New Zoas, What to do?

[Esquare]

Hello,
I got my first 3 Zoa frags (lime green, pea soup green and pink/burgundy) the other day and am trying to decide what to do with them. They are currently mounted on the little round disk that they came on and sitting on a rock at the bottom of my tank (seemed to be the best location after moving them around to see where they preferred).

My question is should they be removed from the round base (appears to be the commercially available frag mount) and attached to a piece of rock or should I just attach the base to a piece of rock?

Also, how large of a rock should they be attached to? This question stems from all of my aquascaping being more or less permanent (foam, pvc mounted). I was thinking of using a piece of rubble left over from the build.

I looked through the available threads and didn't see anything so any help is appreciated.

 

[JM68]

i leave them on the disk and put them wherever i want them to be(you can use epoxy to fasten it in the spot that you want, but the disks will usually stay even put without epoxy), eventually they will cover the disk and start growing onto the surrounding rock.

 

[Esquare]

So it's ok to leave them on the disk then. Great, thanks for the response. Now I just have to deal with my comittment issues and decide exactly where to place them. They will need to be affixed as between my water flow, crabs and snails they end up in a different spot every day. I just keep worrying the as soon as I glue them down, it will turn out to be the wrong spot due to lighting (can't tell these are my first zoas can you).

 

[DurTBear]

If the plug doesn't fit anywhere, I've used a dremel to cut off the base so what's left is just the round surface the frag is mounted on. Then I epoxy it to where I want them to live. Alternatively, if you want to mount them on a piece of rubble to get the more natural look, you can just pop them off of the plug and glue them to a piece of rubble. I'm sure they were originally glued onto the plug so you can just chip the dry glue off with the polyps attached instead of injuring the zoas themselves by peeling them away from the dry glue.

 

[Esquare]

Thank Durt.
I think that I've found locations for them that I like now to wait a while and see if they like them. Then I'll evaluate to see if glueing/epoxying is appropriate.

Thanks again for the help, I'm really liking my Zoa's.

 

[DurTBear]

Let us know how it goes. And if you've got a pic, I'd love to see them!

 

[Esquare]

They've gone to sleep for the night but I'll get a pic tomorrow. I need to update my gallery anyway.

 

[Esquare]

Here are the best pics I could get. The lime green one lost a couple of polyps when a crab knocked him off his perch. He hasn't opened back up fully since.

 

[DurTBear]

Great looking zoos! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Esquare]

I was able to glue the 3 polyps that fell off to a piece of rubble and they actually appear to be living.

 

[goldmaniac]

I've found success in taking a masonary drill bit and drilling my live rock in different spots, and then I just twist the frag plugs snugly into the holes. works well; with multiple holes throughout the display tank, i can move the zoas around quickly and easily until I find a spot they really love. Also works with my purple plume gorgonian so that it grows out balanced and nice

I drilled holes into a bunch of rock when i re-aquascaped, and additionally i can pull a single rock out and put 3-4 holes into it and put a rock back.

i make sure to drill all the way through to avoid creating dead spots. You barely even notice any of the holes, they're very descreet.

 

[Esquare]

Good tip gold. Unfortunately these mounts are flat and not plugs. I setteled on locations and super glued them in.

Thanks for the response.