Are zoa gardens hard to keep?

[Mythicalelf]

I was just wondering if the colonies would start fighting with each others?

My tank is about to be done cycling and I like the look of some zoas and even thought of making a garden with them.

 

[toothybugs]

Zoas and palys should not go to war with one another. Google it up, you'll see Zoa Gardens are all over the place. I'd let your tank settle for a month or so before you start going nuts though and add in all your colors. Start with one little frag and see how it goes. It can get kinda crazy - I picked up 11 frags this past weekend and 7 the weekend before, I'm having a hard time NOT picking up frags to fill in the holes! Time to start growin'!

 

[saltdiscus]

what about zoas and sps garden?

 

[cbrennan4]

I've been collecting zoas for 6 years now and have a 90gal tank dedicated to them with over 120 kinds. I would say they are relatively easy to care for except for the zoas that are well known melters(Mauls in particular). In my opinion, the most important thing is to keep the tank stable. I used to dose and use additives but the one thing that has really been my key to success is a routine water change. Weekly, I do a 10 gallon water change and everything is thriving.
In terms of zoas fighting with each other, the only issue you will have is one colony out competing another for growing surface. This can result in the faster growing zoa killing or overtaking the slower growing one. Easy to prevent this with fragging though. Maybe when setting up your rock work keep this in mind so that it's easy to remove rocks to frag.

I know people love pics so here's a few

 

[Mythicalelf]

Thats a nice looking tank.

 

[homer1475]

So in order for my zoas to grow, I should pop them off the frag plugs? If I leave them on the plugs, they'll only grow as big as the plug if I keep them in the sand bed?

 

[joshky]

So in order for my zoas to grow, I should pop them off the frag plugs? If I leave them on the plugs, they'll only grow as big as the plug if I keep them in the sand bed?

IME they will continue to grow, albeit a lot slower. They will grow a thicker mat for babies to pop up on. I recommend putting the plugs on rocks or removing them and gluing to rocks alone.

 

[Grkgod36]

I've been collecting zoas for 6 years now and have a 90gal tank dedicated to them with over 120 kinds. I would say they are relatively easy to care for except for the zoas that are well known melters(Mauls in particular). In my opinion, the most important thing is to keep the tank stable. I used to dose and use additives but the one thing that has really been my key to success is a routine water change. Weekly, I do a 10 gallon water change and everything is thriving.
In terms of zoas fighting with each other, the only issue you will have is one colony out competing another for growing surface. This can result in the faster growing zoa killing or overtaking the slower growing one. Easy to prevent this with fragging though. Maybe when setting up your rock work keep this in mind so that it's easy to remove rocks to frag.

I know people love pics so here's a few

awesome looking tank,can zoas and palys be placed anywhere in the tank? do some preffer more light and flow and others?

 

[SIR PATRICK]

Its not too hard to get a garden going, but eventually, a colony or two will try to take over the rock.

Luckily it takes some time for this to happen, so you have plenty of it before you have to start prunning certain morphs back.

 

[cbrennan4]

awesome looking tank,can zoas and palys be placed anywhere in the tank? do some preffer more light and flow and others?

Placement of them really depends on the morph. I start all my frags in the sand for the first few days(to get used to my lights) and then move them around the tank from there. Once I find the 'happy place,' I'll them to the rock work.

 

[kraftyforu]

heres my little slice of them. not to fancy but they have grown nicely.

 

[ThomasL]

Short answer no

 

[Mythicalelf]

heres my little slice of them. not to fancy but they have grown nicely.

Nice colonies.

 

[organism]

In terms of zoas fighting with each other, the only issue you will have is one colony out competing another for growing surface. This can result in the faster growing zoa killing or overtaking the slower growing one.

Very true, if you have a lot of zoas around each other it might eventually be like the highlander where there can be only one. It's a fun battle to watch though, what I do is glue little rocks between the colonies then remove and replace them as they get covered with zoanthids.

 

[mtnflyguy]

Zoas and palys should not go to war with one another. Google it up, you'll see Zoa Gardens are all over the place. I'd let your tank settle for a month or so before you start going nuts though and add in all your colors. Start with one little frag and see how it goes. It can get kinda crazy - I picked up 11 frags this past weekend and 7 the weekend before, I'm having a hard time NOT picking up frags to fill in the holes! Time to start growin'!

Are you just made of money or do you have a secret place you are picking up this many frags at once? I can find frags for about $30/each if I bought 19 that would be $570 in frags in two weekends. I would love to be able to do that but I also like staying married! LOL

Thanks!

 

[bacon5]

Great thread! I would eventullaly like to have my own zoa garden so its great that it is not too hard. Earlier it was said that it may be better to remove the polyps from the plug, is this generally hard? Also is pruning them very hard either?

 

[blitz49]

Trying to aim for a zoa garden too, but gotta go slow cause the frags I like gets pricey. But can't wait when the zoas I have start filling up my rocks.

 

[kichimark]

I wouldn't say it is hard at all but you just got to watch some polyps that are more aggressive. I removed a bunch of pink n golds from a rock with some other zoanthids because the rock was being covered by the PNG's and in a way choking out the others.

 

[kichimark]

Are you just made of money or do you have a secret place you are picking up this many frags at once? I can find frags for about $30/each if I bought 19 that would be $570 in frags in two weekends. I would love to be able to do that but I also like staying married! LOL

Thanks!

Also depends were you are at. In one of the local groups I belong to I give away red/blue hornets and some rastas to new members especially those who are a little down on cash but are good people who will not sell the frags I give them.

 

[Mythicalelf]

Same thing happens in my local club.