1 or 2 Polyp Zoa/Paly Frags

chromakey · #1 05-20-2013, 03:48 PM

Good Day:

I have been looking at adding some zoa/paly frags to my nano mixed reef tank and was wondering about the survivability of purchasing some of the fancier varieties with only one or two polyps.

Thanks,

Michael

hfp75 · #2 05-20-2013, 03:59 PM

you could loose a bunch... zoas can be tricky especially the special variety....

toytech · #3 05-20-2013, 08:00 PM

From my experience making and buying frags low polyp count frags are fussier than frags that have at least 3 polyps.

daniella3d · #4 05-21-2013, 06:29 AM

same here. I bought a few times one and two polyps frags and they melted.

zoanthids are touchy and can melt anytime. Ok for 10$ or less then I paid 50$ back then for my purple hornets and they were chewed by amphipods in one night, other variety simply melted away in few days.

It can go either way and start to multiply like crazy or just melt. It is best in a zoanthids and palys system only. Not sure why but they are doing much better in those systems than with mixed reef, probably chimical war.

jason604 · #5 05-21-2013, 07:39 AM

my zoas seem to never die lol.. one small colony was competely covered in algee 3x and each time i used a tweezers and pulled the algee film off its body and recently i just used a soft toothbrush n brushed all its head and its still alive lol.. moved it around many times as well also a crab or something pushed it off the plug and fell face first into my sand bed from night till morning.. things a beast

Spyd · #6 05-21-2013, 01:10 PM

I would definitely try and get an absolute minimum of 3 heads on a frag or you increase the chance of them melting away considerably.... At least that's been my experience.

Reef Pilot · #7 05-21-2013, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniella3d

zoanthids are touchy and can melt anytime. Ok for 10$ or less then I paid 50$ back then for my purple hornets and they were chewed by amphipods in one night, other variety simply melted away in few days.

I have tried zoas twice now, with multiple polyp frags, but failed. They did open the first few days, but then less and less, until they eventually melted away. I did not find any bad pests, and even took one frag back to the lfs for them to examine. But they only found the usual pods and other critters, no bad ones.

My tank is very, very mature, 10+ years, and is full of pods. I did see them crawling all over the zoas in the mornings, and even during the day sometimes. So, I do wonder if this is my problem.

Plus when I hear about noobs growing zoas with no problems in new tanks. They probably don't have much for pods to bother them.

In this same tank, everything else seems to grow really well, SPS, LPS Palys, and other softies. Just no luck with Zoas. So, I have sworn off them for the time being.

Maybe I need a Mandarin.

daniella3d · #8 05-21-2013, 10:33 PM

I think you have a point here. I never had problem growing zoanthids when I had young tank with bearely any amphipods, and as my tanks matured I could not keep them.

NOW...the only way I can manage to keep them is high on my glass on a frag rack. What ever I put down is getting eaten in no time.

Yesterday my small clam got eaten during the course of one night. Was great yesterday and this morning the whole bottom of the clam was eaten away, I could see through the gapping hole the rock the clam was on so no more clam tissue at the bottom

Recently I am having a lot of problem with amphipods chewing on my clams. When I was putting zoanthids down they were leaving the clams alone and were chewing on the zoanthids instead. Those are real pest and I am considering a heavy interceptor treatment now, to get rid of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

I have tried zoas twice now, with multiple polyp frags, but failed. They did open the first few days, but then less and less, until they eventually melted away. I did not find any bad pests, and even took one frag back to the lfs for them to examine. But they only found the usual pods and other critters, no bad ones.

My tank is very, very mature, 10+ years, and is full of pods. I did see them crawling all over the zoas in the mornings, and even during the day sometimes. So, I do wonder if this is my problem.

Plus when I hear about noobs growing zoas with no problems in new tanks. They probably don't have much for pods to bother them.

In this same tank, everything else seems to grow really well, SPS, LPS Palys, and other softies. Just no luck with Zoas. So, I have sworn off them for the time being.

Maybe I need a Mandarin.