Shaping zoa

[HurricaneCaleb]

I see tons of pictures of zoa colonies that are rounded. How is this done? Mine are currently on a frag plug. Do you get round rock? Forgive my ignorance

 

[KafudaFish]

Mine grow in a straight line and then fill in making the rounded look like a phalanx if that makes sense.

If you have one polyp and it grows 4 more and then those grow 3 or 4 more pretty soon you get that rounded look.

Take a pen and try it and see what shape you get.

Also there was an article in Reef Hobbyist maybe two editions ago that discussed why corals grow they way they do.

 

[HurricaneCaleb]

The colonies look bigger than a frag plug

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Large colonies are on rocks, they are exagerating the shape of the rock be growing outward to out compete the neighbors. Limited space for the polyps so the grow longer, thus giving the round appearence..

 

[HurricaneCaleb]

Makes sense, thanks. Do you glue the plug to the new rock once it gets covered?

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

I try to stick the plug where I want it, and epoxy around it to fill the gap so the zoas can spread across the epoxy off the plug and on to the surrounding rock.

 

[Sapsis]

For mine its the Rock that give it the rounded look

 

[tlsrcs]

i am going to use a chalice dome to try and acheive the round look for zoa colonys

 

[bmhair03]

Mine aren't on rocks just the plug in the sand.

 

[A. Grandis]

As we can see on the last posted picture, their round shape (half ball) comes from the center and when they are healthy. After they overgrow the plug that round shape will turn into an oval shape because of the maximum hight the polyps can achieve.

Grandis.