ten easiest to care for?

[Briney Dave]

Hi all,
After some set backs with bad luck, a student who never followed through with their work and some $ limits, I am ready to try another round of zoanthid experiements in the classroom.

I learned a couple lessons from my last try two years ago. First, to keep things more basic at the begining. I will have my students start with just learning the ropes and growth monitoring. We spent the summer reading a number of "how-to" books to get the terms and basic ideas down. My students will take over caring for the classroom 240 reef tank as they set up their own 20 gal tanks. Then devise their own set of questions to investigate.

The second lesson is to avoid any of the slower growing and in some cases more demanding zoanthids. During our last meeting (yep students came to school in the summer without having to) my students wanted me to suggest a list of the (their words) "least likely to die"

I keep a few types with good luck but by no means am I at the same level as many of you. So I would like to hear from all you experienced zoa keeps as to a top ten list of zoanthids that would work well in the class. Fast growing and forgiving to students who may be occationally more preoccupied with Prom than their zoanthids
We are going to use a basic t-5 lighting system with small sump/refu and a small skimmer on each set-up. I am hoping for four tanks dedicated to zoanthids.

thanks in advance for your help
Briney

 

[ahayes13]

well i think the majority of zoas are fairly hardy and easy to care for. maybe someone else can chime in as in regard to the more difficult ones.
my "king midas" zoanthids (yellow and purple) grow the best for me. they grow very quickly compared to some of my others. i also think the palys seem to grow slower for me. im sure this all depends on each persons tank.

 

[Aloha Corals]

brown ones... you can't kill those tings and they grow faster than you want them too. lol

 

[oceanparadise1]

green zoas......same as the brown just look better

 

[reef-lover]

brown ones... you can't kill those tings and they grow faster than you want them too. lol

+1, any brown zoa

 

[mfinn]

I think eagle eyes, radioactive dragon eyes, and orange bam bams are some fairly easy ones.

I think the brown ones and green ones that everyone is referring to are basic button polyps. They are truely hard to kill.

My nuclear greens are fast growers also.

 

[oceanparadise1]

i have some radioactive dragon eyes(all bright greens) i can ship you if u would like and some hairy mushrooms if u want and i have some pink zoas

 

[rebelprettyboy]

All of these are easy

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=330273

 

[Briney Dave]

Thanks a bunch of the input. I need to get the kids together and share. I will likely end up buying the zoas for them but I want them to like the ones as well has have ones that willl cooperate.
the reason I asked about and left the vague term "easy" was to make sure that I avoid getting the students any of the types that have been found to melt easily or like some of the people eaters grow so slow for most folks that we would not get good data in a reasonable amount of time.
For the two folks who made offers; we have to get our tanks up and stable before I can start care and growth trials. We do have a 240 that can take some but have to wait until the new school year budget is set. I will pm you (both) and anyone else who would like to make offers for variety. That way I do not plug up this thread.

I would still like to hear from as many others who would like to share. Even if you dont keep a large number but have some in mind that you think would work well for us.

thanks as always for your time and know how
David

 

[Nate82]

most of the common ones (nameless ones) are extremely hardy

 

[reefboy]

I think most of your protopaly's are the hardiest next in line is the palythoa's then zoathus but even the last two has there hard to keep types so proto's will be your best bet and if you will pay shipping have quite afew varity's I could send they grow like weeds and thus dont recommend in any sps systems.

 

[Briney Dave]

Thanks for the input guys.

Briney

 

[paintballer768]

Briney,

I wish we did this in my marine bio class last year!! Hahah. I would have to say that many of the less expensive palythoa/zoanthids are the way to go. You can also find some pretty ones for not too expensive as well.

If every student is going to be having their own tanks, then heres an idea. You might want to buy 3-4 nice size colonies, and then frag them so that you dont need to buy a ton of frags already.

 

[Briney Dave]

We are doing a number of team tanks where 3-4 students are sharing the costs. I think you are right about the common guys both for price and for the fact that most seem to grow well (thus the cheap price too)

David

 

[sleeper]

Have you tried out guys with local marine stores. I would think the fact that you are looking for what most consider the "less desirable" proto or paly., and you are exposing seveal local "customers" to the hobby might lead someone to donate some frags or a colony from the local shops. Some shops just by large colonies and then frag off the nice ones and consider most of the left overs trash. Just a thought, maybe a few phone calls or quick visits could save you tons.

 

[Briney Dave]

There is a store in Toledo that has given a few frags to use over the years and sold a bunch of goodies at a good discount. But there are not too many zoa frags coming into my area. Once in a while some can be found but certainly not on a daily basis.

When ever I can, I like to support local shops but with the price of fuel and a minimum of an hour's drive, that is hard to do