zooanthid farmers.. please help

[dela]

I was wondering if anyone knows if/how I could remove zooanthids from their current rock and attach them to another rock. I don't want to kill anything testing out if I can just pull the little guys off with my hand. And I don't want to razor blade them off if I can just pull them off.

I am going to share some of my zoos with someone but don't want to have to break apart the rock they are currently on.

They are growing well, and I would simply like to take off a few of them and pass them on.

Thanks for any help.

Mark

[Afishianado]

yes, you can peel them off if you are careful. be sure to place them in a hole after that or a low flow area until they attach. People do this all the time

[dela]

You do mean with my hand right? (not razorblade)

[Afishianado]

yeah use your hand if you can. razor blade them if they are on glass

[dela]

Thanks!

I will try that tonight.

[Playfair]

Unless you have some seriously long fingernails, you will probably end up 'squishing' and killing them when using your fingers to remove from rocks...

Ideally, find a section where they are growing off the rock and snip or slice. The next best bet is to very carefully try and peel them using a blade or such (sounds barbaric, but it's much easier).

Even better is to frag the rock, or if you have a few months, place a smaller rock up against your current one and allow them to naturally spread.

[dela]

Well, I'm OK in the nail department.. clipped a few months ago! :D

I only have a week before I present the zoos and yellow polyps, so I will be very careful. I don't want to fragment the rock as it's kind of a big rock and would look stupid broken in half.

I think I'm going to start with a butter knife and see if I can do it with that. Seems like a good compromise between squishing and cutting.

Should be interesting. I'm sure the cats will be thrilled to help!

[gooch]

Dela,

I have fragged zoanthids. I actually did use the butter knife but I made sure I went deep enough and took a sliver of the rock with it. Most of the rocks these guys come on are pretty pourous and chip away easily. I then super glue the sliver of rock onto another rock. Has worked everytime I've done it.

gooch.

Is your macro still doing good?


Just don't let your wife know youre using her silverware to surgically remove corals. She might not like it.

[Frick-n-Frags]

I agree with Gooch, if you can scoop under the mat and actually crumble through the rock, you don't shred the mat. I have had great success fragging seamat this way. If the stuff is growing on the glass or better yet plastic, you can do the peel type techniques or use a razor blade to start them.

The whole game is to traumatize the animal as little as possible. The ideal way is to frag the rock, but if you have to remove the animal don't damage the mat. Good luck, have fun, it's not difficult.

[goes4ever]

I could never get them off the rock and was entirely too impatient for the "place another rock up to them and wait routine" so I just started experimenting. I wanted to see if these little buggers were as tuff as shrooms, and they pretty much are. I have yet to kill any yet, I just grab the rock and some scissors and give a small portion a "haircut" cutting off only the polyp heads, leaving the stem behind. Put these in a bowl of crushed coral or rock rubble and within a week they attach by them selves. The ones on the original rock grow new heads within 7-10 days everytime I do this. Seems like they grow faster after a "haircut" :eek1:

[dela]

Hi Guys.. Thanks for all the great info. I was hoping the rock would crumble away so I didn't have to damage the zoos. Starting things off with a razorblade sounds logical enough though.

I take it one would need to glue the bases on to some rock if some rock came off with the zoo. And that if the bases did get cut, that the bridal veil technique would be needed in order to allow the zoo to attach to a new rock.

But what if I am successful in peeling the zoo off the rock? Will super glue directly on the “foot� hurt the zoo? Or is bridal veil needed again?

Gooch, actually I only have 2 things left! But they are both doing well. The seagrass is doing fantastic and I'm sharing that along with the zoos and pretty much ½ of everything else I have!

My spare "worm" tank is almost 100% free of red plananrian after a lot of work. Once it is done, I'm going to set up an (24/7 lighting) algae / brown worm tank + misc things I want to grow, where I actually use fertilizer to keep the algae going. I'm hoping that this way I can keep a much, much wider variety of algae. That is the plan anyways.:D

[zep]

Hi Dela,

You have gotten some good answers so I won't elaborate on those but you should consider that zooanthids have a strong toxin that can be detrimental to people.Protopalythoa toxica from Hawaii was once used for making poison for fish spears. Be sure you don't have any cuts on your hands and you should be ok.

[dela]

ZEP,

Thank you for the warning. I do not believe I have the toxic kind (I posted pictures before, asking if I did). But should get into the habbit of using gloves anyways when I do this sort of thing. My cat just scratched the crap out of my hand while we were playing this morning, so thanks for the potentially life saving reminder!

[BerlinMethod.com]

Most importantly cover your eyes when dealing with cutting Zoanthids. Like some eye glasses or goggles from HD.

Regards, Kris

[dela]

Really?!! Now that I was not planning on doing. Are they big time squirters?!:D Or is this in case one were to scratch their eye after getting zoo juice all over themselves?

I hate those plastic eye cover things.

Thanks for the heads up. I will dig out my eye protection. I know I have a couple of pairs.

I didn't know I was going to have to gear up for this!:D I have a cup and some shin guards somewhere too!! he he..

Seriously though, I guess I should also avoid getting zoo juice in the tank. I can avoid doing so by working outside of the tank and discarding any water I use in the process.

[Aquariust]

Originally posted by goes4ever
I could never get them off the rock and was entirely too impatient for the "place another rock up to them and wait routine" so I just started experimenting. I wanted to see if these little buggers were as tuff as shrooms, and they pretty much are. I have yet to kill any yet, I just grab the rock and some scissors and give a small portion a "haircut" cutting off only the polyp heads, leaving the stem behind. Put these in a bowl of crushed coral or rock rubble and within a week they attach by them selves. The ones on the original rock grow new heads within 7-10 days everytime I do this. Seems like they grow faster after a "haircut" :eek1:

Exactly what I do! Only, well kinda. I haven't lost any this way, as of yet.

I have a rather large colony, so clipping 10 or so doesn't really hurt it. I take very sharp sissors (from the dollar store), and cut the zooanthid at the base. Leave enough so a new one can grow in it's place. Then, I have a small piece of fiji rubble rock with a small black rubberband on it.

I use plastic tweezers to pull up the rubberband, and slide the stem under it. After I fill the rock with 4-5, it's done.

I can say they didn't like super glue when I used it. With my method they usually attach in a day or so, depending on what kind of zooanthids they are. Then, the cut ones grow back and the whole thing starts again:)

Originally posted by zep
You have gotten some good answers so I won't elaborate on those but you should consider that zooanthids have a strong toxin that can be detrimental to people.Protopalythoa toxica from Hawaii was once used for making poison for fish spears. Be sure you don't have any cuts on your hands and you should be ok.

I never knew that, as I handle them with my bare hands. I will take that into considerations next time I frag.

What kind are toxic?

Here's mine:

http://defcon200.bizland.com//sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/zooanthids1.jpg

http://defcon200.bizland.com//sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/bluezoo.jpg

GL!

[Frick-n-Frags]

Well, I am definitely going to have to try the haircut method on tall polyps, but I don't see how you could trim seamat because the polyps are really low. I do that with Xenias and it works great.

One more thing I would recommend. Take some water and the frag victim out of the tank and frag in the bucket of water. Almost everything cranks out something when you cut it. Also, the superglue and epoxy remnants can collect in the bucket. Then when the glue is set put the animals back in the tank and pitch the frag water. I believe that keeps a ton of evil out of the main system

[mgk65]

Another similar technique is to use a very small screwdriver to wedge between the colony and the rock, slowly prying some rock out or a polyp off the base rock.

I agree with frick about doing it out of the main tank. When I proped my zoos, there was a milky substance coming out of them.

mgk

[dela]

Is cutting the fastest way to grow them?

In other words, after a year, would I have more zoos if I had been cutting them all along, or pulling them off the rock and letting them bud on their own?

Seems like cutting would be faster due to a forced reproduction.

Thanks for all the great info!