Zoa Size

[RayAllen]

This was brought up in another thread and caught my attention. Why are some zoa heads bigger that others. My eagle eyes are tiny as well as some unidentified zoa I have, but my common green/brown ones are 4 times as big. Whats the dealio?

Ray

[erikharrison]

Ace had told me that sometimes when the zoas are stressed out, they will split rapidly. In this process, the heads actually shrink.

[RayAllen]

hmmm, interesting. With my eagle eys they are not really spreading, but have always just been smaller. Very slow growers.

[erikharrison]

Well, IME, I tried to duplicate how nanos have zoa explosions. I figured it was from not skimming. What I figured out was that more frequent larger water changes seemed to have a much better affect on the growth and spread. Can't wait for my refracto so I can finally do a w/c.

[apedroza]

Many zoas come in different sizes. My eagle eyes are much larger than my cherry bombs and zombie eyes. The more colonial matted types seem to be much smaller than zoas that are more spread out. Also like Erik stted stress can be a contributer as well. When I notice my zoas closing or shrinking, I usually stop my skimmer for a few days and they seem to open back up. The water can be too clean for some filter feeders.

[erikharrison]

Many zoas come in different sizes. My eagle eyes are much larger than my cherry bombs and zombie eyes. The more colonial matted types seem to be much smaller than zoas that are more spread out. Also like Erik stted stress can be a contributer as well. When I notice my zoas closing or shrinking, I usually stop my skimmer for a few days and they seem to open back up. The water can be too clean for some filter feeders.


ahhhhh that explains alot. I had several zoas die, and the only thing I could figure out was too clean of water. :)

[RayAllen]

My zoas are in a BC29 and the common ones have gone from a colony of probably 250-300 to easily 500+ in just a few months and the shrooms have grown from 1" to 3" across. And its skimmer less but I use the back as a fuge with LR rubble. I took a flash lite to it the other night and there are tons of pods back there and little feather dusters. Pretty cool

[brewercm]

I have zoas that are all different size also and I also found that the ones that tend to mat closer to the rock are much smaller. I have a rock of pink that are extremely slow growers and the heads are very small. My eagle eyes on the other hand tend to grow rather fast and the heads are at least four times larger than the pinks, and a couple of others that are between the two sizes.