Teach me how to Zoa

[design.maddie]

In all my years in this hobby I have never owned any Zoas. There are so many colors and prices. I have no clue if I am getting a crappy coral or just getting ripped off. I understand buy what looks good but I don't know how to buy a Zoa online. Do colors change with PAR? Lend me some knowledge please, I need some pretty background corals.

 

[Oscar47f]

In all my years in this hobby I have never owned any Zoas. There are so many colors and prices. I have no clue if I am getting a crappy coral or just getting ripped off. I understand buy what looks good but I don't know how to buy a Zoa online. Do colors change with PAR? Lend me some knowledge please, I need some pretty background corals.

Some zoanthids change from tank to tank and some are more resistant to it... the higher end the zoanthid the slower it grows and the harder it can be to keep some of the highest end ones can just melt on you and you don’t know why... but for the most part they are easy and beautiful double check names on google to make sure you’re getting the best price and an accurate representation of the zoa strain or post here and there’s awesome people that can help... typically some zoanthids can get brighter in higher par and some achieve their best color and size in lower par it depends...

 

[design.maddie]

.. the higher end the zoanthid the slower it grows and the harder it can be to keep some of the highest end ones can just melt on you and you don’t know why...typically some zoanthids can get brighter in higher par and some achieve their best color and size in lower par it depends...

What is a average amount of polyps per frag plug?

 

[Kehy]

Somehow zoas have survived being in my first salt tank (pico), and even through mild neglect. Mind you, it's probably better to start with more common varieties, since they're more likely to be hardy

 

[Oscar47f]

What is a average amount of polyps per frag plug?

I wouldn’t say there’s an average... that said many places will charge you per polyp for names zoanthids... if they’re no names or if there are a lot of them on the market you can get a small cluster for decent prices... so like a small cluster of radioactive dragon eyes where I’m located would cost like 15$ where as LA lakers sell for 15$ per polyp so 3 polyps are 45$ That’s if you go to retail stores like world wide corals and stuff if you go through here to another hobbyist they’re generally more generous and will sell things cheaper...

 

[One Reefing Boi]

the avg amount of polyps per frag is prob between 2-4 for most frags from what I have seen. I love zoas, I currently have a bunch from NY Reef Aquatics (9 frags in a 15g) and very happy with them all. My favs are the campfire/nightmares and the Illuminati's. They even threw in 2 free extra frags with the order!

I think the prices are fair IMO, all came happy and healthy. I am a Euphyllia junkie, and love Firework Cloves, but the zoas are beautiful too

 

[ZoWhat]

OMG..... what a question. Like saying "Teach me how to fly an airplane". Like, where do you start?

I'm heavy heavy heavy into a zoa/paly dominated tank since 2014ish.

Here are some of my personal tips...of which each tip I could write 50 page essays on:

* each zoa type thrives at a certain depth in nature. The deeper, the more Actinic blue your tank needs to be. If you run your Actinic at 100% and whites at 5% you are tricking your cirals into thinking they are at deoths of 30-60ft. Problem is some zoas thrive in 10ft of water and others 60+. Super hard to know which ones need to be tricked at what amount of white light. If the white light is too intense, the zoa species will not thrive but shrivel and melt away.

* light intensity... (PAR). This ones pretty easy to see. If zoas get long stems and look like they are stretching towards the light source... your Actinic PAR, intensity of light is too low. Opposite of that if your polyp heads start to get tiny, like the disc gets tinny'er and tiny'er probably a sign the Actinic PAR is too much. They're like, "Dude, can't handle that much light intensity!"

* looooow flow IMO. The quickest way to melt a zoa into oblivion is to put it into super high flow. The high flow irritates them if the high flow is constant thruout the day. They get PO'ed and give up and melt away. This statement comes from personal experience where I've seen my own zoas that were in medium to high flow double in polyp head size if I converted them to low to very low flow. Idk... ive read many contradictions on this but my personal experience is low flow leads to bigger polyps that are "fleshier"

* you will read over and over again that zoa love "dirty water". Untrue. They hate unclean water that's too high of unwanted byproducts like no3 and po4. What zoas really want is water super RICH in phytoplankton and zooplsnkton (copepods). Zoas are basically colorful WEEDS (like aiptasia) that ingest Nutrients into their stems/stalks to feed. The color you see in the head/polyp is different forms of cellular algae (zooxanthellae). What boasts zooxanthellae is "above my pay grade in knowledge" but I do know zoas eat nutrients ranging from fish-poop to phytoplankton/zooplankton

* so successful zoa keeping is the combo of finding the correct light in your tank vs having the correct biochemical nutrients for them to eat.

* non scientifically I do know zoas do best when started in your tank as a group of polyps 10+ or more bunched together. These sellers selling high-end zoas on a plug with 1-2 polyps has a very low success rate in growing out to be dozens of polyps. Zoas hate being 1-2 polyps hanging out alone. A 1-2 polyp frag is just too stressful on that 1-2 polyp head to replicate and grow. They do better if bought upfront in larger colonies. NOT SAYING you can't grow out small 1-2 polyp frags, but daggone you have to BABY those 1-2 polyps and be SPOTON with lighting and flow. You have to be super tuned-in to their exact needs or they will quickly melt away.

Past these points I could go on writing for days. I suggest reading as much material on zoas as possible.

Unfortunately there are a lot of CONTRADICTIONs youll be reading... bc some zoas are Deepwater and some are shallow water.

If you take a Deepwater species and apply shallow water techniques.... pppffft... FAIL.

and vice versa.

Zoas are easy if you are nailing their requirements. Super hard and difficult if you are not hitting their needs.

If your 10 polyp frag is not 20 polyps in 6mos... youre obviously not meeting their needs.

HTH

 

[Oscar47f]

OMG..... what a question. Like saying "Teach me how to fly an airplane". Like, where do you start?

I'm heavy heavy heavy into a zoa/paly dominated tank since 2014ish.

Here are some tip...of which each tip I could write 50 page essays on:

* each zoa type thrives at a certain depth in nature. The deeper, the more Actinic blue your tank needs to be. If you run your Actinic at 100% and whites at 5% you are tricking your cirals into thinking they are at deoths of 30-60ft. Problem is some zoas thrive in 10ft of water and others 60+. Super hard to know which ones need to be tricked at what amount of white light. If the white light is too intense, the zoa species will not thrive but shrivel and melt away.

* looooow flow. The quickest way to melt a zoa into oblivion is to put it into too high of flow. The high flow irritates them if the high flow is constant thruout the day. They get PO'ed and give up and melt away.

* you will read over and over again that zoa love "dirty water". Untrue. They hate unclean water that's too high of unwanted byproducts like no3 and po4. What zoas really want is water super RICH in phytoplankton and zooplsnkton (copepods). Zoas are basically colorful WEEDS (like aiptasia) that ingest Nutrients into their stems/stalks to feed. The color you see in the head/polyp is different forms of cellular algae (zooxanthellae). What boasts zooxanthellae is "above my pay grade in knowledge" but I do know zoas eat nutrients ranging from fish-poop to phytoplankton/zooplankton

* so successful zoa keeping is the combo of finding the correct light in your tank vs having the correct biochemical nutrients for them to eat.

* non scientifically I do know zoas do best when started in your tank as a group of polyps 10+ or more bunched together. These sellers selling high-end zoas on a plug with 1-2 polyps has a very low success rate in growing out to be dozens of polyps. Zoas hate being 1-2 polyps handing out alone. They do better in larger colonies.

Past these points I could go on writing for days. I suggest reading as much material on zoas as possible.

Unfortunately there are a lot of CONTRADICTIONs youll be reading... bc some zoas are Deepwater and some are shallow water.

If you take a Deepwater species and apply shallow water techniques.... pppffft... FAIL.

and vice versa.

Zoas are easy if you are nailing their requirements. Super hard and difficult if you are not hitting their needs.

If your 10 polyp frag is not 20 polyps in 6mos... youre obviously not meeting their needs.

HTH

Good info! Spot on ! In my experience some zoas like a decent amount of flow (; I have some strains I keep in probably medium/high flow it depends lol and I’ve grown countless colonies from 1-2 polyp frags it’s definitely about finding the right place like you mentioned

 

[design.maddie]

OMG..... what a question. Like saying "Teach me how to fly an airplane". Like, where do you start?

I'm heavy heavy heavy into a zoa/paly dominated tank since 2014ish.

Here are some of my personal tips...of which each tip I could write 50 page essays on:

* each zoa type thrives at a certain depth in nature. The deeper, the more Actinic blue your tank needs to be. If you run your Actinic at 100% and whites at 5% you are tricking your cirals into thinking they are at deoths of 30-60ft...

Zoas are easy if you are nailing their requirements. Super hard and difficult if you are not hitting their needs.

If your 10 polyp frag is not 20 polyps in 6mos... youre obviously not meeting their needs.

HTH

These nailed my next questions. All the rest of the info was stellar Thanks