[giantbicycle]

Originally posted by gflat65
Okay. I have to admit I haven't read the whole thread (should have started reading it when it started...), but here is what I have observed in specific instances.

Most of the zoas I've had have required an acclimation period before I see much growth. A few have doubled in size in a matter of weeks after being introduced, but those seem to be in the minority. Once they start to grow, they take off (talking mostly about zoanthus sp.). Escape size is something that I've read up on in terms of sps, but I think it can used in zoa discussions, too. Essentially, (sps) frags tned to grow at higher rates than the mother colony (due mainly to the needs of a large colony compared to the needs of a smaller frag). Survival says to grow when they are smaller as self preservation.

I want to share something I've observed over the last month and find interesting. I traded for a four polyp frag (I misstated this in the other thread on PPE-I had four polyps not three...) about four months ago. On Jan 7th, I cut one polyp off to trade for a zoa frag. When I pulled the four polyp frag, I looked it over pretty good and didn't see any extra polyps growing. two weeks after cutting the single polyp, I had three new polyps pop up. It is possible that I might have overlooked one of the extra polyps when I cut the frag, but highly unlikely that I would have missed all three. It did nothing for four months, then seemingly immediately after cutting the single polyp off, it doubled in size (three polyps to six). I'm going to keep watching it and see what it does. I have another single polyp trade set up for latter this month, so I am going to document again how many there are when I cut it and then check back in a few weeks to see if the numbers have multiplied. If it keeps increasing at even a similar rate, I may have a bunch of single polyp frags floating around. If it happens a third time with no other changes, I'm going to call it a working theory.

Whodah-hadn't heard the words differential equation in years. Bad memories.

Sweet....>Get back to us with your further Findings....It will be interesting..

Thanks gflat