Frags vs colony growth speed

[Yeet.Reefing]

For those slow growing zoas, has anyone nocticed faster growth when they’re fragged? I know with acros sometimes fragging triggers growth wondering if it’s the same for zoas?

 

[Hooz]

I've found the opposite. The bigger my colonies get, the faster they grow. Starting with a 1p frag seems to take forever to get that second polyp, but the third is quicker, etc, etc.

 

[Luke Schnabel]

I’ve also found once they get a foothold they grow much faster. That’s why it’s best to grow out mothers abs Frag them

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

For those slow growing zoas, has anyone nocticed faster growth when they’re fragged? I know with acros sometimes fragging triggers growth wondering if it’s the same for zoas?

I've found the opposite. The bigger my colonies get, the faster they grow. Starting with a 1p frag seems to take forever to get that second polyp, but the third is quicker, etc, etc.

I’ve also found once they get a foothold they grow much faster. That’s why it’s best to grow out mothers abs Frag them
What I think he’s trying to say is if you have 5 zoa heads, do they grow faster in a big clump or as 5 separate frags.

What I think he’s trying to say is if you have 5 heads of zoas, do they grow faster as a colony or 5 separate frags. I figure if it’s a colony it has more space it’s taking up like there is physically more zoa. I.e. it’s base flesh (not the polyps) is larger vs single head frags or smaller frags have less surface area for growing and nutrient uptake.

my question is for torches, do they grow faster as a colony or separate frags. Because from what I know they completely separate when they split heads.

 

[Yeet.Reefing]

What I think he’s trying to say is if you have 5 heads of zoas, do they grow faster as a colony or 5 separate frags. I figure if it’s a colony it has more space it’s taking up like there is physically more zoa. I.e. it’s base flesh (not the polyps) is larger vs single head frags or smaller frags have less surface area for growing and nutrient uptake.

my question is for torches, do they grow faster as a colony or separate frags. Because from what I know they completely separate when they split heads.

Yea I was going more for this direction because the rate of growth for one head is defiantly fast for a colony but I’ve found a colony typically spits out one or two heads at a time where as individual polyps theoretically over a longer time frame seem to produce more polyps.

ie take a colony of 5 say it produces two polyps in a month at the end of 2 months you have 9. But a single polyp takes 2 months to double if you frag that colony of 5 at the end of 2 months you have 10. But again, very hypothetical with a lot of variables.

for torches I think it depends, I’ve seen some fat heads split into 3/4 but it could be viewed that if there were another head next to it there would be limited space to expand? Not quite sure though just my $0.02

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

Yea I was going more for this direction because the rate of growth for one head is defiantly fast for a colony but I’ve found a colony typically spits out one or two heads at a time where as individual polyps theoretically over a longer time frame seem to produce more polyps.

ie take a colony of 5 say it produces two polyps in a month at the end of 2 months you have 9. But a single polyp takes 2 months to double if you frag that colony of 5 at the end of 2 months you have 10. But again, very hypothetical with a lot of variables.

for torches I think it depends, I’ve seen some fat heads split into 3/4 but it could be viewed that if there were another head next to it there would be limited space to expand? Not quite sure though just my $0.02

Hmmm yeah I’m not sure but I’d think at least with plants if you keep cutting the same spot on a plant it’ll stop growing and focus on that area and bulk it up. Or like basil when you snip the flowers it begins to focus on growing big juicy scrumptious leaves rather than flowers.

So I’m not really sure honestly how specifically they would respond to negative stimulation (ie fragging) on the same area or different areas. If it causes them to say hey let’s focus on bulking up or let’s just grow faster. Either way I’m not sure.

But like you said with zoa colonies from what I’ve seen and experienced they like to grow bigger rather than grow more heads. Versus small single heads have no mass do they’re gonna build more heads first IMO. Now I don’t know if I should drag my colony of zoas and let them grow out on individual slates or if I should let the colony become a colony.

To touch on torches I think they still transfer nutrients through their skeleton (flesh too but the actual base) because when I fragged some stuff the other day I saw some interesting colors in the skeleton when I thought that wasn’t even a part of the torch head. So I’d think a colony of torches will grow faster because they can all collect nutrients together and my guess is they can transfer some nutrients to one another through the ‘dead’ skeleton. However like you suggested I think at some point the space of the heads becomes too small and they will have a harder time growing with limited space

 

[Yeet.Reefing]

Hmmm yeah I’m not sure but I’d think at least with plants if you keep cutting the same spot on a plant it’ll stop growing and focus on that area and bulk it up. Or like basil when you snip the flowers it begins to focus on growing big juicy scrumptious leaves rather than flowers.

So I’m not really sure honestly how specifically they would respond to negative stimulation (ie fragging) on the same area or different areas. If it causes them to say hey let’s focus on bulking up or let’s just grow faster. Either way I’m not sure.

But like you said with zoa colonies from what I’ve seen and experienced they like to grow bigger rather than grow more heads. Versus small single heads have no mass do they’re gonna build more heads first IMO. Now I don’t know if I should drag my colony of zoas and let them grow out on individual slates or if I should let the colony become a colony.

To touch on torches I think they still transfer nutrients through their skeleton (flesh too but the actual base) because when I fragged some stuff the other day I saw some interesting colors in the skeleton when I thought that wasn’t even a part of the torch head. So I’d think a colony of torches will grow faster because they can all collect nutrients together and my guess is they can transfer some nutrients to one another through the ‘dead’ skeleton. However like you suggested I think at some point the space of the heads becomes too small and they will have a harder time growing with limited space

Hmmmm all very valid points, I think the main justification for dragging up a colony would to be to split the chances of loss just in case something goes wrong. I’ve had frags of the exact same zoa where one melted back and the other didn’t.

Interesting though on the torches, I would assume it would take longer to grow because instead of a horizontal split the torch would have to build the skeleton vertically to gain space

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

Hmmmm all very valid points, I think the main justification for dragging up a colony would to be to split the chances of loss just in case something goes wrong. I’ve had frags of the exact same zoa where one melted back and the other didn’t.

Interesting though on the torches, I would assume it would take longer to grow because instead of a horizontal split the torch would have to build the skeleton vertically to gain space

Hmm interesting I definitely feel ya. This thread made me think more than this entire semester in college... >.>

Needless to say I’ve had the same thing happened with zoas oml so finicky sometimes

 

[Yeet.Reefing]

Hmm interesting I definitely feel ya. This thread made me think more than this entire semester in college... >.>

Needless to say I’ve had the same thing happened with zoas oml so finicky sometimes

Haha I wish I could think about engineering courses as much as I think about coral... lol would have a 4.0 right bout now