Zoa island management

[JoJosReef]

My question is, for those of you with zoa/paly islands, what happens when the island is fully grown-over? Is fragging then necessary, or will they stop growing due to lack of substrate? Will they start growing on the sand?

My island is a bit overgrown now, and I've neglected the mere idea of taking the rock out and cutting off polyps. This post is an extension of a previous post (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-managing-palys-zoas-and-fragging-first-time.923774/), except that here I want to know what happens if I do nothing.

I've given up on my pretty blue, red and yellow zoas and accepted that I have an island of brown, green and some pinkish zoas. Just don't know what to do next.

Note: the cloves have spread from the island up the side of the main rock. At first I thought this was bad, but I kind of like it now. I imagine I'll just have to start cutting if they spread too far.

 

[Reef and Dive]

Fragging is super important. Palys will outgrow zoas for sure. And some zoas / palys grow a ton faster than others (Pandoras, Nirvanas, Green Palys, Rainbows). I have my left island kept for nearly 5 years but I very frequently cut a lot of my growers, otherwise the others are gone for sure.
I show my weekly care on my YT chanel but in portuguese, english subtitles if you wish.

 

[JoJosReef]

Fragging is super important. Palys will outgrow zoas for sure. And some zoas / palys grow a ton faster than others (Pandoras, Nirvanas, Green Palys, Rainbows). I have my left island kept for nearly 5 years but I very frequently cut a lot of my growers, otherwise the others are gone for sure.
I show my weekly care on my YT chanel but in portuguese, english subtitles if you wish.

Thanks! I'll check out your youtube channel. I know enough Portuguese to understand. Tank looks amazing!

 

[Rp8]

Mine has never grown on the sand

 

[kevgib67]

Mine are still growing but I’ll let you know. My assumption is they won’t cross the sand substrate, thus the reason for the island.

 

[Lavey29]

Mine seem to do anything to get a new foothold somewhere. Recently they attached to the back glass now. I have a love hate relationship with zoas.

 

[JoJosReef]

Resurrecting this thread for an update: Attempted to cut/pull out some of the palys that were growing so much they were pushing against the glass and cutting off flow. Bit of a disaster. All started oozing. Immediately threw a bag of carbon in the AIO chamber. Hoping I don't come in tomorrow AM to dead fish.

I'm not really sure what to do about this. I have some new, interesting zoas to add, but this island looks like it needs to be burned down first.

I'm debating just taking the rock out (sorry bridge of cloves!) and chopping them off one by one...

 

[Rp8]

Recently had this one start taking off

 

[Alexwlwsn]

I had an island of Pandoras about 6"x4" and once full, they started popping up in the sand elsewhere. It took about 2-3mos to go from a handful of polyps to 3 rocks entirely covered. I guess they'd grow and slightlyyy attach to the sand and a hermit would accidentally carry it somewhere.

10/10 would not recommend pandoras if you don't want to constantly be removing zoas from your tank.

 

[JoJosReef]

Thanks, I'll steer clear of the pandoras.

I'd like to make room for my latest acquisitions from a friendly local reefer:

left to right: pikachus (needing to recover/grow in), TGC Beauty and the Beast (just opened, maybe will color up a bit?), rastas and BigR Space Chaos

Two of these are supposedly palys (TGC B&B, BigR Space Chaos), so I'm a bit worried how they will grow and if they overgrow the rock once I remove the others.

 

[JoJosReef]

Recently had this one start taking off

Wow, what are you going to do?

 

[Rp8]

Watch and enjoy. Then sell it when I have to move across the country next June

 

[vetteguy53081]

My question is, for those of you with zoa/paly islands, what happens when the island is fully grown-over? Is fragging then necessary, or will they stop growing due to lack of substrate? Will they start growing on the sand?

My island is a bit overgrown now, and I've neglected the mere idea of taking the rock out and cutting off polyps. This post is an extension of a previous post (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-managing-palys-zoas-and-fragging-first-time.923774/), except that here I want to know what happens if I do nothing.

I've given up on my pretty blue, red and yellow zoas and accepted that I have an island of brown, green and some pinkish zoas. Just don't know what to do next.

Note: the cloves have spread from the island up the side of the main rock. At first I thought this was bad, but I kind of like it now. I imagine I'll just have to start cutting if they spread too far.

You have to cut back or they keep going. Here is one I had to trim back (well someone does it for me- I refuse to cut)

 

[JoJosReef]

You have to cut back or they keep going. Here is one I had to trim back (well someone does it for me- I refuse to cut)

Looks amazing. That looks like a rock that's easy to remove. That must be the key for a good island--easily able to lift out the rock.

Mine currently has an RFA firmly attached to it, and the cloves are attached to both the island and the main rock. But, I'm thinking of just cutting the cloves in the middle and taking good care not to hurt the RFA's foot when I take it out.

 

[workhz]

Instead of cutting, can you just squirt some kalkwasser concentrate in the ones you don't want? I too have kinda given up and let the aggressive (and most of the time not as pretty) ones just take over. Left to their own devices 1-2 types seem to dominate eventually.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks amazing. That looks like a rock that's easy to remove. That must be the key for a good island--easily able to lift out the rock.

Mine currently has an RFA firmly attached to it, and the cloves are attached to both the island and the main rock. But, I'm thinking of just cutting the cloves in the middle and taking good care not to hurt the RFA's foot when I take it out.

It is moveable but happty where it is