Growing out a zoa rock

[N2950H]

I'm kind of new to zoas and like the look of a rock absolutely covered in multiple types. Something like this pic below that I just stole from a thread in the for sale forum, pic and post by @Jonathan veillette. I'm asking my question here because I didn't want to muck up his for sale thread.

If I want to replicate something like this, and I just glue a bunch of different frags down somewhat evenly spaced apart, what happens when they meet? Do they stop growing? Do they battle and the strongest one starts overtaking the others? Just want to know what I'm getting into before I try to re-arrange my existing zoa frags in this manner.

 

[sfin52]

I'm kind of new to zoas and like the look of a rock absolutely covered in multiple types. Something like this pic below that I just stole from a thread in the for sale forum, pic and post by @Jonathan veillette. I'm asking my question here because I didn't want to muck up his for sale thread.

If I want to replicate something like this, and I just glue a bunch of different frags down somewhat evenly spaced apart, what happens when they meet? Do they stop growing? Do they battle and the strongest one starts overtaking the others? Just want to know what I'm getting into before I try to re-arrange my existing zoa frags in this manner.

That's gorgeous

 

[N2950H]

Guess I should mention this rock wasn't for sale, just the frags on the plugs at the bottom.

 

[thesoulpatch]

That happened to me i had 5 frags and now there are only 2 that are alive on that rock. The others were grown over, shaded and died off. So it can happen.

 

[N2950H]

Appreciate the input. So are these types of arrangements considered...I dunno how to phrase it...temporary?

 

[sfin52]

Appreciate the input. So are these types of arrangements considered...I dunno how to phrase it...temporary?

That's a good question and following along. I also love the look

 

[sfin52]

I'm kind of new to zoas and like the look of a rock absolutely covered in multiple types. Something like this pic below that I just stole from a thread in the for sale forum, pic and post by @Jonathan veillette. I'm asking my question here because I didn't want to muck up his for sale thread.

If I want to replicate something like this, and I just glue a bunch of different frags down somewhat evenly spaced apart, what happens when they meet? Do they stop growing? Do they battle and the strongest one starts overtaking the others? Just want to know what I'm getting into before I try to re-arrange my existing zoa frags in this manner.

I think if you look at the pic you can see one zoa overtaking another. Green on top moving to the left is starting to choke out the pink. Same with the green bottom left moving up to the top middle.

 

[N2950H]

Yeah, I saw that too. I guess to keep it looking clean you'd have to intervene a bit.

 

[N2950H]

Another example of what I'd like to accomplish.

 

[littlebigreef]

In short the zoas will grow over each other and through each other with more aggressive strains choking out slower growers. At the end of the day once a colony had gotten that big you just have to let things play out.

For the second pic you posted it’s very likely those are all separate pieces which were pushed together for the pic and then spaced back out after.

I keep my colonies separated on the sand bed and even still they’ll occasionally grow across the sand bed and into each other.

So my two cents, go for it, just don’t do it with any high end zoas.

 

[joshinjosh]

sometimes they fuse together

 

[amiguel6510]

Following along

 

[littlebigreef]

This came up in my history on social media and I thought it was a good example of a grown-in zoa garden. This is my collection about 3 years ago when it was in a 75gal. This tank was probably 2 years old at the time of the photo.

 

[Malifry97]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but for zoas do you guys remove them from the plug or leave them go?

 

[N2950H]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but for zoas do you guys remove them from the plug or leave them go?

I've seen it done both ways, but personally I cut them off the plug and glue them to the rocks. Pretty easy to do with a long, sharp blade.

 

[Nscalise]

From what I’ve read so far. Once a zoa garden starts to get over run a lot of guys seem to frag them to keep them in check. But you have to be careful fragging zoa since some do have palytoxin. Don’t take my advice to much since I’m new to zoa/corals just my 2 cents on what I’ve read!

 

[littlebigreef]

From what I’ve read so far. Once a zoa garden starts to get over run a lot of guys seem to frag them to keep them in check. But you have to be careful fragging zoa since some do have palytoxin. Don’t take my advice to much since I’m new to zoa/corals just my 2 cents on what I’ve read!

The danger posed by paly toxin is the most irritatingly overstated hazards in the entire hobby.

The stuff that can cause a problem is no longer desirable in the hobby and when people have problems its because they're boiling rocks, scrubbing the stuff off rocks (in small enclosed rooms without protection) or engaging in some other risky behavior.

The zoa strains you see here on r2r are relatively benign. Yes, some people are more sensitive to them. If you get zoa juice in your eyes, lips or in open cuts its going to cause some discomfort. That's really about it.

I've cut tens of thousands of zoas from hundreds of different strains and, barring the 2 times I got Utter Chaos juice in my eye, I've never once experienced any ill effects.

@Nscalise - you're right on the money. Once everything fills in you gotta prune stuff back.

End rant lol.

 

[Nscalise]

The danger posed by paly toxin is the most irritatingly overstated hazards in the entire hobby.

The stuff that can cause a problem is no longer desirable in the hobby and when people have problems its because they're boiling rocks, scrubbing the stuff off rocks (in small enclosed rooms without protection) or engaging in some other risky behavior.

The zoa strains you see here on r2r are relatively benign. Yes, some people are more sensitive to them. If you get zoa juice in your eyes, lips or in open cuts its going to cause some discomfort. That's really about it.

I've cut tens of thousands of zoas from hundreds of different strains and, barring the 2 times I got Utter Chaos juice in my eye, I've never once experienced any ill effects.

@Nscalise - you're right on the money. Once everything fills in you gotta prune stuff back.

End rant lol.

I agree from what I’ve read on here I was just throwing a warning out there not trying to discourage it just wanted to put it out there before someone commented on it saying it’s very dangerous.