Growth/Spreading Rates

[navigator]

I've read many things about Zoa's, including that they have a rapid growth rate and small colonies will quickly spread to cover available space on their current rock and onto neighboring rocks. My question is, how fast is 'fast?' Weeks? Months? I am sure that it varies, so what are your experiences?

 

[sloppyjoseph]

Man take my adivce with a grain of salt since im a noob. But since i've had my tank (3 weeks) I had a very small colony of Watermelon zoa's and I have noticed that they have gotten much larger then when I first had them. I've also added a colony of neon green zoas also just this past weekend to see how fast they actually spread. I really like the zoas for some reason.

 

[scopus tang]

It does indeed vary - not only dependent upon the tank, waterflow, lighting, water quality, etc., but also upon the variety of zoa itself as well as the size of colony or frag you are starting with. Some types, like the protopalys will actually multiply very quickly poping several to dozens of new polyps per day - in fact they can actually become a nuisance in a tank. Other types, like the original PPE polyp may pop a single new polyp every year or two, if all conditions are correct - if not, they may never pop a new polyp. When it comes to zoa reproduction there are no hard and fast rules.

 

[mrdc]

I think it is also fair to say that generally the realy expensive zoas are going to be slow growers. If they were fast growers, the sellers could grow and sell them faster.
 
But there might be cases where the zoas are expensive and grow at a decent rate but could just be VERY hard zoas to find.

 

[scopus tang]

Quote:
Originally Posted by mrdc http:///forum/thread/379778/growth-spreading-rates#post_3307175
I think it is also fair to say that generally the realy expensive zoas are going to be slow growers. If they were fast growers, the sellers could grow and sell them faster.
 
But there might be cases where the zoas are expensive and grow at a decent rate but could just be VERY hard zoas to find.
Yes and no - hornets right now are a great example - both the reds and purples are fast growers and not that difficult to find, but they are still expensive. Personally I don't see the appeal to any of the hornets, as they are generally a very small polyp - nice colors, but very small.