Zoa Growth

[Jarred1]

Hello everyone, I have been wanting to find a thread where everyone could post pictures of growth of their zoas. I don't really want to pics of one polyp frags turn into a few polyp frags. I want see frags that you have grown out into small colonies such as:

What I would like to see is something like this:

4 Months Later

And then do a quick write up on your tank and how you care for the tank; like this:

I do water changes once a month on this tank and the lights are currently power compacts changing to T5HO this Monday. There is a Koralia 2 power head and a HOB filter on this tank. I feed this tank about 4 times a week with either flake food or Mysis shrimp. There is on tank-raised ocellaris Clown fish, a wild caught Percula Clown and a Coral Beauty angle fish.

I don't want this thread to turn into a thread of who has the nicest zoas I want to just see growth pics so everyone can learn how best to set up their tanks so they can try and get the best growth out of their zoas.
Show me whatcha got and please try and keep this thread on topic!

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Good thread bump. Anyone?

 

[Jarred1]

so everyone else just has one or two polyp frags in their tanks?

 

[kichimark]

DISCLAIMER---I USE CELL PHONE PICS...sorry . I have a few colonies I have grown from a few polyps to one. My pictures are horrible so bare with me here haha. When I first get small frags I put them on a rack to grow out. Once grown out to a big colony I trim a couple off and place it in the main display rockwork to colonize. This way I have multiple peices. If one meets an end I still have other colonies.
I learned to do this when I had a colony of utter chaos melt and it was sooo hard to get the last remaining polyps off the main rock.


This was a nightmare colony I got back in december. It was a 4 polyp frag. The spacemonster polyp was a one polyp frag as seen to the left.

Before I trimmed a peice off because it was growing underneath the plug. I would say it has about 34ish polyps on it.

My spacemonsters have met even greater success during the same time period. I really believe it does have to be with placement and feeding with my success. The rack is about halfway in the tank. Lighting is a 6 bulb ATI sunpower with (4 blue+, 1 aquablue, 1 fijipurple).

I do waterchanges on my 90gallon once every two weeks with ten gallons. I use a mixture of reefcrystals and IO. I also test DKH,CA, MG before WC water is introduced to the main tank. I have 3 koralias in the tank along with the return pump for flow.

Fish I have two lyretail anthias, two picasso clowns, flame hawk, sixline, 2 firefish, yellow tang, blue spot jawfish. I feed everyday half a cube of mysis and later in the day some prime reef flakes/arctic pods.

I have noticed at least for my nightmares they show a great feeding response with finely chopped scallops. They did not show a feeding response to any other food items. I highly recommend if you have nightmares to try to feed them tiny pieces of scallop and see if you get the same result.

I give them each a piece about once a week and I noticed the growth exploded. The size of the piece is about as large as their mouth. The spacemonsters eat anything from blackworms to scallops.

Here is a pic before I fragged a few pieces off to put in the main display and for others. I am also doing an experiment with the spacemonsters in regards to flow and lighting in my tank.
This was a top down view:

After I cut some off. The main colony.

 

[Jarred1]

Very very nice! How much time did it take for them to grow this much?

 

[kichimark]

Very very nice! How much time did it take for them to grow this much?

Thank you Jarred . I believe I got them end of Nov/beg Dec. You can also see fruit loops in the first pic. Those were I think seven polyps at first. In the last pic you can see them now. I have not been able to see a feeding response with those.

 

[SantaCruzReefer]

I haven't gotten a single polyp of anything to grow for months! Im so frustrated with it.

 

[kichimark]

DISCLAIMER---I USE CELL PHONE PICS...sorry . I have a few colonies I have grown from a few polyps to one.

Correction...I meant to say from a few polyps AND one polyp. I really need to proof read what I write.

SantaCruz- start a thread on what you have an your problem that way it doesn't sidetrack this one. We are all here to help you out :beer:.

 

[SIR PATRICK]

3 months later-

and-

3 months later-

and-

5 months later-

 

[kichimark]

awesome Patrick. Are those rose nebulas in the first pic? I had those and they melted. How is the flow in the area that you have them in?

 

[SIR PATRICK]

First pic? I thought they were pink zippers for a long time. No clue what they are now...besides really fast growers!

I have them in really heavy flow, at the moment. Had them in many different locations, water parameters, and flow conditions. Have done well everywhere, even in the direct shade, under rock.

They sure do have some crazy morphs though.

 

[Jarred1]

I haven't gotten a single polyp of anything to grow for months! Im so frustrated with it.

That is what this thread is for, so you can learn what conditions make these things grow!

Correction...I meant to say from a few polyps AND one polyp. I really need to proof read what I write.

SantaCruz- start a thread on what you have an your problem that way it doesn't sidetrack this one. We are all here to help you out :beer:.

No worries man you have some great growth, what I meant is I don't want to see one polyp turn into five polyps. Your pics surely pass that plus it shows that these polyps aren't worth $40 per polyp because they are fast growers.

Thanks for the replies, lets see some others!

 

[Ethan_W]

what are these pink ones in the middle called? i cant find the name but i have some that started off as 1 polyp less than a month ago and now it's up to 5.

 

[Jarred1]

I honestly don't know the name. They don't look as nice as they did in this pic so I am trying to get them to color back up but they are good growers for me.

 

[Jarred1]

Anyone else have any pics they want to share?

 

[RokleM]

09/2010:

04/2011:

 

[Jarred1]

That is great growth, can you tell us some info about your system?