Zoas "gettin air"

[jrnannery]

Hey guys, sometime you will see zoas that are really stretched out, reaching for the light it seems, while others in the tank sit fat and pretty with very little neck. Others expand the diameter of their disks tremendously while keeping short necks. How do you know what is up with these guys? Which ones are starving for light, the long necks, or the big disks?

By the way, I am pretty certain I'm not looking at palys. Any thoughts would be great. Also, ALL of these are on the sandbed. I am wondering where in the rocks they should be. If they are needing more light, I want to move them up to a higher point. I like the compact look a lot more than the stretched-out-neck or grossly-enlarged-disk look

Thanks
Richard

[Gseclipse02]

"Hey guys, sometime you will see zoas that are really stretched out, reaching for the light it seems"


when i see mine doing this it mean it needs new bulbs


after i change bulbs they go back to normal

[jrnannery]

Kk, but these bulbs are two months old from AD, so that might not be the case here. Original post edited to include further background.

[Gseclipse02]

hmmmm

[justahobby]

Is this in the tank with PC bulbs? Lower lighting level will cause them to reach up.

[Gseclipse02]

Kk, but these bulbs are two months old from AD, .

theres your problem lol jkjk

i would normally say pc bulbs are the problem but we had the JBJ rep come in and talked to him for 3 hours or so and he says that they have there tank with PC bulbs growing SPS that the par ratings are good enough

[jrnannery]

Justin, that is what I am thinking. The Orange Bam-bams are doing wonderfully down in the sand, but several other colonies are exhibitng this behavior.

[Gseclipse02]

another problem i see sometimes is when people get frags from some one and they saler has a lot of light (400w mh or something like that) and you put them into a tank with lower lighting it takes them time to get use to the lower lighting

[jrnannery]

Yeah, JT. I have never had a problem with zoas in this tank. The issue is the way these few colonies look. I am further wondering if the enlarged disk may possibly indicate too much light? Imagine this. The zoa is getting lots of light, and goes into some energy-crazed photon gluttony, expanding its disk to grab as much light as possible. Sound weird?

[jrnannery]

i would love to hear more about how many bulbs, what height above the target, etc. in regards to growing SPS with PCs. But that's another thread!!

[Kristy]

Different variations definitely have different sized discs... and no, not referring to palys, even just within zoas. There are some little zoas and some bigger fatter zoas. I've not experienced the stretching neck except for the occasional one positioned where it is reaching for light (like one that is down between rocks) while the rest of the colony is happy to keep their necks shorter.

A friend and I bought identical frags from the same seller. He looked at them in my tank and commented how much longer then necks are on his. I saw them in his tank and definitely agree. In my tank they are under MH light (same as the seller had them, just different wattage) and in his tank they are under PC lights. So that is consistent with what is being said here.

[jrnannery]

Which is what I figured Kristy. Great, then I am going to go ahead and move them up into a higher vantage point, adn see what happens. The one with the enlarged disk really used to be much more 'normal'-sized. I have no idea why it expanded. Perhaps rather than reach out, it just spread out to collect more light? We'll see.

I'll keep y'all posted.

[allan]

Plus one for moving up. For the long necked ones that is. Mine do the same when they're in a shadow or too far from the light source.

I'd say you are lucky to have the larger one. Whether genetic or happenstance, bigger is always better.

[Regric25]

Okay so I used to think that long necks meant starving for light but im not too sure that is always the case. I have about 15 different colored zoas and palys and all of them are colorful and healthy. I use 2 250w MH bulbs for lighting and pretty much all of these little softies are low in my tank. There is 1 colony though that no matter where i put it in my tank it seems to be reaching for light and thats my AOGs. They have always has long stalks and I dont think they will ever form in a tight group. I think this particular morph just has long stalks but I could be wrong. I have had these for at least 5 or 6 months.

[allan]

My aogs have long necks as well. I got them high.

[tonyydeee]

When I hd pc's (lol) all mine had long necks, then when I got my new fixture (6 bulb t-5s) they all went down.

[BSJF]

Long necks on my AOGs top of tank under MH. Newer AOGs have a shorter neck. When I frag, they are typically short for a while.

[cbianco]

My aogs have long necks as well. I got them high.

Bet you did Allan, bet you did.

All joking aside, from my experience, when corals stretch they need more light.

JMO.

Christopher :)