Do you think palys/zoas lose their will to live?

cthedaytrader

Active member
Ok maybe that title is a little bit dramatic, but over the years I have noticed that if a paly/zoa colony runs out of space to grow, it becomes more susceptable to closing up and melting. Almost as if the colony has lost its will to live, and simply dies off.

I have had colonies thrive for years in my tankes fill rocks, or even colonies that I have had for months fill plugs, and when they reach a "critical mass" for lack of a better term, meaning they fill up the plug they are on, or the rock they are on they no longer grow and eventually end up dieing despite thriving when space was not an issue.

I was wondering if other people have seen this issue with their colonies as well.

Obviolsy a way to prevent this would be to frag the colonies, but that of course fragging has its own risks as well and can also kill a colony.

An recent example of this for me was my ultimate chaos colony. I started with one poly which in matter of 6 months filled the plug and was doing amazing, once the plug was filled I didnt frag it and the colony just began to melt away. I have seen this in much larger colonies as well in the past.
 
I've experienced this too, I wonder how people do it in their fully loaded zoa dominant tank. What happens when every tiny space in the rocks are filled? Do they just stop growing or do they kill each other off for the space? Maybe melt too?
 
Ok maybe that title is a little bit dramatic, but over the years I have noticed that if a paly/zoa colony runs out of space to grow, it becomes more susceptable to closing up and melting. Almost as if the colony has lost its will to live, and simply dies off
Fortunately that's not true. Space isn't related to that.
They could loose the ability to recover from infections or from predation after been exposed for long time to poor or under optimal environmental conditions in closed systems for a long period of time, and their immunization system sometimes will get weak enough to the point when they have no response anymore, yes. They can also loose their ability to reproduce and grow when those optimal conditions aren't offered.
In other words: they are surviving and fighting for life at their best, but comes to the point that they can't take it anymore and loose the battle at once.

I have had colonies thrive for years in my tankes fill rocks, or even colonies that I have had for months fill plugs, and when they reach a "critical mass" for lack of a better term, meaning they fill up the plug they are on, or the rock they are on they no longer grow and eventually end up dieing despite thriving when space was not an issue.
I understand what you mean by "critical mass", but that doesn't happen as you may think. Other issues need to be addressed and the variables are huge. Each system will have one or more reasons for that to happen. If proper maintenance is done zoas can fill up your system and more. Trust me on that!!! In nature, under right circumstances, some colonies can reach meters in diameter.

I was wondering if other people have seen this issue with their colonies as well.

Obviolsy a way to prevent this would be to frag the colonies, but that of course fragging has its own risks as well and can also kill a colony.
No, fragging has nothing to do with your imaginary problem either. I know many believe that. You don't/shouldn't have to frag any type of zoanthid colony in order to avoid any type of melting or other type of disease. Even if the colony is huge.

An recent example of this for me was my ultimate chaos colony. I started with one poly which in matter of 6 months filled the plug and was doing amazing, once the plug was filled I didnt frag it and the colony just began to melt away. I have seen this in much larger colonies as well in the past.
Among the reasons to look for are: light quality, water motion, predators, irritators, consistency of parameters, maintenance schedule, proper nutrition, quarantine new additions, temperature, overall water chemistry, nutrient pool, aquascape, misuse of filtration, etc, etc, etc...:thumbsup:

Good luck,
Grandis.
 
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