Zoo growth?

OmarD · #1 06/26/2007, 11:24 PM

What am I missing or doing wrong - ???

While my zenias, coral trees, colts grow like crazy, my zoo's don't seem to multiply at all.

I have a number of different colonys in the tank (some for years), and with the exception of GSP's they don't seem to be doing anything.

I do add some Kent Marine Iodine now and then...but does not seem to help any...

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

acpoweradapter · #2 06/26/2007, 11:26 PM

Mine arn't growing any either, though i've had mine only 3 weeks..

vessxpress1 · #3 06/26/2007, 11:36 PM

Same problem here. I bought a 2 polyp frag of lunar eclipse zoos, hoping they'd multiply fast for me.

I bought them and put them in the tank at the end of February. One large polyp and a tiny one just sprouting.

Here it is the last week of June, 4 months later and now the tiny polyp is a large polyp and it's managed to sprout ONE new small one. I'm afraid to put it any higher as they seem faded already towards the bottom under my T-5s.

I had some orange zoos that really took off in my tank and Eagle Eyes seem to do reasonably well for me. Sometimes it all comes down to the particular type and there isn't much you can do besides moving them around and trying different spots.

Some say Seachem's Reef Plus helps.

vessxpress1 · #4 06/26/2007, 11:40 PM

Check out the zoanthid forum. There's a lot of info in there.

drummereef · #5 06/26/2007, 11:47 PM

Did you take a pic of the frag when you got it and currently? Zoas grow slowly in some cases. Sometimes their growth will surprise you if you look back at older pics.

sjm817 · #6 06/27/2007, 12:02 AM

This was my previous tank, a 90G. I have no idea what I did to make this happen.

Hop · #7 06/27/2007, 12:11 AM

sjm817: What was the time frame on the before and after pics? Enquiring minds want to know

sjm817 · #8 06/27/2007, 12:20 AM

That was ~ 15 - 16 mo worth of growth...or so. Hard to remember.

shouldabenacowboy · #9 06/27/2007, 12:24 AM

That is some crazy growth pics...very cool

SBC

sjm817 · #10 06/27/2007, 12:35 AM

It was more than you can see in the pics. The green zoas pretty much took over the tank. It got to where I was sick of it since I couldn't do much else for coral (no place to put anything new). Now I look at my 180 and wish I had some more. I did save a frag of the green zoas and have them growing. So far, slowly, nothing like before, but I have them in a low light area.

DurTBear · #11 06/27/2007, 12:53 AM

Wow! That's amazing! How much flow was on those colonies?

sjm817 · #12 06/27/2007, 06:53 AM

Flow in the tank was an Eheim 1260 return to an OM Squirt and a single Tunze 6000.

stanlalee · #13 06/27/2007, 07:21 AM

what kind of lighting? despite the fact everybody says zoo's dont require good lighting that is not really true. they dont need strong lighting to survive but to mutilply quickly, especially the bright colored ones, they need intense light (by intense I dont mean high wattage, I mean T5 or MH or in the case of VHO high wattage). all zoo's arent the same. some grow faster than others.

these are mine

and in two months under 175w of MH at the bottom of the tank all had multiplied significantly. I have since fragged all but the greens but they are now growing off the side of the plug

mille239 · #14 06/27/2007, 07:33 AM

SJM817: what kind of lighting did you have on that 90 gal? that is some impressive growth, even for that time frame!

sjm817 · #15 06/27/2007, 07:43 AM

6 x 54w T5s normally driven.

TCU Reefer · #16 06/27/2007, 10:09 PM

Zoos don't require any special treatment. Decent water, decent lighting and patience is all you need.

These pics are from the past year.

Started off as a small colony from my 29g.

In the 215g right in the center in front of the middle rock formation.

Starting to spread like lava.

Recent pic

They're growing on the front glass now and I can't reach them in the middle/bottom of the tank because of no front access (inwall system).

mille239 · #17 06/28/2007, 08:26 AM

That's some crazy growth! thanks for sharing. It's funny how those orange ones took off, and while the green and blues do show some growth, it's nothing in comparison!

MJAnderson · #18 06/28/2007, 10:21 AM

I have mine about 15" inches from my T5 x5 Aquactinics fixture. I get about 50% increase every 6 months.

TCU Reefer · #19 06/28/2007, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mille239
That's some crazy growth! thanks for sharing. It's funny how those orange ones took off, and while the green and blues do show some growth, it's nothing in comparison!

You're right. The green ones sprea very slowly and the blues hardly spread while the oranges spread like a wild fire. Weird.

vessxpress1 · #20 06/28/2007, 04:33 PM

LOL! WOW! There are some crazy growth rates in this thread. I've never seen pics like this before. They all look great packed tight together like that. Some of those are really taking off!

As I said, some just seem to grow better than other types. It's also just like any other coral. The more massive the colony, the faster and more growth you're going to have.

Watching one or two polyps try to multiply is pretty agonizing while having hundreds of polyps, all developing new ones at the same time, will be a different story.

Somebody said in the zoanthid forum that their zoos tend to grow better with other zoos in close proximity.

Snook65 · #21 06/28/2007, 04:59 PM

TCU, thanks for the photos. Crazy growth.

PrinceB · #22 06/28/2007, 06:37 PM

Damn Imagine if TCU Reffers bottom tank gets covered by green Zoo's..I'tl look like grass on a reef tank...Lol..

Nice Growths...