Zoa Management

[ReefGeezer]

Hay y'all.. I have several Zoa Colonies that are growing together: They are Armor of God, Sunny D's, Fire & Ice, Bam-Bams, Eagle Eyes, Gorilla Nipples, and a couple of others I can't identify. My question is, can I allow them to grow together until they limit each other's growth or or will one colony wipe out another? Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[muzikalmatt]

You can definitely have one strain of zoanthids outcompete and smother another. I would keep an eye on their growth and if you have a prized zoa that is getting smothered, you can always frag a few polyps off and relocate it. I like to place pieces of rock rubble or even a frag plug amongst the zoas so they grow onto the rubble or frag plug, then you have an easy frag.

 

[Brucealmighty]

You can definitely have one strain of zoanthids outcompete and smother another. I would keep an eye on their growth and if you have a prized zoa that is getting smothered, you can always frag a few polyps off and relocate it. I like to place pieces of rock rubble or even a frag plug amongst the zoas so they grow onto the rubble or frag plug, then you have an easy frag.

I agree with you it's the easiest way to get zoa's on to frag plugs and rubble but isn't so easy sometimes separating them from the mother colony I have a few zoa's in my tank and yes they do outcompete each other and I started with around 12 types I have 6 types left and yes you can guess which ones went first the most expensive and prized ones decide on specific rocks to be zoa rocks and leave space enough for them not to spread onto other rocks but as you get more and more they eventually break off in balls floating around the tank ready to be grabbed and glued to another frag plug and put in the sand in my case

Excuse the dirty back wall I have been working in another city so been a bit lax on the glass cleaning

That's a ball of the things about to detach and go surfing I have found them stuck to the wavemakers and glued them to frag plugs and they open and grow they are quite resilient little dudes