoas Bleaching?

[Ulta]

So I just got in a shipment of some assorted zoas, 2 of them I'm slightly worried, been in the tank for ~24hrs now and they have some bleaching/light coloring on top. The rest of the zoas are doing fine and in similar lit areas, but they are top half of the tank.

As far as I know they have been like this since they first opened up.

The site I got them from states they keep their corals under 400w MH's so light acclimation is not necessary for most tanks. I have 4bulb T-5's dual reflectors 54w ea.

Could it just be from the roughness of me placing them in the tank or something else? Anyone else every have Zoas bleach?

The second pic the flash kind of exaggerates the bleaching, but if you look close you can see the colors lighter than on the edges.

Here's the pics:

 

[yote]

I have to disagree with that web site. No matter what wattage and type of light the corals came from,they still need to be acclimated to your light.Age of the bulb,how dirty their covers may be.Theres could be a big difference in the par their lights are putting out compared to yours.
It could also be some kind of parasite causing the bleaching.
I'd start with a Lugols bath followed by a fresh water dip.
Those are nice additions BTW.

 

[dcantucson]

I don't think it is because of your lighting. You should dip them as yote suggested.

 

[Ulta]

So, funny thing... Yesterday I went through a very painful process of trying to find a lost 3 mouth Ric that fell into the rocks in my tank(never did find the thing after tearing apart 1/2 the rocks in my tank :( ). In the process, since I knocked all the new corals off the rocks, I decided to take some out and cut them in half and glue them to a size rock I can actually place in my tank!

Well anyways, I got to the zoa in that first picture and after it had been out of water for a min. I seen clear worm about a centimeter long crawling out of it, and when I started splitting it in half I noticed one of the zoas was filled with little white balls(eggs I would presume) so I killed the worm with a razor blade and scraped all the eggs out(ruining a polyp) and rinsed it out good.

And another zoa had some red looking worm come out of it... got rid of him too.

I don't want any more of this! I definitely don't like having to tear apart my zoas like this >.<!

Here's a pic of the second worm, I should have took a pic of the other worm too and the eggs >.<!

 

[bjohanson1234]

not sure what the first worm is since there is no pic, but the second is a bristle worm. I am sure you have a ton of them in your tank. They are one of the best cleaners you can have in your tank and eat up the left over food and detrius.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah that red worm is reef safe and a good cleaner. As for the other worm, it could very well have been a pest.

 

[Ulta]

yeah I was wondering if it might be a bristle worm... I got rid of him anyways didn't wanna chance it.

idk what the first one was either but its obviously what the prob with the zoas in the first pic.

 

[Bifferwine]

If I were you, I'd do a freshwater dip on those zoas.

 

[Ulta]

sure will, I dipped them for a few seconds yesterday after that. I'll prolly dip them for a min or so again before I get them set in place.

 

[fastrd400]

I agree with Biff, and Yote in this one. Most definately dip them. And regardless they will need to light acclimate. A 400 watt MH is a heck of alot brighter than the T5 set-up is. I normally set all my new zoas on the sandbed for at least a week before moving them around the tank.