I have been in the reefing hobby for about 7 years now and wanted to make a little side cash. I thought coral propagation was a good start and so I did some research. I found out that zoas are a pretty easy coral to propagate so I wanted to start with them. In the past i've had some tanks with zoas but a couple years ago I traded my colony in. So now I just want your guys info on a profitable zoa (i'm thinking high end like $100 to $200 for a single polyp.) Also I want something that grows pretty fast. Thanks for the info and happy reefing.
zoa propagation
- Thread starter bwiniecki
- Start date
- Tagged users None
$100-$200 a polyp Zoas are usually the ones that do not grow fast... If they did ... the market would be soon flooded and the price would drop....I wouldn't let this deter me. Maybe start with middle cost Zoas that are easy keepers and work your way up.... Dollar wise these may make you more money then trying to grow out the harder to keep high dollar ones...
littlebigreef
Valuable Member
My response to this question is always the same. Its not as fun as it sounds nor as easy as it looks. That's the truth.
As @Dave Garrett pointed out the value on zoas tends to drop pretty quickly as there's a lot of people doing exactly what you intend to do. Zoas that do hold their price over a long period of time tend to be difficult to keep, frag, or ship. I've 'made' more money selling bam bams and rastas over the years than I have Mohicans and Hallucinations. I say made in quotes because at the end of the day unless you're prepared to scale up, do swaps or wholesale, the best most people can hope for is to cover costs and maybe make a little extra.
I've been building my zoa collection for the better part of a decade so this is coming for a place of experience. Even in the best of circumstances stuff gets sick, melts, or sometimes just doesn't grow well. Nobody bats 1.000 on any corals. There's few things as stressful as a nightly Furan-2 dips with sick zoas for weeks on end or watching a colony of high end zoas melt despite your best efforts. I say this to you not to dissuade you... growing zoas and building out a nice collection is immensely rewarding. One of my favorite things is connecting with another collector and swapping a bunch of expensive frags. Rather, I'm telling you this to level your expectations.
As @Dave Garrett pointed out the value on zoas tends to drop pretty quickly as there's a lot of people doing exactly what you intend to do. Zoas that do hold their price over a long period of time tend to be difficult to keep, frag, or ship. I've 'made' more money selling bam bams and rastas over the years than I have Mohicans and Hallucinations. I say made in quotes because at the end of the day unless you're prepared to scale up, do swaps or wholesale, the best most people can hope for is to cover costs and maybe make a little extra.
I've been building my zoa collection for the better part of a decade so this is coming for a place of experience. Even in the best of circumstances stuff gets sick, melts, or sometimes just doesn't grow well. Nobody bats 1.000 on any corals. There's few things as stressful as a nightly Furan-2 dips with sick zoas for weeks on end or watching a colony of high end zoas melt despite your best efforts. I say this to you not to dissuade you... growing zoas and building out a nice collection is immensely rewarding. One of my favorite things is connecting with another collector and swapping a bunch of expensive frags. Rather, I'm telling you this to level your expectations.
rogersb
Well-Known Member
Zoas are funny. I bought 3 polyps of Hallucinations in December. I fragged off one head for a buddy. That grew into 4. The 2 header grew into 10. I thought I would be rolling in money like Scrooge McDuck in his money bin. February/March the frag I sold my buddy melted in his tank for no reason and around the same time mine stopped sprouting heads. Stalled at 10 until this month it popped 3 more. Fickle creatures.
